More Follow-Up Questions – Lesson 3
Friday, April 28, 2017, 09:36 GMT+7
Hello and welcome to Stivi Cooke’s English Lessons!
(Use a dictionary to find the meanings of the words in bold later.)
In the second lesson, I showed the basic features of making follow-up questions to make your conversations grow using:
|
What |
When |
Where |
Which |
Who |
Why |
|
How come |
How + ADJ |
||||
It is easier to understand when we use a topic such as work, entertainment or study. Here are four examples:
|
A: Did you have a good day? B: No! It was terrible! A: Really? What happened? B: Well, I failed my test then the teacher gives me more homework for tonight. A: Oh, that’s so awful! Who is your teacher? B: It was Mr Tien! He’s so boring! A: Which subject are you studying? B: Geography, I like it but the way he teaches makes me sleepy! |
A: How was work today? B: Wow, we were so busy! A: How come? B: The boss wanted all our reports for a meeting so we had to hurry up and finish them. A: Why weren’t they ready? B: We thought he would be away for a week. A: How often do you see the boss? B: Not much, usually once a month. A: Where is the meeting? B: In Thailand, on a holiday island! |
|
A: Where are you going in such a hurry! B: The bank! I need some money for tonight! A: Where are you going tonight? B: I’ve got a new date. I’m taking her out for dinner at A La Vietnam. A: When are you having dinner? B: About nine. We’ll go shopping first. A: Big spender! Who’s the lucky girl? B: Your older sister! |
A: When are you coming to visit me in Ho Chi Minh City? B: I’m coming down there in August. A: Have you got a place to stay? B: Not yet, what hotel do you recommend? A: The Mango and Banana hotel is good. B: How expensive is it? A: Not much, it does have a swimming pool. B: Great! How can I contact them? A: Here’s their email address. |
Did you see that the speakers also added their opinions? This also gives the listener an opportunity to ask more questions. If you add more detail (more information), the listener can ask many questions – this makes good conversation. Don’t make the listener ask obvious questions because your answers were too short – that’s boring conversation.
Some topics are naturally easier to ask questions about than other topics.
|
Shopping What did you buy? Where did you get… it/them/those. How much were they? Who came with you? Why did you go there? |
Movies What was it like? How interesting was it? Who was in the movie? Where did you see it? What’s it called? |
|
Dating Who did you go out with? What is he/she like? (their personality) Where did you go? Which restaurant did you go to? When did you meet him/her? |
Free time What are you going to do tomorrow? How will you spend the weekend? Where will you go? Who will you visit? Why will you stay at home? |
We can also use:
What happened? Why did you do that? Who was there?
Then what did you do? When did it happen?
EXERCISE: Chose a simple topic. Here are some ideas: sport/hobbies/music/buying something/visiting a friend/making plans to travel on a Sunday.
1) Write ten questions for that topic. Ask your classmate or a friend and use the WH/questions from lesson two.
2) Write down their answers.
3) Read the conversation. What did you forget to ask? Or what other things did you want to know about?
4) Try to say the conversation again without looking at your notes. Do you see that you are thinking more quickly and making questions faster?
In the next lesson, I’ll show you how to add comments and responses. We will also begin to add more details and use adjectives to ‘color’ our language.
Send your comments to TUOI TRE NEWS at ttn@tuoitre.com.vn – we’d love to hear from you!
Hen gap lai!
Stivi Cooke
TESOL/Master of Education
