Turn Your Students Into Conversationalists with These Simple Questions
Do you ever feel out of breath at the end of a free-conversation lesson, because you had to do everything in your power to keep the conversation going for the full 25 minutes?
If so, don’t stress about it. This happens to a lot of us!
Many students have trouble leading a conversation. If they’re preparing for speaking tests like IELTS, that’s completely fine, as they’re just supposed to answer the examiner’s questions.
However, if their goal is to actually improve their conversation skills, they’ll need to learn to do more than just follow someone else’s lead and questions are a good place to start.
To give you a hand, we’ve put together a list of the seven basic questions that are perfect for expanding a conversation. They can be used with minimal modifications, so they’re appropriate for students of all levels.
“What About You?”
If your student isn’t keen on asking any questions, they should start with this one. All they need to do is wait for a question, answer it, utter these three magical words, and the conversation will continue for a while longer.
“What do you think?”
People usually like to share their thoughts, so another great way to open up a conversation is to ask someone for their opinion. You can teach your students these three ways to do this:
- “What do you think about (this song)?”
- “How do you feel about (public speaking)?”
- “What are your thoughts on (climate change)?”
You’ll probably want to point out that “think” as a verb is used with “about” (“What do you think about this?”) but the noun form, “thought” is used with “on” (“What are your thoughts on this?”).
“Why is that?”
Asking someone why they did something or think the way they do is a good way to expand a conversation. However, students often shy away from asking “Why?” as they’re afraid of being too direct.
A good alternative we can teach is “Why is that?” While it doesn’t seem that different from “why,” the two extra words make the question clearer and less direct.
If your student asks for an example, you can show them this dialogue that uses “Why is that?”.
“How come?”
Another good alternative to “Why?” is “How come?” It’s interchangeable with “Why?” in most situations, but sounds less direct. This is because it seems like the speaker is trying to understand “how” something “came” to be (hence “how come”) and not just why.
For example, asking someone “How come you are always late?” is slightly less direct than “Why are you always late?” because it seems like you are trying to understand their circumstances rather than simply blaming them.
Another benefit of “How come?” is that the grammar required is much more straightforward. For example, compare the following sets of questions:
- “How come you think that way?”
- “Why do you think that way?”
- “How come you aren’t tired?”
- “Why aren’t you tired?”
The “How come” version in each set takes a sentence (i.e. “you think that way” or “you aren’t tired”) and simply adds “how come” to the beginning. No grammatical changes necessary!
On the other hand, the second sentence in each set requires either an additional auxiliary verb (“do”) or inversion (“you aren’t tired” → “aren’t you tired”).
“How?”
Like asking “Why?”, asking “How” is a great way to open up a conversation. That’s why questions that start with these two words are called “open-ended questions.” A good tip is to encourage students to ask “Why?” and “How?” instead of simply “Who?” “What?” “Where?” and “When?”
Here are some examples of common “How?” questions you can introduce to your student:
- “How did you get into (wine, running marathons, etc.)?”
- “How did you decide to (join this company, move to Germany, etc.)?”
- “How did you reach that conclusion?”
“How so?”
“How so?” is a “How?” question but it’s so useful it deserves it’s own section. Like “What about you?”, it’s a complete question in and of itself.
If you notice confusion on your student’s face when you ask “How so?” you can explain that it’s short for “How is it so?” and that “so” replaces an adjective. Then give them an example to show them how easy it is.
If you need more ideas, check out this conversation that uses “How so?”
“Tell Me More!”
This last one isn’t actually a question but it serves a similar purpose: students can rely on “tell me more” to extend the life of a conversation.
- “Tell me more.”
- “Interesting. Tell me more about this!”
- “Could you tell me more about that?”
- “I’d love to hear more about that.”
If your student needs examples of “tell me more” in action, they can check out these two dialogues: “Teaching English” and “New Neighbors.”
👋 That’s it for now!
So next time you encounter a student who prefers focusing more on the “A” in Q&A (and isn’t actively preparing for any standardized tests), encourage them to try asking some of the questions above.
If you can point out specific instances they could have used them, even better!! Happy tutoring!
