I've spent the past couple of nights working on indirect
questions with my intermediate learners. The class claimed that this was a
totally new area for them: however with a little prompting they admitted to occasionally
beginning queries with an introductory “Could you tell me” or “Would you mind
telling me…?” What’s trickier is mastering the form: the fact that does and do disappear, word order changes and if and whether are
required for yes/no questions…
Anyway, I breezed into class tonight convinced that I had a splendid lesson on indirect questions tucked up my sleeve. I had a great starting
point in Elefthourio Ernst’s wonderful Fairy
Tale Bad Guys: http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/pdf-content/fairytale-bad-guys-lesson-plan/550939.article, and thought that I could easily adapt it to fit my purpose.
My idea was to use the interview role play as an opportunity
for learners to ask indirect questions where they might normally use direct
questions. Not every question needed to be indirect: I asked for a 50:50 ratio.
The learners enjoyed the comedy of the role plays, and seemed to get to
grips with the form of the new question type fairly painlessly. But listening
to them, I started to ask myself: how do
native speakers of English use this question form? In an interview situation, what percentage of
questions might be indirect? I plan to find some authentic examples for next
week to listen to and analyse with the class.
On a jolly holiday note, plans for our school trip to Unst
are underway! I’ve booked the Gardiesfauld hostel for the 21st of
April. Now we just need to fill it to its capacity and arrange a fun filled
cultural itinerary!
