Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Novernae]

One of the biggest problems I find my students have is not understanding the questions asked. I can't get through to them that 'who' requires a 'person' as an answer and all the rest. I know a lot of it is because they just don't care enough to try, but every test I give them is based on comprehension questions so somehow I have to get this through to them. I know they often understand the material, they just can't get past the questions.

Has anyone come up with or come across a good way of teaching this? I was thinking of devoting a few minutes of class time to this everyday until they get it (or at least until they get so bored by it that it's just easier for them to learn it than to deal with focusing on it every day )

[Ya-ta Boy]

One activity:

John walked to the library.

Students make a question to fit the underlined part. (Who walked to the library?)

John walked to the library. (Where did John walk? )

John walked to the library. (What did John do?)

With some students, I've had success showing them that the same sentence can be the answer to several questions. It seems to help them learn to distinguish between the Wh question words.

After explaining and demonstrating it, I usually write up another sentence and underline one part and ask for a question. Pairs race to write the right question. Then I erase the line, underline another part of the sentence and go for the second and third round.

[Novernae]

[Woland]

Have them look at some reading comprehension passages in Korean. Have them examine these for what kinds of questions are asked at the end, and what kind of answers are appropriate for those questions.

Then, have them look at a reading comp passage in English and ask them to look at the questions (and possible answers) and judge whether they are similar to those used with the Korean text. Have them work out what the similarities and differences are.

From what you say, the question isn't your students' sentence level language abilities, but larger questions of discourse about these kinds of texts. Awareness raising activities using the L1 are good for this kind of thing.

Good luck!

[ddeubel]

I agree Woland, that is one case where L1 comparison would be very helpful in that the student can begin to see the patterns through comparison.

I think this raises a good point. In my own observations of classrooms here and students in general, so many are weak in asking questions. I think it vital, right from day 1, they are drilled in how to make questions (and by default respond). Why? Well, inorder to have a conversation and an ESL classroom rich in language use/speaking/conversation, you need two parties. Student's that have difficulty with even basic question making, just don't allow that to happen.

Too often I see classrooms full of very high level students, great vocabulary etc.....who can't converse well because they lack the ability to properly and confidently make questions. We should be stressing this in our classrooms, from the get go. Vital.

I use hundreds of small pics as a question making activity. Teacher choses the context/tense and students sit in 3s, turn over the card pic and each must make a question regarding it. Try to personalize it, as in

When did you last _____? Who did you ________? Where did you ____?

So it is about student's lives.

DD

[Novernae]

Thanks Woland. I had been thinking of the need for L1 involvement here but my Korean is nonexistant (after a year and a half... I'm very lazy and quite an introverted homebody ). I was planning to mention is at the staff meeting this week and see if the Korean teachers would be able to incorporate some into their classes from the Korean perspective, which I could then reinforce in my classes.

ddeubel I like the picture idea. I'll give that a try. I agree that there is so little focus on conversation that question making and answering and sentence structure just get eclipsed by the sheer volume of vocabulary.

[ddeubel]

I just downloaded onto the powerpoint part of my site, a Jeopardy powerpoint which deals with questions. Updated it. Make sure if you use it, to insert into the same file, the jeopardy theme song.

You might get your students after playing, to make their own questions . Give each team one Question word, WHO, HOW FAR , WHY , HOW OFTEN etc....they then play afterwards, asking other teams. OR collect, correct and then use them to make a powerpoint, just insert into mine and change.......

Might be of help.

cheers,

DD

[Hotpants]

If they are totally stuck on basic questions such as who and where, then they may never be able to progress much. There's no point in you going on with the syllabus until they can answer basic questions. It may therefore be worth spending not just a few minutes, but an entire lesson on 'who' and another one each to the other 'wh' words until they show some appropriate response. Find all the 'wh' activities you can to keep them motivated in the lesson!

For example: You can easily make a basic worksheet with a column of pictures with names or occupations attached to them. Then, the students have to write down the answer to preprinted lines alongside the pictures, 'Who is she?' etc. Then, the final lines are blank, so the students have to write down both the question and answer.

Then, for example, you can have answer stations. Post some answers on paper around the class: Mrs Kim; A doctor; Joe Ssaem; hangliding.... Then, read out some 'wh' questions. Students in small teams must run to the answer station and say the answer to your question. If class is small or dangerous, just get them to slap the cards on a table. If they can't read answer cards, just provide pictures.