THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT
THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE
INITIATIVE
“Skills training EXPERIENCE FOR Grade 6 students To ask
and answer the question "WH - QUESTION
The implementer: Phạm Thị Nga
Occupation: A teacher of English
Group: Dong Linh Secondary School
Subject: English
THANH HOA 2016
I. INTRODUCTION
1.The reason of choosing the topic
English is a very important tool in modern society. Moreover it also is a tool to
facilitate integration with the international community and the region. It helps us to
access information on international science and technology, education, culture, health,
industry, agriculture that is changing every hour and every day. In addition, English also
helps us access advanced cultures as well as important international events.
For the reasons above, being as an English teacher in a secondary school, I am
always concerned about and wondered how to help my students reach English easily
and apply it in the most flexible in the communication scenarios. As we know, in
English there are many types of questions, of which questions to ask from the " WH question " is kind of frequently asked questions. Although it is the common question
types, it is confusing for many students. This type of question is often not correctly
answered by many students, especially new students who are learning English as 6th
graders. Through exams, semester tests, regular inspection, as well as in the teaching
process, I discovered this problem and it is my concern as well as colleagues. After the
period of researching solutions for this problem, I would like to present some ideas and
little experience of teaching and practicing the question "Wh-question" for student of 6th
grade.
2.The aim of studying the topic
As we know, students of grade 6 often find it hard to learn a foreign language, to create
the interest and inspiration from students is a must that teachers should find the effective
way .
In fact, traditional method is not suitable any more at current time, students tend to sit
and listen to the teachers without giving their own ideas, which leads to slow results.The
class seems to be noisy as students don’t understand the lessons or find no interest in it.
Teachers should find a suitable method to make the lesson intersting and new to
students, which can let them curiously discover the language
The topic helps students to memorize the way to use Wh- questions properly. Students
can practice a lot with various kinds of exercises. Some techniques are used to check
how students understand the lesson.
3.The objects of studying
Students in grade 6 at Dong Linh secondary school
(Throughout teaching and working with students of grade 6)
4.The method of studying
These experiences have been studied on the following methods:
- Studying of material
- Giving outlined mirror
- Operating and using method
- Checking, connecting. projected classed
- Studying from experienced colleagues
II. CONTENT
1.The theoric installation of the problems
What are the causes of the wrong answers to the questions related to Wh-questions?
Apart from reasons of teaching and learning as mentioned above, the analysis of the
following grammar will show us "Wh-question" is the kind of question that is not easy
to students of grade 6.
Firstly, students do not understand about the auxiliary verbs. In the framework of the 6th
grade, they just remember a certain number of questions, if we change a little in
question, the students will not know when to use the verb "be", when to use ordinary
verb in the present tense and how to divide verbs in the 3rd person singular pronoun.
Secondly, "Wh-question" is a question with one subject in which the subject is often a
personal pronoun (except idioms). Thus the answer requires conversion of the noun
being a subject (of a sentence) in question into the personal pronouns in the answer, or
the personal pronouns to the different personal pronouns for suitable context (eg: “You”
in question but “I” in answer’ or your school can use It to replace, etc.). It is also very
difficult for students if they do not get much exercise.
Thirdly, There is a type of the question to find out information, students are required to
find the exact information needed to answer, but they sometime are confused, for
example putting excess or lack of information, or making a completely false
information, such as "a man ask about chicken, a woman answer about duck", for
example, "How old are you? " - "I am fine, thanks." Or "What does your father do?”-"
He reads
These three issues are crucial and the most difficult for students. Besides determination
of the structure or the tense in question is the problems that 6th graders students do not
usually think about.
2. Practical background
In general, teachers described the structure of each question for students to grasp this
question but basically conveying methods are also quite embarrassing, Response of
student to these questions seems to be machinelike, less accurate and meet much trouble.
For the students, they had access to English at the primary school, however they
only learn English language in a modeled and machinelike way, they do not think much
about grammar, spelling. When answering the questions, especially the question "Whquestion", the answer seems to be inertial, according to the pronunciation way that
teachers often train their students. For example, students always answer, "I am a
student" to the question "what does she do?”. They are not noticed the differences, the
auxiliary verb and the subject in the question. Considering that this is a way of learning
like a machine and lack of thinking. Through a survey for students of grade 6, I offer 10
questions.
Answer the following questions:
1. How old is your mother?
2. Where does she live?
3. How do you spell your name?
4. What is your father’s name?
5. What is his address?
6. What is his job?
7. What is there near your house?
8. Which school does your sister go to?
9. How often does she go to school?
10. How far is it from your house to your school?
(Each correct answer is given 1 point)
The results were very low in quality; summary of results is presented as bellows:
Grade/class
Total of
Point (0-4)
Point (4.5-7)
Point (7-10)
6A
6B
students
36
35
25
29
11
6
0
0
The above figure shows that the level of understanding of the question "Whquestion" of students is very weak. Besides, the majorities of students not only answer
wrong, but also only use one type of personal pronouns such as "I am ..." or "I live ..." in
response to the third person singular pronoun. They do not figure out how to use “to be”,
verb or "there is / there are" to answer question correctly. The results not only showed
quality of students, but also strongly affirm the problem that we must pay attention.
There is a reality to the students we often find, it is that lets students to read a
passage and then use "WH-question" to test their understanding. The problem is that
students often rewrite all the answers in the text rather than the correct answer. For
example, in the passage, it is: " My school has 4 floors with 20 classrooms, and my class
in on the second floor ”," students often write down the whole sentence while the
question is: "How many classrooms are there in your school? ":
3. Solutions to implements:
1. Identification of “Wh- question”
The "Wh-questions" are placed in the first sentence, allowing the speaker to find
more information on their topic of interest. Depending the information that the speaker
want to ask, list of Wh-question is presented below:
When?
Time
Ask information about time
Where?
Place
Ask information about place
Who?
Person
Ask information about someone
Why?
Reason
Ask information about reason
How?
Manner
Ask information about manner
What?
Object/Idea/Action
Ask
information
about
idea/action
- Other words can also be used to ask for specific information
Which one?
Choice of alternatives
Whose?
Possession
Whom?
Person(Objective formal)
How much?
Price, amount( non- count)
How many?
Quantity (count)
How long?
Duration
How often?
Frequency
How far?
Distance
What kind (of)?
Description
2. Types of “Who – question” in English book for students of grade 6
2.1
Who + V + Complement/ O...?
Example:
Who is she looking for?
Where is he?
object/
Who teaches English?
2.2 Sentences have modal verbs (ought to ...)
Wh + Modal verbs + S + main Verb ...?
Example:
Why must you go?
When may you come?
What can I do for you?
2.3 Ordinary verbs:
Wh + do/does + S + main Verb...?
Example:
When do you go to the library?
Where do you live?
How does he go to school?
2.4 Answer for Wh – question.
- Wh - questions is answered by details, Yes/No is not applied in this case. Example:
A: Who is that?
B: My roommate
- Understand the structure of this form to provide explanation; comparison is very
important factor to help students make faster progress.
3.The way to form Wh-questions
In addition to mastering Wh-question" to always provide accurate structures and
examples for students, teachers also need to be learned some tricks such as:
1. Before students answer "Wh-questions", teachers should ask their students “do
you know what kind of this question is?". This approach helps students shape the
question, clearly understand that the question to ask for specific information before
answering.
2. In terms of grammar, the teacher should make the students understand that
"Wh-question" is used depending on the asked information is "subject" or "predicate" of
a question.
- Type of information needed is the information about the subject of the question,
students need to simply replace the person or object into the position of word to ask Wh-question:
Lan has a nice house
Who has a nice house?
A tall tree is behind Lan’s house
What is behind Lan’s house ?
- Type of information needed locates in the predicate of the sentence, forming
question with words to ask depending on whether “auxiliary verb” exists in the original
sentence or not. An auxiliary verb is the verbs standing before the main verb. The
auxiliary verbs are italicized and bolded below:
I can do it
They are leaving
She should brush teeth after meal
+To create questions using the form that information needed locates at the
position of predicate of the sentence, First of all, teachers instruct their students
to create a question with the form of Yes / No by shifting the subject and the
auxiliary verb in a sentence. Then add the Wh-question to ask at the beginning of
the sentence:
Affirmations
Shifting into the form of Yes Wh-question
( You will leave
/ No question
sometime )
Will you leave?
When will you leave?
In this sentence, Will is auxiliary verb is shifted to place prior to the subject then
add when to form question, similarly we have two following questions
( He is doing something)
à Is he doing
à what is he doing?
(They have been somewhere) à Have they been à where have they been?
If the sentence has no auxiliary verb and the main verb is the verb "to be",
in order to make a question, we just swap location between the subject of the
sentence and the verb “to be”, then add words to match in question
Affirmations
Shifting into the form of Wh-question
Yes / No question
( He is someone )
Is he
Who is he ?
In this sentence, "He" is the subject and the main verb of the sentence is verb “to
be” that is divided with the third singular person "is". To create a question in this case,
the positions of the subject "He" and the verb "is" is shifted, then add words to ask (in
this case, we add Who at the beginning of the sentence). Similar to the following
question:
(The meeting is sometime) à Is the meeting à When is the meeting?
If in the narrative sentences (affirmations), the main verb of the sentence is
ordinary verb, we add auxiliary verb before the subject of the sentence. Then we add
suitable Wh-question at the beginning of the sentence to form a question. Remember
that adding auxiliary verb must match with its subject. For example, in the present tense,
the subject is I /We/You/They, plural nouns, we use auxiliary verb "do", the third
singular person is He / She / It, or singular nouns, we have to use auxiliary verb"does".
Affirmations
Shifting into the form of Wh-question
Yes / No question
( You want something )
Do you want
What do you want?
In the above sentence, we do not see auxiliary verb in affirmations "you want
something" so when switching to the question, we need to add auxiliary verb “do”
before the subject "you" of the sentence. Then we ask for information about the object
"Something" by adding words to ask "What" at the beginning of the sentence. As a
result, we have a question "What do you want?”
Similarly, we have:
Affirmations- Shifting into the form of Yes / No question - Wh-question
(She likes something)à Does she like (third person-s) à what does she like?
- Teachers need provide instructions to students on how to shift nouns into
pronouns to avoid repetition or a pronoun in question to a pronoun in that answer with
suitable context (when turning into pronouns, singular nouns for animals/plans/things
are converted into “it", the plural nouns are transformed into "they"; the singular noun
indicated for person is changed to "he, she" (depending on the noun), plural nouns is
changed to "they".
For example:
Nam
®
I and my sister ® they
he ;
Your school ® It;
Her books
® They
S1: Where is your father ?
S2 : He is in the garden
S1 : Whose books are these ?
S2 : They are mine
Particular case:
You
For example:
® I
;
You
® We
S1: Where do you live ?
S2 :- I live in Thanh hoa ( a person )
-We live in Hanoi
( 2 people or more )
Or the case do not have to convert but remain subject to answer:
It®It
He® He
She®She
They
® They
S1: What subject does he like ?
S2 : He likes Math
And idioms:
Is there
®
There is/There isn’t
Are there
®
There are/There aren’t
S1: How many people are there in your family ?
S2 : There are three
4. The types of exercises:
Type 1: Convert following nouns to pronouns:
Your father
®
The weather
®
His mother
®
Vietnam
®
Nga
®
Her face
®
His hair
®
He
I and my sister ®
The girl
®
Lan and Nam
®
The boys
®
Students
®
Your house ®
Your father’s name ®
Class
®
The teacher
®
Your pen
®
These,those
®
Her nose
®
He and his friends ®
The purpose of exercise is to help students become familiar with the conversion of
nouns to pronouns when they answer questions.
Example: S1: Where are the boys?
S2: They are in the house
Type 2 : Add suitable ( Wh- question) into blank to form a question.
1………....is this? This is Lan
1. ………day is it?
2. ……
do you like cats?
3. ………can I buy some milk? At the supermarket
4. ……….much beef do you want?
5. ……….hat is this? It is my brother’s
6. ……… can I park my car? Over there
7. ……….tall are you?
8. ……….do you want to buy?
9. ……… do you like with tea? I like it with cream and sugar
10.……… picture do you want to buy, this one or that one?
Type 3: Choose an appropriate answer to fill in blank:
1. ……………is the name of the President of the United Stages of America?
a. What
b. When
c. Where
2…………………month is the Vietnamese New Year?
a. Where
b.When
c. What
3………………..is the Christmas Day ?
a.What
b.When
c.Where
4. ………………many pens do you have?
a. When
b. How
c.Why
5. …………..are your mother ? she is in the kitchen
a.Where
b.When
c.Who
Type 4: Switch following sentences into questions (using words in parentheses to
ask information)
Example:
She often goes to work at 6 o’clock (What time)
->What time does she often go to work?
1. He usually does his homework at night. (when )
2. The cats are in the house. ( Where )
3. I like the red house, not the blue one. ( Which )
4. This is an eraser. ( What )
5. She studies piano at the university. ( what )
6. My house has five rooms. ( How many )
7. They are going to Ha Noi tomorrow .(Where )
8. The woman over there is my mother .( Who )
9. She doesn’t get up early because she is tired ( Why )
10. We have English class three times a week .( How often )
Type 5: Correction form
Find errors in the following questions:
Example:
S1: How is favorite food? ( How -> what )
S2: I like Fish
1. What is your birthday?
It is in May
2. What time does she often get up ?
She get up at 7 o’clock
3. How often are you brush your teeth?
Twice a day
4. Who house is this ?
It is my house
5. How many rice do you want ?
Two kilos , please
6. Why do she like milk ?
Because it is delicious
7. Who does often go to school with you ?
Lan and Hoa
8. How long is it from your house to shool ?
About one kilometer
9. Where does your father work ?
I work in a factory
10. How many desks are there ?
They are two
Type 6: Make “Wh- question” with suggestive words:
1. How / tall/ you ?
2. What time /you/do /homework/night?
3. How often/your mother/go/market?
4. What /she /want/do/now ?
5. what /your /favorite/food ?
Type 7: Make a question by underlined words
According to my experience, firstly a multiple choice exercise in a form of connecting
information with Wh-question is applied before doing the exercise of forming a question
by underlined words, the goal is to help students proficiently determine Wh-question
when replacing it for underlined words, avoid mistakes. Example:
Matching:
a. Ha Noi
A. How may
b. Next week
B.Where
c. My mother
C. How much
d. Three
D. Whose
e. 2 kilos
E . Who
f. Lan’s
F. When
Then exercise for underlined words is applied.
Example
The train leave at 8 o’clock tonight
->What time does the train leave tonight ?
1. Her telephone number is 8 202053
2. It is about 3 kilometers from my house to school
3. I will go fishing this afternoon
4. Her date of birth is on August 21th
5. She can swim
Type 8: Read the following passage, and then answer questions
Thu is my friend. She lives in the city with her parents and two brothers. She lives at 24
Le Hoan street. Her telephone number is 8 202 564 . On her next birthday, May 2 nd, Thu
will be 14 years old. She will have a small party for her birthday. She will invite some
best friends to her house. They will eat cakes and sweet. And they will have a lot of fun.
The party will start at 6 o’clock and finish at nice .
Questions:
1.What is Thu’s address ?
2.How old is she ?
3. Who does she live with?
4.What’s her telephone number?
5.What is her date of birth ?
This kind of exercise helps students practice answering the question "Whquestion" in accordance with the structure without rewriting answers in the text.
These are questions that I synthesized from English textbooks for 6th grade students. In
order to match with each lesson, the teacher can draw experience and based on the type
of exercises to flexibly use. Actually if teachers spend more time training the students
such exercises like this, then surely after a short period the students will understand
more about the grammar of this question type. As a result, small complicated issues will
disappear and "Wh-question" will not be difficult for students.
The questions in this kind of exercise can be done by students in class time or if
there is not enough time in class, students can practice more at home then teachers help
correct on the class. Alternatively, we can teach students to learn more in optional
learning hours. Application of these questions into games, such as NOUGHTS AND
CROSSES or LUCKY NUMBER also brings a good result. .
5. Teaching rhythm, pronunciation, intonation in the types of Wh-question”
Rhythm and intonation for students is very important, if false, it will easily cause
misunderstanding, so teachers must not forget to teach students the rhythm of language
after students know how to make a question with 'Wh ".
Normally, when teaching rhythm, intonation for students, teachers need to take
the following steps:
- Teachers read a sentence according to rhythm of up and down movements of
hand (may be twice).
- Play the tape (if any).
- Teachers require the best students to read first, then the average student and
finally weak students. Teachers need to use rhythm and up and down movements of
hand to help students stress on the focus, intonation.
In some difficult questions, teachers write them on board, attaching with signs of
intonation. Teachers clearly read every word in the sentence (maybe once), then read
complete sentences, combining rhythm, up and down movements of hand (maybe
twice). Let each student read in turns, then the whole students in the class read out loud.
Teachers use beats of ruler and up and down movements of the hand to help students
emphasize on the focus, easily read sentences with accurate intonation
Lower accent is often used to in the Wh-question
Example 1:
Where's your wife?
- Teachers conduct practice of rhythm, intonation in general method.
- Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "Where's", use hand to point down at
the word "wife".
Example 2:
Who is
this?
- Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "Who", use hand to point down at the
word "this".
Example 3:
When's your birthday?
- Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "When", use hand to point down at the
word "birthday".
6. Teaching Wh-questions associated with new words.
After teaching new words, teachers require student to use Wh-questions to make
questions with new words, diversifying questions with nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.
Example 1: With adjectives
“Intelligent”
Who is the most intelligent in your class?
“bored”
Why are you bored?
‘
Example 2: With verbs
“feel”
How do you feel ?
“help”
Who helps you with your homework?
Example 3: With nouns
“Hobby”
What is your hobby?
“weather”
What is the weather like today?
Example 4: With preposition: in, on, of, at……..
What are you good at?
Who is he interested in?
7 . Teaching Wh-questions associated with passive voive
Who -> By whom……?
-> Who………by?
Example : Who often helps you?
-> By whom are you helped?
-> Who are you helped by?
4.The effect of the idea to the educational activities
Applying this research on teaching and training shows that students have
understood more and more. They are able to answer this kind of question more
accurately. Specially, the students have thoughts more logically. They no longer
understand in machinelike and stereotyped ways as before
I conducted a survey through tests. The results are as follows:
Class
6A
6B
Total of students
36
35
Point 0-4
6
5
4,5-7
11
10
7-10
19
20
(It is clear that when we compare two boards, the idea which I have applied to my
lessons is absolutely more useful than the old one)
III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
To improve the quality of teaching and learning English in secondary school,
apart from basic methods, each teacher should have intensive investment in a specialized
aspect that cause troubles/problems to many students and be more active in teaching.
From there, they can help their students absorb and master the knowledge in their
curriculum in the best way. The method further training for students in grades 6, "ask
and answer questions Wh-question" My last exchange offer is not out on purpose. My
method, “make Wh-questions and answer”- question that I have just presented is not out
of above objectives.
With the aim of good teaching and learning, helping students to acquire and hold
a solid basic knowledge from the beginning, as well as further developing the
knowledge and skills of their English in the next years, I would like to receive
assessments, comments from the Science Council and colleagues to improve this
research better and more realistically as well as feasibly because in the limited time and
limited experience, shortcomings is surely inevitable.
I sincerely would like to thank you.
Dong Linh, March 12th 2016
Confirmation of the managing board
I herely declare this inititive is written
by myself. Do not copy from any others
Writer
Phạm Thị Nga
INDEX
I. INTRODUCTION
Pag
e
2
1.The reason of choosing the topic
2
2.The aim of choosing the topic
2
3.The objects of studying
2
4.The method of studying
3
II. CONTENT
4
1,The theoric installation of the problems
4
2.Practical background
4
3.Solution to implements
5
4,The effect of the idea to the educational
situation
III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
18
19
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