If your students have settled into predictable mistakes with question-formation, this is the grammar tip for you! Students need to ask questions often, so we should provide plenty of opportunities for them to practice well-formed questions.
Students Need Extra Practice with Questions!
One of the last areas students seem to “master” in English is question-formation. We tend to teach questions at a lower level and be done with it. However, given the complexities of question-formation (word order, auxiliary choice, verb tense), language transfer issues, and input from other non-native speakers, compounded with how frequently students need to ask questions, I believe questions should be re-taught at all levels.
Meaningful Questions
To give my students practice with meaningful questions and to help build community in my classes, I have my students give impromptu mini-presentations about themselves (it’s amazing what they learn about each other!). During the presentation, the audience take notes (to write a composition about their classmate) and practices questions.
I encourage my students to ask a variety of questions and help each other produce well-formed questions. Occasionally, the class will write their questions instead of taking notes during the presentation for a follow-up task in pairs or groups. This task may involve compiling or discussing answers to their questions with the presenter moving among the groups answering questions that the group cannot answer.
I like this exercise because my students practice past, present, and future, yes-no and information questions, and what they may or should not ask their classmates. Most importantly, they discover community and build bonds that last.