CCQs

Concept Checking Questions

1. CCQ s Or Checking Understanding Project № 2014-1- BG01 - KA -101-000750 Проект   “Професионално развитие на учителите по английски език  в СОУПНЕ”Фридрих Шилер”   по Програма Еразъм + Ключова дейност 1:  Образователна мобилност на училищния персонал Бабек Мехмедов Раифов

2. What is CCQ? CCQ = Concept Checking Question

3. A CCQ is a question we ask the student to ensure they had understood our definition or explanation.

4. Why don’t we ask ‘ Do you understand ? ’ ( ‘ Do you understand? ‘   ‘Have you understood     ‘Is this clear?’  and all its possible permutations, down to  “OK ”) Useless question, Learners may: Not want to appear stupid in front of their peers; Genuinely believe they do understand; Not want to/be able to explain what they don’t understand; Not want to offend the teacher (in some cultures a ‘I don’t understand’ = ‘You are a terrible teacher’.)

5. So how do we check understanding ? One obvious way is to listen carefully to the way the students use the language – inappropriate use will often indicate that something has been misunderstood. Be alert to the way learners use the language and try to understand why they say what they do. E.g. ‘ The doctor gave her a recipe ’ – the problem here could be that there is only one word for both recipe and prescription in the learner’s L1, and though he/she has learned recipe in its usual English use, the extension doesn’t work.

6. Do ' a good CCQ' Usually, the best approach is to follow these three simple steps: Think of the underlying meanings/concepts Break the meanings into short phrases Turn the phrases into a series of simple questions

7. So how do we write some good CCQ’s? Good concept questions are not easy to write – they require a depth of analytical  as well as  intuitive understanding of what we are trying to check and not just what the grammar book says. Some of you may even have spotted the links to componential analysis which good CCQ design entails

8. Good CCQ’s should – be short and simply expressed – be easy to answer in one or two words – not contain vocabulary or structures more difficult than what we are trying to check – not contain the target  language pattern  (though they may include the  target word , esp if demonstrating it, e.g. Which of these two fingers is my  thumb ?) – vary; not just be simple Q & A, for example they can be a series of T/F statements (see next section for ideas)

9. Golden Rules for CCQs: 1. Plan CCQs in advance 2. Ask questions that are simple 3. Direct CCQs to specific students, not always to the whole class, the same students, or the best students; cover as many students as possible 4. Ask both yes/no questions, either/or questions, and simple ‘ Wh ’ questions to check the various aspects of the target language 5. Do not add unfamiliar vocabulary or new language to CCQs; it just muddies the attempt to highlight meaning 6. Do not use the new target language in CCQs 7. Use pictures, realia , miming, synonyms, antonyms, the white board, and time and tense in CCQs

10. Should CCQ’s be just questions? Although they are called questions, they don’t have to be. They can be true and false statements, they can be incomplete sentences, they can be questions with a binary choice to help learners or they can be non-verbal ways of checking – in fact, teachers can use any and all the methods they use for the presentation vocabulary or grammar in order to check its understanding, and this includes pictures ( Which one shows the word? ), time lines ( Which time line fits this sentence? ), physical activity like miming or demonstrating, opposites, synonyms, definitions,  examples, explanations, and even asking for a translation in the mother tongue or asking the learners to say which translation is the most appropriate.

11. Some examples These examples show how concept questions could be used to help differentiate between the main functions of the present simple and present continuous. Target sentence:  Look! They're painting the wall Checking questions Is it happening now? Yes Can you see it? Yes Is the painting finished? No Are they painting now? Yes Is this the past, present or future? Present

12. target sentence:  She's a shop assistant. She works in a shop Checking questions Has she got a job? Yes Is she working now Don't know Does she work there every day? Yes Is this the past, present or future? Present, but also past and probably future.

13. This example shows how concept questions can be used to clarify the meaning of more complex structures : Target sentence:  If I won the lottery, I'd buy a new car Checking questions Have I won the lottery? No Am I going to win the lottery? Probably not Am I going to buy a new car ? Probably not Has he got a lottery ticket? Maybe Is this real, or imaginary? Imaginary

14. Questions may be of different types: Yes/no questions. ' Is a bed-sit a room? ', ' Are there other rooms in the house?', 'Can you sleep in it? ' . 50/50 chance questions. ' Is it a room or a building? ', ' Is it cheap or expensive? ', ' Do you buy it or pay money every week or month? ' Information questions. ' Who lives in it?', 'How many people live in it? ' Discrimination questions. ' Do you only sleep in it? ', ' Can you cook a meal in it?', 'Is it the same as a flat? ' Shared experience questions. ' Is there a bed-sit in this building? ' Life experience/culture questions. ' Have you ever lived in a bed-sit? ' ' Are there bed-sits in your city/country ?' Remember that the answers ' sometimes ', ' it depends ' and ' I don't know ' can tell you as much as ' yes '  or  ' no '.

15. Another way of constructing concept questions is by writing a sentence containing all the elements of the concept, from which questions can be formed. This is a useful method when distinguishing between two functions of the same structure, particularly where those functions would be expressed by different forms or tenses in other languages. For example: 'He's been eating garlic.' Concept : He isn't eating garlic now, and I didn't see him eating it, but I know he was eating garlic because I can smell it. 'Harry's been working here for two years.' Concept : He started working here two years ago, he's still working here, and he'll probably continue working here.

16. Conclusion The value of concept questions should not be underestimated, but many teachers either forget to use them or find them difficult to construct. Teachers are often satisfied that the learners 'seem to understand' on the basis of their performance in practice exercises. Concept questions are particularly valuable after the presentation and explanation of an item, and may be asked at any stage during a lesson. They are valuable after guided practice, particularly if the learners seem not to have grasped the target language fully, and at the end of a lesson, as a final check and review. Time lines and other devices are not substitutes for concept questions. They are aids to explanation, but do not necessarily check understanding. Concept questions, however, may be used to elicit a timeline from the learners.

17. Concept questions are particularly valuable where a concept does not exist, or is different in the mother tongue (e.g. the perfect aspect, ways of expressing the future), and where a language item is culturally loaded as in the case of the word 'subway' which has very different meanings in British and American English. In such cases, concept questions often form part of the initial teaching process. Concept questions are also useful for raising awareness of association and connotation, and for drawing attention to collocations and fixed expressions. They are also good listening practice for learners, and can even lead on to class activities such as guessing games in which the learners write their own questions.