This was a guest piece of mine on a blog that recently disappeared (rather than just moving and becoming annoyingly inconvenient like mine has done). Good timing if you’re still in the first few classes.

The challenges of teaching young and very young learners are many (crowd control, tears, explaining games with zero language, etc) but the one I found hardest to get my head round was managing to practice personal questions such as “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?” and “How are you?” until the kids really got it.

One approach is obviously to just skim over personal questions and spend time on things students will pick up more efficiently such as vocabulary. This is not going to please the parents, however. If there kids are going to show off their English language to someone outside the classroom, there are much more likely to be asked “How old are you?” than “What colour is the apple?”, and ditto if they ever meet an English speaker who does not speak their language. For this reason, these kinds of questions usually feature prominently in the syllabi of classes even for two and three year olds. So, we have to cover it and cover it well, like it or not. And here are the problems we might have to deal with:

– Because the answers are different for each person, it can’t be done well as a whole class chant and so is more time consuming

– Some common questions like “How old are you?” and “How are you?” are easily confused with each other

– It’s difficult to illustrate the meanings of the questions without translation

– It’s even more difficult to make the topic fun.

The ideas below should help you deal with all these problems above, especially the last one:

Personal Question gestures

Using gestures helps reinforce the meaning, aids memory and adds a little fun. It can also teach them gestures used in English-speaking countries. Examples include:

– “What’s (shoulders hunched, palms up) your (cupped palm towards the person you are asking) name?”

– “My (cupped palm touching your chest to show possessive) name’s…?”

– “How old (move fingers up and down as if you are counting very quickly over and over) are you (point both index fingers at person being questioned)?”

– “I am (touch number of fingers of your age on your chest) three/four/five (show those fingers to the person you are talking to)”

– “How (questioning gesture) are (repeat questioning gesture) you (point)?”

-“I’m (index fingers on chest) fine thank you (thumbs up, shake once for each word)”

Spin and point questions

Rather than just pointing at the student who you want to answer, spin round and round with your arm and index finger out and stop on one person. After they have answered they can then spin and ask the question to someone else. This can also be done with your eyes closed.

Throw questions

Instead of pointing at the person who is being asked the question (and so therefore should answer), throw something such as a beachball or hand puppet to them. They can then ask and throw in the same way to their choice of next person.

That’s a question???

So students actually listen to the question rather than just knowing what to answer from the context (a common problem , or perhaps skill, at younger ages), mix up the question with wrong words or gibberish, e.g. “What’s woorlllllll?” or “How are tubes?”. If it isn’t a totally correct question, students should shout “No”, “(That’s) wrong” or the correct question until you get it right, at which point they should answer the question.

That’s me too

When a student gives an answer, everyone that is true for (e.g. everyone who is also called Maria or everyone who is also four) stands up and swaps chairs. The person who was standing up and asking the questions tries to sit in one of those chairs before everyone else does. The last person standing (or someone who missed the answer and didn’t stand up when they should have) takes the teacher role and asks the next question etc.

What’s your answer Mr Wolf?

This game is similar to the one above, but all the people who have the same answer as the person being asked can take one (long) step forward from the back of the room. The first person to touch the person asking the questions (e.g. the teacher) in front of the opposite wall is the winner.

Pass the question

As the teacher asks a question and gets a reply, he or she passes an object, e.g. a piece of plastic fruit onto the person they asked it to. The student then turns to the student next to them and asks the same question, passing the object on when they get an answer etc. This can be a race if the students are arranged in a circle or straight lines, or you can, just pass out more and more objects as you ask questions until students are getting questions from all directions at once and (hilarious) overload ensues.

Questions tag

As a variation of that above, there is only one object to pass and students actually run away from the person trying to pass it. You can add extra language by the person who is ‘it’ changing how people can move, e.g. “Jump” or “Hop”.

More on first classes with young learners here.