Academic_Vocab

CONCEPT QUESTIONS What are concept questions' They are questions designed to check learners have understood the meaning of a piece of grammar, an item of vocabulary or a functional expression. The word ‘concept’ is used to signify the essential meaning of a piece of language. Why use them' Firstly, because they are an efficient and effective way of checking learners have understood something. They are more effective, for example, than asking learners ‘Do you understand'’ because a. Learners may think they have understood something correctly but in reality they haven’t, and b. Learners may be reluctant in a classroom to say out loud in front of their peers that they have not understood something, since this may expose them to ridicule. Secondly, because concept questions always work. He concept questions for an item will always be the same since the essential meaning of a piece of language does not change. There may be some examples when the meaning is partly dependent upon the context, but simple adaptation of the concept questions will take3 care of this. Once you know the concept questions for the use of a particular tense, for example, they will never change and will always work, whatever the example sentence. Thirdly, because they are a tool for developing the language awareness of teachers. By learning to design and use concept questions, teachers learn to think closely about the meaning of items of language in a systematic and thorough way. In other words,, they can be used to develop a teacher’s language awareness skills. When do you ask them' Concept questions can be used on two occasions: The first is when a new piece of language is being introduced and the teacher wants to check that that all the learners have understood. They are used during the ‘checking understanding’ stage of a lesson, or at any time that a new piece of language comes up and needs checking. They are particularly useful when the item of language is complex, or does not exist in the learner’s language, or is used in a different way, or is a false friend. Secondly, they can be used as a correction technique, either to remind the learner of a concept they have forgotten, or to get the learner to think about the concept of a piece of language they are using. For example, if a learner says ‘I visit my aunt at 3 o’clock on Saturday.’, you may want to check if the learner wants to talk about a regular habit (i.e. something the learner does every Saturday at this time) or whether they want to talk about a definite arrangement for this Saturday at 3pm. By asking the learner ‘Is this something you do every Saturday'’ and ‘Is it a definite arrangement'’ we get the leaner to think about the difference in meaning and the correct form needed