One key goal almost every ESL student shares is gaining the ability to speak English with others. Luckily, they come to the classroom with the unique advantage of having life experience. They want to speak English as well as they speak their own native language—so what better way to speak English like their native language than to speak about the very same things that they speak about on a daily basis? Here you have a questionnaire about the alphabet.
STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
1)Are there twenty six letters in the alphabet of your language?
2)Does your language have an alphabet?
3)What are the differences between the English alphabet and your language’s writing system?
4)What is the most frequently used letter of the alphabet?
5)Which letters of the alphabet do you not like or have problems with?
6)Do you think English spelling is confusing?
7)Are the letters of the alphabet pronounced the same in British, American, Australian, Nigerian English?
8)Did you have any problems learning the letters of the alphabet?
9)What is the difference between consonants and vowels?
10)What is the International Phonetic Alphabet?
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
1)Do you like the English alphabet?
2)How did you learn the alphabet?
3)What do you think of other alphabets (Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, etc)?4)Who invented the English alphabet?
5)Why do you think each letter has so many different pronunciations and uses?
6)How do you think the alphabet could me made easier to use and understand?
7)Would you like to learn a character-based system like Chinese?
8)When is the best age to introduce children to the alphabet?
9)What is alphabet soup?10)What does “the ABCs of” mean?
Comments