Transfer of learning

[jori]

Why doesn't my student use the lessons he learned when he talks? For instance: In one lesson my student practiced asking yes/no questions. I asked which form of question he prefers -
1. Are you hungry?
2. You are hungry?
3. You are hungry, aren't you?
He said he wanted to use no. 1 format, but when we were talking during lunch, he still kept using no. 2 format. Once, he practiced using the past tense of verbs in talking about the past. But durng our conversation, he doesn't use the past tense. How can I make him use the lessons he learned?

[fluffyhamster]

There are functional differences between the question forms you list, primarily 1) 'neutral/invitational', 2) 'surprised (that the other person could be hungry)', and 3) 'surprised (that the other person isn't hungry/couldn't be hungry)' (the tag there would have a rising intonation to my mind, what with the question mark - without can usefully signal falling intonation. Let's make the orthography work for us for once!), and it would take a series of lessons using quality materials/activities to make these differences clear enough for the student to even begin to understand their functions, let alone use them consistently and accurately in their own speech. Some teachers (especially native speaker teachers) therefore think it is best to not explicitly teach question tags before upper intermediate level, if at all.

You might also like to search for 'tag' or 'tags' for more in-depth discussion of tags versus other (question) forms.

As for not using the past tense, take a look at this thread for some discussion and ideas:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=7871