Teaching techniques: Concept
questions
 by Keith Taylor
 Last updated 14 July 2020
 19 comments
What are concept questions?
Concept questions (also referred to as concept checking questions or CCQs) are
questions designed to check learners’ understanding of a language item.
How do we make concept questions?
To formulate effective questions, we need to keep in mind several key points:
1. Concept questions need to cover every aspect of the meaning of
the language item.
For example:
“You don’t have to do your homework”.
Is it necessary to do your homework? (no)
This question checks one aspect of the meaning, but is not enough to
cover every aspect, and doesn’t address the possible (and common)
confusion with “mustn’t”. We need to add at least one more question
to overcome this:
“You don’t have to do your homework”.
Is it necessary to do your homework? (no)
Can you do your homework if you want to? (yes)
Here’s another example:
“an oven”
Can you cook food in it? (yes)
This question covers perhaps the most important aspect of the
meaning of “an oven”, but doesn’t distinguish between “an oven” and
“a microwave”, “a saucepan”, or anything else that you could
conceivably cook food in. We would need to add some more questions
to eliminate these other possibilities.
2. Concept checking questions shouldn’t use the target language.
For example, to check understanding of past progressive used to
interrupt another action in the past:
“I was eating dinner when you called”.
Was I eating dinner before you called?
The question attempts to address one of the aspects of the meaning
(the action started before you called) but it uses the very same
language of which we are trying to check the understanding.
So we need to formulate our questions in another way:
“I was eating dinner when you called”.
Did I start eating my dinner before you called? (yes)
Did I stop eating my dinner when you called? (maybe)
Verb forms like this lend themselves very well to having their
understanding checked with timelines. If you are referring to a
timeline on the board with the short “past simple” action already
marked, you could reformulate your questions like this:
When did I start eating dinner?
When did I stop eating dinner?
3. Concept questions should check the understanding of the
language item, not of the situation.
For example, when checking understanding of mustn’t:
“You mustn’t walk on the grass”.
Why mustn’t I walk on the grass?
This question, quite apart from using the target language itself (see
point 2), is checking understanding of the situation – the reasons why
it is forbidden to walk on the grass – and not the meaning of mustn’t.
Instead, we need to ask:
Is it ok if I walk on the grass? (no)
Can I decide? (no)
4. The questions shouldn’t use language which is overly
complicated or long-winded, or more complicated than the
target language.
For example:
“I had my nails done yesterday”.
Did I enlist the services of a beautician and put myself in his charge to
undergo a manicure, or did I perform this beauty treatment myself?
This is, of course, an exaggerated example. The type of question,
however, is a good one – it asks for a simple choice between two
possibilities, and this brings us to point 5:
5. Concept questions should, where possible, require a simple yes
or no, or a choice between two possibilities.
If you add shades of meaning, nuance and the possibility of debate to
the answers, the likelihood of a successful check of understanding are
reduced.
So, with the “nails” example, we can ask the same question like this:
“I had my nails done yesterday”.
Who did my nails? (the beautician)
Or, if you like:
Who did my nails? The beautician or me? (the beautician)
You could even go further, and present the choice between two
possibilities by contrasting the target language with the alternative:
“I had my nails done yesterday”.
Who did my nails? (the beautician)
“I did my nails last weekend”.
Who did my nails? (me)
Here are a few more examples:
“She’s just come back from India”.
Did she go to India? (yes)
Did she go a long or short time ago? (a short time ago)
“If only I’d arrived yesterday”.
Did I arrive yesterday? (no)
Do I feel good or bad? (bad)
“He’s over the moon”.
Is he happy or sad? (happy)
Is he a little happy or very happy? (very happy)