1.  Put large posters of “Yes” and “No” at opposite ends of the classroom. (you might also use “Rocks! – Sucks!  or “I think so” or “I don’t think so” etc….)

2.  Students stand. Read a statement such as “I love chocolate ice cream” .  Students answer by going to the side of the classroom, the poster, that represents their opinion/answer.  Or if undecided they can go to the middle. Continue reading statements.

3.  Give students a slip of paper. They write their own statements or closed questions (Yes/No). Then each take turns reading theirs and seeing the opinions/beliefs of classmates.

….

You can use this technique in many ways and to cover/introduce many topics and language items. Really good for doing surveys interactively… A perfect example of “learning on your feet” and Active Learning.

This post was submitted by David .

Any time students are performing an activity: dialogue, discussion, task etc… train them to “pass the pen”. After speaking, the student passes the pen to someone else. If you have the pen, you then must “add to” the activity. It’s your turn.

The simplist way to introduce this to students is to put some questions on the board or in a worksheet. Students randomly ask a question and “pass the pen”. That student replies and asks a question and “passes the pen”. You might even just use the “Spin the Question” game on EFL Classroom 2.0.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Start the activity by making statements for the class but “coughing / mumbling or saying “blablabla”. Ex. I went to the &&)))*** last night.  Students ask for clarification using the prompt on the board.

Low: Excuse me, what did you say?

High:  Excuse me but who/what/where/when/ ……….?

The teacher then repeats the statement but finishing it off. Ex. I went to the library last night.

Put students in groups and give them these Finish It cards.  In groups of 3, they go around a circle making statements like the teacher (coughing, mumbling , blablaing) and asking clarification questions and finishing it off…

Lots of fun and really good open yet controlled langugage production practice!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Write down on the board some of your own (the teacher) family names. Underneath write;

A. Who is …………………..?

B. …….. is ………..’s …………….

A. ……………………………?

Students ask the teacher about the family members on the board. The teacher replies, using “B” and writing more information on the board. The student then asks one additional question about that family member — Is she married? How old is he? What does he do? etc..  Continue while stroking out already talked about family members.

Next, give the students a blank piece of paper. In 30 seconds they should write down as many family member names as possible (in their own language or script/alphabet!!!!).

Finally, in small groups or pairs, they look at each others paper and using the above language – ask about their partners family.

At the end, if time permits, get students to say one interesting thing about their partners family.  I guarantee you this recipe is very delicious!!!!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Just spin and the students must ask a question for that number. Who / What / How / Why / Where etc….

Another variation is to first have students write the questions and then start the conversation/interviews.

You can use it in any way you like! Make sure to “echo” so that when one student asks another a question, the other, echoes it back. Really creates a lot of language production…. Happy Spinning!

PS. Use this handy Question making organizer to help your students form questions!

This post was submitted by eflclassroom.

This is done by using expressions like: “I do”, “I am”, “that’s true”, “that isn’t true”,

“that’s not correct”, “exactly”, “precisely”, “that’s right”, “that’s correct”, “I think so”,

“probably”, “possibly”, “usually”.

The questioners can try to trap them through deliberate misunderstanding and

echo questions: “Did you say usually? So you said you live in Stuttgart? Perhaps?

Questions

Do you come from Australia? Are you sure you don’t?

Are you single or married? So you’re divorced. You’re not interested in marriage?

Do you like English food? So you LOVE English food. You think it’s the best in the world?

Have you been to Florence? So you haven’t been to Italy?

Which is more important – health or money? You said “health”?

How many brothers and sisters do you have? Fifteen?

Would you like a million pounds? So you’re not interested in money?

Are you more intelligent than your parents? So you’re less intelligent?

Did you say you were stupid?

Do you like your teacher? Is he / she the best teacher you’ve ever had?

The best in the world?

What are your hobbies? So you like listening to folk music?

Can you use a computer / play the piano? You can?

This post was submitted by Peter.

Each label contains a real person’s name or the name of a character from fiction or television cartoons. Each named person should have a natural partner, for example if you write a label with the name ROMEO, there should also be a label with the name JULIET stuck on somebody’s back. If you have an odd number of students in your class, stick a label on your own back, but let the students do the questioning.

Questions must be of the type that can either be answered with YES or No:

Am I man or a woman? Alive or dead? European or American? Real or fictitious?

Am I a character from a cartoon or a book? Am I rich? Am I famous?

Have I been in the news recently? Am I someone from your country? Britain?

Do I work in sport / music / entertainment / the cinema / the theatre?

Students ask questions to find their partner……..when they think they’ve found their partner, they sit down together.

Some possible matches..

This post was submitted by Peter.

In pairs or as a whole class, discover the VERB through QUESTIONS.

The nonsense word “BLIP” should be substituted for the target VERB.

Write sample QUESTIONS on the board

When / Where / Why / How do you blip?

Can you blip someone / something / somewhere?

Do you often blip?

Did you blip yesterday?

Are you blipping now?

Are you going to blip this weekend?

Have you blipped since you arrived in England?

Do you like blipping?

Do you blip with your hands?

If I saw you blipping, would you be embarrassed?

The aim of the game is not to guess the meaning of the word “Blip” straight away. When you think you know the meaning of the word “Blip”, you could ask further questions which make the meaning of the word “Blip” clear to the rest of the class or which amuse the student who is answering the questions.

This post was submitted by Peter.

Find someone who…

1) has travelled to New York. ________

2) has been on TV. ______

3) has met a famous person. ______

etc….

The students are supposed to stand up and go around the classroom asking their classmates until someone has done so and if this is the case, his/her name should appear next to the question. Once a student finds a classmate for each question, the task finishes and the teacher should check if it is so by asking the students whose names appear next to the questions.

A follow-up task could be finding out details about each situation, such as “when did you travel to New York? How did you go there? Who did you go there with?”

The tenses the questions are made in can vary: present perfect, present simple for routines and past simple for definite past time (yesterday/last week/two years ago).

This post was submitted by Marisa.

1. Choose an object and students ask questions about it.  Give them question prompts to help, written on the board. For example;

Is it ….. heavy/light/big/small/young/old/(color)/hard/soft/

Can you ……… with it?

Can it ……..it?

Does it have ….?  Does it ……?

Students guess and have 20 questions to figure it out.

Another version is to give students a handout with many pictures. They ask questions and try to guess which picture it is (under 10 questions).

If you have a computer, try 20 Questions online. Click Classic 20Q  . I recommend starting with thinking about a “chopstick” and see if the computer will guess it! It will! Make sure to have a student as the MC, asking questions for the computer…

This post was submitted by David.