Checking understanding much?

The worst way to check whether learners have understood something you have just presented or not is to ask: 

“Do you understand?”

The reason, of course, is that even if learners have understood and they answer ‘yes’ in unison, you do not get clear evidence of understanding. So, ‘yes’ might as well mean ‘no’ for all we know – and we do not want to wait for the autopsy!

So, here’s a way of designing a set of concept checking questions (CCQs) to get better evidence of understanding in the classroom.

Scenario:

Imagine you are presenting the 2^nd conditional to a group of intermediate learners, i.e.

• ‘If I got filthy rich, I’d quit my job.’
• ‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.’

       etc.

Step 1: Analyse the language.

Study the grammatical structure to find out the rules of meaning, form, etc. You could use grammar books for teachers/learners, coursebooks, online resources, etc.

So, following the scenario mentioned above, we study and find that:

    The 2^nd conditional:

1.     Impossible / contrary to fact situations

2.     is about now or the future

3.     'if' clause: past tense

4.     main clause: would + base form

5.     I would = I’d

6.     we often use 'were' instead of 'was' in the ‘if’ clause

Step 2: Turn these rules into questions 

Do not forget to simplify the language in these questions, however, trying to avoid using terminology learners might not be familiar with. 

So, you'll come up with the following CCQs:

1.     Is it possible (for X) to happen? Is it true? NO

2.     Is it about now or the past? NOW

etc.

However, it’s quite easy to come up with CCQs that will not help you or the learners; in fact, they might end up confusing everyone – including the people observing your lesson.

So, let’s have a quick look at some poor CCQs and why they are not good enough.

CCQs	DON’Ts
If I got filthy rich, would I quit my job?	Don’t use the target language in the CCQ.
Do I use the base form, or the past participle of the verb ‘quit’ in the main clause?	Don’t use terminology.
I am currently well off?	Don’t use difficult language.
Why am I not rich now?	Don’t ask questions that do not check understanding of meaning/use, form, etc.
Why did I use the past simple in the ‘if’ clause?	Don’t ask questions that cannot be answered in one or two words.
Students, I’d like you to tell me what the ‘d’ stands for in the main clause	Don’t ask questions which are indirect and are worded in a complicated way.

Hope you find this useful! 😊