Mind your CCQs…
Emma Cresswell
What?
Concept Checking
Finding out if a learner has
understood a new item
Why?
• A way to check students have understood a
concept before starting intensive practice of
form or phonology.
• Reduce Teacher Talk time
• Allows for a more interactive class and less
spoon-feeding
How?
• Normally achieved through a series of
questions:
– Ensure comprehension of TL
– Raise awareness of problems
• Often used in combination with other
methods (often visual):
– Lines (time/truth/reality)
– Pictures
– Negative checking
How?
• How do we form concept check questions?
1. Think of a natural context for the TL
2. Write down what students need to know about
the meaning of the exponents
3. Reduce these to the essential meaning and
simplify into simple statements
4. Turn the statements into questions
5. Add further questions to check other things (if
relevant)
Check your CCQs
• One way to check your CCQs before you teach
them is by seeing if you can identify the TL by
only looking at the questions:
Lungs
(Vocabulary)
Do you have two of these? YES
Are they inside your body? YES
Does air go through them? YES
DOs & DON’Ts
Have too many questions DON’T
Repeat the TL in the CCQs DON’T
Use language simpler than the TL DO
Use yes/no questions & questions with one word
answers DO
Prepare your CCQs in advance DO
Use a grammar book or student dictionary to
research the meanings DO
Ask “What does x mean?” DON’T
Things to remember:
Before Class:
Plan your CCQs and put them in your LP with answers
In Class:
Make sure you introduce the new language in a clear context
Use the context to elicit or to identify TL
Use your CCQs to check understanding
Listen to your students’ answers – if they don’t understand go
back to the context
After Class:
Reflect on your CCQs – were they successful? What could you
change?
Resources
• International House Buenos Aires Delta Module 2 notes
• http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=208
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/conceptchecking
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/checking-understanding
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/laura868/look-whos-talkingways-increasing-student-talking-time