Questions Practice Activity

ESL students usually struggle to ask questions. They may be able to use sentences in many verb tenses, but can't ask proper questions.

ESL teachers need to spend lots of time helping students ask and answer questions. This questions activity will help with that.

The activity itself is very simple:

Write a statement on the board, like this example:

• I went to a party last night.

The students must create questions based on that statement.
Examples: 

• Where was the party?
• Who did you go with?
• What time did the party start?

This activity can also be played as a game. The first student (or team) that comes up with 3 perfect questions wins a point. You will be surprised how your students can't easily create grammatically perfect questions.

This activity is nice to practice questions for any target language. For example, take a look at these different statements and how they can be used to focus on the target language.

• I went to a party yesterday. (simple past)
• I usually eat breakfast. (routine, simple present)
• I can play many musical instruments. (can)
• I have never visited France. (present perfect)

As you can see, there are an unlimited number of ways to use this game. While it is ideal for beginners, it helps students at all levels formulate questions.

Let's take a look at one more example.

Statement: I ate too much last night.

Questions: 
What did you eat?
Why did you eat too much?
Did you eat candy?

You will be surprised how challenging it is for your students to create questions like this. This is especially true when they are working in groups or when they are creating the questions in speaking.

Enjoy the game!