Skills training experience for grade 6 students to ask and answer the question wh question

I. INTRODUCTION
1.The reason of choosing the topic
English is a very important tool in modern society. Moreover it also is a
tool to facilitate integration with the international community and the region. It
helps us to access information on international science and technology,
education, culture, health, industry, agriculture that is changing every hour and
every day. In addition, English also helps us access advanced cultures as well as
important international events.
For the reasons above, being as an English teacher in a secondary school,
I am always concerned about and wondered how to help my students reach
English easily and apply it in the most flexible in the communication scenarios.
As we know, in English there are many types of questions, of which questions to
ask from the " WH - question " is kind of frequently asked questions. Although
it is the common question types, it is confusing for many students. This type of
question is often not correctly answered by many students, especially new
students who are learning English as 6th graders. Through exams, semester tests,
regular inspection, as well as in the teaching process, I discovered this problem
and it is my concern as well as colleagues. After the period of researching
solutions for this problem, I would like to present some ideas and little
experience of teaching and practicing the question "Wh-question" for student of
6th grade.
2.The aim of studying the topic
As we know, students of grade 6 often find it hard to learn a foreign
language, to create the interest and inspiration from students is a must that
teachers should find the effective way .In fact, traditional method is not suitable
any more at current time, students tend to sit and listen to the teachers without
giving their own ideas, which leads to slow results.The class seems to be noisy
as students don’t understand the lessons or find no interest in it.

1

Teachers should find a suitable method to make the lesson intersting and new to
students, which can let them curiously discover the language
The topic helps students to memorize the way to use Wh- questions properly.
Students can practice a lot with various kinds of exercises. Some techniques are
used to check how students understand the lesson.
3.The objects of studying
Students in grade 6 at Do Nguyen Van Troi secondary school
(Throughout teaching and working with students of grade 6)
4.The method of studying
These experiences have been studied on the following methods:
- Studying of material
- Giving outlined mirror
- Operating and using method
- Checking, connecting. projected classed
- Studying from experienced colleagues

2


II. CONTENT
1.The theoric installation of the problems
What are the causes of the wrong answers to the questions related to Whquestions? Apart from reasons of teaching and learning as mentioned above, the
analysis of the following grammar will show us "Wh-question" is the kind of
question that is not easy to students of grade 6.
Firstly, students do not understand about the auxiliary verbs. In the framework
of the 6th grade, they just remember a certain number of questions, if we change
a little in question, the students will not know when to use the verb "be", when
to use ordinary verb in the present tense and how to divide verbs in the 3rd
person singular pronoun.

Secondly, "Wh-question" is a question with one subject in which the subject is
often a personal pronoun (except idioms). Thus the answer requires conversion
of the noun being a subject (of a sentence) in question

into the personal

pronouns in the answer, or
the personal pronouns to the different personal pronouns for suitable context (eg:
“You” in question but “I” in answer’ or your school can use It to replace, etc.).
It is also very difficult for students if they do not get much exercise.
Thirdly, There is a type of the question to find out information, students are
required to find the exact information needed to answer, but they sometime are
confused, for example putting excess or lack of information, or making a
completely false information, such as "a man ask about chicken, a woman
answer about duck", for example, "How old are you? " - "I am fine, thanks." Or
"What does your father do?”-" He reads
These three issues are crucial and the most difficult for students. Besides
determination of the structure or the tense in question is the problems that 6th
graders students do not usually think about.
2. Practical background
In general, teachers described the structure of each question for students
to grasp this question but basically conveying methods are also quite
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embarrassing, Response of student to these questions seems to be machinelike,
less accurate and meet much trouble.
For the students, they had access to English at the primary school,
however they only learn English language in a modeled and machinelike way,
they do not think much about grammar, spelling. When answering the questions,

especially the question "Wh-question", the answer seems to be inertial,
according to the pronunciation way that teachers often train their students. For
example, students always answer, "I am a student" to the question "what does
she do?”. They are not noticed the differences, the auxiliary verb and the subject
in the question. Considering that this is a way of learning like a machine and
lack of thinking. Through a survey for students of grade 6, I offer 10 questions.
*Answer the following questions:
1. How old is your mother?
2. Where does she live?
3. How do you spell your name?
4. What is your father’s name?
5. What is his address?
6. What is his job?
7. What is there near your house?
8. Which school does your sister go to?
9. How often does she go to school?
10. How far is it from your house to your school?
(Each correct answer is given 1 point)
The results were very low in quality; summary of results is presented as bellows:
Grade/class

Total of

6A1
6A3

students
30
32

Point (0-4)

Point (4.5-

Point (7.5-10)

21
19

7)
9
13

0
0

4


The above figure shows that the level of understanding of the question
"Wh-question" of students is very weak. Besides, the majorities of students not
only answer wrong, but also only use one type of personal pronouns such as "I
am ..." or "I live ..." in response to the third person singular pronoun. They do
not figure out how to use “to be”, verb or "there is / there are" to answer
question correctly. The results not only showed quality of students, but also
strongly affirm the problem that we must pay attention.
There is a reality to the students we often find, it is that lets students to
read a passage and then use "WH-question" to test their understanding. The
problem is that students often rewrite all the answers in the text rather than the
correct answer. For example, in the passage, it is: " My school has 4 floors with

20 classrooms, and my class in on the second floor ”," students often write down
the whole sentence while the question is: "How many classrooms are there in
your school? ":
3. Solutions to implements:
1. Identification of “Wh- question”
The "Wh-questions" are placed in the first sentence, allowing the speaker to find more
information on their topic of interest. Depending the information that the speaker want to ask,
list of Wh-question is presented below:

When?

Time

Ask information about time

Where?

Place

Ask information about place

Who?

Person

Ask information about someone

Why?

Reason

Ask information about reason

How?

Manner

Ask information about manner

What?

Object/Idea/Action

Ask information about object/ idea/action

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- Other words can also be used to ask for specific information
Which one?

Choice of alternatives

Whose?

Possession

Whom?

Person(Objective formal)

How much?

Price, amount( non- count)

How many?

Quantity (count)

How long?

Duration

How often?

Frequency

How far?

Distance

What kind (of)?

Description

2. Types of “Who – question” in English book for students of grade 6
2.1
Who + V + Complement/ O...?
Example:
- Who is she looking for?

- Where is he?
- Who teaches English?
2.2 Sentences have modal verbs (ought to ...)
Wh + Modal verbs + S + main Verb ...?
Example:
- Why must you go?
- When may you come?
- What can I do for you?
2.3 Ordinary verbs:
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Wh + do/does + S + main Verb...?
Example:
-When do you go to the library?
-Where do you live?
-How does he go to school?
2.4 Answer for Wh – question.
- Wh - questions is answered by details, Yes/No is not applied in this case.
Example:
A: Who is that?
B: My roommate
- Understand the structure of this form to provide explanation; comparison is
very important factor to help students make faster progress.
3.The way to form Wh-questions
In addition to mastering Wh-question" to always provide accurate
structures and examples for students, teachers also need to be learned some
tricks such as:
1. Before students answer "Wh-questions", teachers should ask their
students “do you know what kind of this question is?". This approach helps

students shape the question, clearly understand that the question to ask for
specific information before answering.
2. In terms of grammar, the teacher should make the students understand
that "Wh-question" is used depending on the asked information is "subject" or
"predicate" of a question.
- Type of information needed is the information about the subject of the
question, students need to simply replace the person or object into the position
of word to ask -Wh-question:
Lan has a nice house

Who has a nice house?
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A tall tree is behind Lan’s house

What is behind Lan’s house ?

- Type of information needed locates in the predicate of the sentence,
forming question with words to ask depending on whether “auxiliary verb”
exists in the original sentence or not. An auxiliary verb is the verbs standing
before the main verb. The auxiliary verbs are italicized and bolded below:
I can do it
They are leaving
She should brush teeth after meal
+To create questions using the form that information needed locates at the position of
predicate of the sentence, First of all, teachers instruct their students to create a question with
the form of Yes / No by shifting the subject and the auxiliary verb in a sentence. Then add the
Wh-question to ask at the beginning of the sentence:

Affirmations

Shifting into the form of Yes / No Wh-question

( You will leave

question

sometime )

When will you

Will you leave?

leave?

In this sentence, Will is auxiliary verb is shifted to place prior to the
subject then add when to form question, similarly we have two following
questions
( He is doing something)

à

Is he doing

à

what is he doing?

(They have been somewhere) à Have they been à where have they been?

If the sentence has no auxiliary verb and the main verb is the verb "to be", in order to
make a question, we just swap location between the subject of the sentence and the verb “to
be”, then add words to match in question

Affirmations

Shifting into the form Wh-question
of Yes / No question

( He is someone )

Is he

Who is he ?

In this sentence, "He" is the subject and the main verb of the sentence is
verb “to be” that is divided with the third singular person "is". To create a
question in this case, the positions of the subject "He" and the verb "is" is
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shifted, then add words to ask (in this case, we add Who at the beginning of the
sentence). Similar to the following question:
(The meeting is sometime) à

Is the meeting à When is the meeting?

If in the narrative sentences (affirmations), the main verb of the sentence
is ordinary verb, we add auxiliary verb before the subject of the sentence. Then
we add suitable Wh-question at the beginning of the sentence to form a question.

Remember that adding auxiliary verb must match with its subject. For example,
in the present tense, the subject is I /We/You/They, plural nouns, we use
auxiliary verb "do", the third singular person is He / She / It, or singular nouns,
we have to use auxiliary verb"does".
Affirmations

Shifting into the form of Wh-question

(You want something

Yes / No question
Do you want

What do you want?

In the above sentence, we do not see auxiliary verb in affirmations "you want
something" so when switching to the question, we need to add auxiliary verb
“do” before the subject "you" of the sentence. Then we ask for information
about the object "Something" by adding words to ask "What" at the beginning
of the sentence. As a result, we have a question "What do you want?”
Similarly, we have:
Affirmations- Shifting into the form of Yes / No question - Wh-question
(She likes something)à Does she like (third person-s) à what does she like?
- Teachers need provide instructions to students on how to shift nouns into
pronouns to avoid repetition or a pronoun in question to a pronoun in that
answer with suitable context (when turning into pronouns, singular nouns for
animals/plans/things are converted into “it", the plural nouns are transformed
into "they"; the singular noun indicated for person is changed to "he, she"
(depending on the noun), plural nouns is changed to "they".
For example:

Nam



He

Your school  It

I and my sister  They
Her books

 They
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S1: Where is your father ?
S2 : He is in the garden
S1 : Whose books are these ?
S2 : They are mine
Particular case:
You

 I

For example:

;

You

 We

S1: Where do you live ?
S2 :- I live in Thanh hoa ( a person )
-We live in Hanoi

( 2 people or more )

Or the case do not have to convert but remain subject to answer:
ItIt

He He

SheShe

They

 They

S1: What subject does he like ?
S2 : He likes Math
And idioms:

Is there



There is/There isn’t

Are there



There are/There aren’t

S1: How many people are there in your family ?
S2 : There are three
4. The types of exercises:
*Type 1: Convert following nouns to pronouns:
Your father



His mother



Vietnam



Nga



Her face



His hair



I and my sister 

He

The weather



The girl



Lan and Nam



The boys



Students



Your house



Your father’s name 
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Class



The teacher



Your pen



These,those



Her nose



He and his friends 

The purpose of exercise is to help students become familiar with the conversion
of nouns to pronouns when they answer questions.

Example: S1: Where are the boys?
S2: They are in the house
*Type 2 : Add suitable ( Wh- question) into blank to form a question.

1………day is it?
2……….do you like cats?
3………can I buy some milk? At the supermarket
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4……….much beef do you want?
5……….hat is this? It is my brother’s
6……… can I park my car? Over there
7……….tall are you?
8……….do you want to buy?
9……… do you like with tea? I like it with cream and sugar
10……… picture do you want to buy, this one or that one?
*Type 3: Choose an appropriate answer to fill in blank:
1. ……………is the name of the President of the United Stages of America?
a. What
b. When
c. Where
2…………………month is the Vietnamese New Year?
a. Where
b.When
c. What
3………………..is the Christmas Day ?
a.What
b.When
c.Where

4. ………………many pens do you have?
a. When
b. How
c.Why
5. …………..are your mother ? she is in the kitchen
a.Where
b.When
c.Who
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*Type 4: Switch following sentences into questions (using words in
parentheses to ask information)
Example:
She often goes to work at 6 o’clock (What time)
->What time does she often go to work?
1. He usually does his homework at night.

( When )

2. The cats are in the house.

( Where )

3. I like the red house, not the blue one.

( Which )

4. This is an eraser.

( What )

5. She studies piano at the university.

( what )

6. My house has five rooms.

( How many )

7. They are going to Ha Noi tomorrow .

(Where )

8. The woman over there is my mother.

( Who )

9. She doesn’t get up early because she is tired

( Why )

10. We have English class three times a week.

( How often )

*Type 5: Correction form
Find errors in the following questions:

Example:

S1: How is favorite food? ( How -> what )
S2: I like Fish
1. What is your birthday?

It is in May

2. What time does she often get up ?

She get up at 7 o’clock

3. How often are you brush your teeth?

Twice a day

4. Who house is this ?

It is my house

5. How many rice do you want ?

Two kilos , please

6. Why do she like milk ?

Because it is delicious

7. Who does often go to school with you ?

Lan and Hoa

8. How long is it from your house to shool ?

About one kilometer

9. Where does your father work ?

I work in a factory

10. How many desks are there ?

They are two

*Type 6: Make “Wh- question” with suggestive words:
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1. How / tall/ you ?
2. What time /you/do /homework/night?
3. How often/your mother/go/market?
4. What /she /want/do/now ?
5. what /your /favorite/food ?
*Type 7: Make a question by underlined words
According to my experience, firstly a multiple choice exercise in a form of
connecting information with Wh-question is applied before doing the exercise of
forming a question by underlined words, the goal is to help students proficiently
determine Wh-question when replacing it for underlined words, avoid mistakes.
*Example:
Matching:
a. Ha Noi

A. How may

b. Next week

B.Where

c. My mother

C. How much

d. Three

D. Whose

e. 2 kilos

E . Who

f. Lan’s

F. When

Then exercise for underlined words is applied.
*Example
The train leave at 8 o’clock tonight
->What time does the train leave tonight ?
1. Her telephone number is 8 202053
2. It is about 3 kilometers from my house to school
3. I will go fishing this afternoon

4. Her date of birth is on August 21th
5. She can swim
*Type 8: Read the following passage, and then answer questions
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Thu is my friend. She lives in the city with her parents and two brothers. She
lives at 24 Le Hoan street. Her telephone number is 8 202 564 . On her next
birthday, May 2nd, Thu will be 14 years old. She will have a small party for her
birthday. She will invite some best friends to her house. They will eat cakes and
sweet. And they will have a lot of fun. The party will start at 6 o’clock and finish
at nice .
*Questions:
1.What is Thu’s address ?
2.How old is she ?
3. Who does she live with?
4.What’s her telephone number?
5.What is her date of birth ?
This kind of exercise helps students practice answering the question "Whquestion" in accordance with the structure without rewriting answers in the text.
These are questions that I synthesized from English textbooks for 6th grade
students. In order to match with each lesson, the teacher can draw experience
and based on the type of exercises to flexibly use. Actually if teachers spend
more time training the students such exercises like this, then surely after a short
period the students will understand more about the grammar of this question
type. As a result, small complicated issues will disappear and "Wh-question"
will not be difficult for students.
The questions in this kind of exercise can be done by students in class
time or if there is not enough time in class, students can practice more at home
then teachers help correct on the class. Alternatively, we can teach students to
learn more in optional learning hours. Application of these questions into games,

such as NOUGHTS AND CROSSES or LUCKY NUMBER also brings a good
result.

5. Teaching rhythm, pronunciation, intonation in the types of Wh-question”
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Rhythm and intonation for students is very important, if false, it will
easily cause misunderstanding, so teachers must not forget to teach students the
rhythm of language after students know how to make a question with 'Wh ".
Normally, when teaching rhythm, intonation for students, teachers need to
take the following steps:
- Teachers read a sentence according to rhythm of up and down
movements of hand (may be twice).
- Play the tape (if any).
- Teachers require the best students to read first, then the average student
and finally weak students. Teachers need to use rhythm and up and down
movements of hand to help students stress on the focus, intonation.
In some difficult questions, teachers write them on board, attaching with
signs of intonation. Teachers clearly read every word in the sentence (maybe
once), then read complete sentences, combining rhythm, up and down
movements of hand (maybe twice). Let each student read in turns, then the
whole students in the class read out loud. Teachers use beats of ruler and up and
down movements of the hand to help students emphasize on the focus, easily
read sentences with accurate intonation
Lower accent is often used to in the Wh-question
*Example 1:

16

Where's

your

sister?

- Teachers conduct practice of rhythm, intonation in general method.
- Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "Where's", use hand to point down at
the word "wife".
*Example 2:
Who is

this?

-Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "Who", use hand to point down at the

word "this".
*Example 3:

When's your birthday?
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- Teachers use a beat of ruler at the word "When", use hand to point down at the
word "birthday".
6. Teaching Wh-questions associated with new words.
After teaching new words, teachers require student to use Wh-questions to
make questions with new words, diversifying questions with nouns, adjectives,
verbs, etc.

*Example 1: With adjectives
“Intelligent”
Who is the most intelligent in your class?
“bored”
Why are you bored?
‘
*Example 2:

With verbs
“feel”
How do you feel ?

18


“help”
Who helps you with your homework?

*Example 3:

With nouns

“Hobby”

What is your hobby?

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“help”

Who helps you with your homework?
“weather”
What is the weather like today?
***Example 4:

behi
nd

With preposition: in, on, of, at……..

i
n

und
between
er
in front of
behin
d

i
n

unde
r
in front of

between

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What are you good at?
Who is he interested in?
7 . Teaching Wh-questions associated with passive voive
Who -> By whom……? -> Who………by?
Example :

Who often helps you?

-> By whom are you helped?
> Who are you helped by?
4.The effect of the idea to the educational activities
Applying this research on teaching and training shows that students have
understood more and more. They are able to answer this kind of question more
accurately. Specially, the students have thoughts more logically. They no longer
understand in machinelike and stereotyped ways as before
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I conducted a survey through tests. The results are as follows:
Transcripts obtained:
Class 6A1:
Number

Full name

Class

Marks

Before

After

1

6A1

0

4

2

6A1

2

6

3

6A1

5

8

4

6A1

3

7

5

6A1

1

5

6

6A1

6

10

7

6A1

1

4

8

6A1

6

10

9

6A1

5

9

10

6A1

2

7

11

6A1

5

9

12

6A1

3

6

13

6A1

4

6

14

6A1

4

7

15

6A1

5

8

16

6A1

5

9

17

6A1

2

7

18

6A1

2

6

19

6A1

3

7

20

6A1

4

8

21

6A1

3

8

22

6A1

3

7

23

6A1

2

6

24

6A1

1

5

25

6A1

2

6

Note

22


26

6A1

2

6

27

6A1

3

7

28

6A1

5

9

29

6A1

5

9

30

6A1

3

7

Class 6A3:
Marks
Number

Full name

Class
Before

After

1

6A3

0

4

2

6A3

2

6

3

6A3

5

8

4

6A3

3

7

5

6A3

1

5

6

6A3

6

10

7

6A3

1

4

8

6A3

6

10

9

6A3

5

9

10

6A3

2

7

11

6A3

5

9

12

6A3

3

6

13

6A3

4

6

14

6A3

4

7

15

6A3

5

8

16

6A3

5

8

17

6A3

2

7

18

6A3

2

6

19

6A3

3

7

20

6A3

4

8

21

6A3

3

8

22

6A3

3

7

Note

23


23

6A3

2

6

24

6A3

1

5

25

6A3

2

6

26

6A3

2

6

27

6A3

3

7

28

6A3

5

9

29

6A3

5

8

30

6A3

3

7

31

6A3

4

9

32

6A3

5

9

- Before (September 2018).
Class

Total

Excellent-Good
students Number Percent
(%)

Learning attitude
Average
Number Percent

Weak
Number Percent

(%)

(%)

6A1

30

0

0

9

30

21

70

6A3

32

0

0

10

32

22

68

- After.(March2019)
Learning attitude
Class
Total
Excellent-Good
Average
students Number Percent Number Percent
(%)
(%)
6A1
30
11
36,7
15
50,0
6A3
32
13
41,6
16
51,2

Weak
Number Percent
4
3

(%)
13,3
9,6

(It is clear that when we compare two boards, the idea which I have applied to
my lessons is absolutely more useful than the old one)
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III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
To improve the quality of teaching and learning English in secondary
school, apart from basic methods, each teacher should have intensive investment
in a specialized aspect that cause troubles/problems to many students and be
more active in teaching. From there, they can help their students absorb and
master the knowledge in their curriculum in the best way. The method further
training for students in grades 6, "ask and answer questions Wh-question" My
last exchange offer is not out on purpose. My method, “make Wh-questions and
answer”- question that I have just presented is not out of above objectives.
With the aim of good teaching and learning, helping students to acquire
and hold a solid basic knowledge from the beginning, as well as further
developing the knowledge and skills of their English in the next years, I would
like to receive assessments, comments from the Science Council and colleagues
to improve this research better and more realistically as well as feasibly because
in the limited time and limited experience, shortcomings is surely inevitable.
I sincerely would like to thank you.

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