Lesson plan Wh-Questions (Interrogative question-words: who, what, where, when, why, which, whose and how)

Class: Pre-intermediate EFL students (teens / young adults)

Time: 45 minutes
Assumptions: Students have prior knowledge on simple question-word features and their respective functions; present tenses; the use of verb-to-be (is, are)
Materials: Whiteboard, whiteboard markers, posters, magazines (e.g. food and travel, newsweek, motherhood, her world), catalogues (e.g. Ikea)
Aims:

To enable students to understand and practice the meaning of the wh-question word; choose the appropriate wh-question words to elicit the type of
information desired

To allow students to demonstrate practical understanding of the acquired knowledge on wh-question word forms by using them to complete the task

Objectives:

To enable to choose the correct interrogative word to elicit desired types of information and supply relevant responses to wh-questions

To use wh-questions to complete a task correctly

Lesson

Activities

Rationale
Page 1

Pre-activity (10 minutes)

During activity (15 minutes)

T asks the class a few simple wh-questions e.g.

What is your favourite drink?

Where do you live?

How many brothers and/or sisters do you have?

To introduce a simple set of whquestion requiring information about

themselves

T will refer to the poster (Appendix A) and chorally reads the first question-

To give further explanation and relate

answer pair with SS and asks the class which sentence in the question and

to an example from a poster and

which is the answer, then ask the class how they can tell that Where is

highlighting the question-word and

Takashimaya? is a question. SS chorally repeats the question with a word

structure with associated punctuation

stress pattern in the long word of Takashimaya.

?.

T reinforces the idea that one can tell this is a question because it begins with a
question word Where and ends with a question mark by circling the questionword Where and ?.
T will refer to the where question word on the poster (Appendix B) left
column and asks the class what kind of information the questioner is
requesting, asking SS and writing down their accurate responses in the right
column. (e.g. Where something is, a place, etc.) and perform the similar

To illustrate more on the questionword and respective themes by

involving class participation.

task with the remaining wh-question words.

Zz cc c h ccxx
Post-activity (15 minutes)

T asks class to form pairs with their neighbour and asks their partner to come

To enhance pair-work interaction for

up with two or more wh-questions vice versa with reference to the given

further understanding through sharing

materials.

sessions with others in the class.

Page 2

T calls on a few students to share with their wh-questions.

Conclusion (5 minutes)

T repeats the whole process of the wh-question word and answer pairs with SS

To drill on the question-words and

chorally with reference to the poster and to introduce the other wh-question

clarify any doubts or misconceptions

words (e.g.which/whom/whose/how) in the following lesson.

on related question-words.

Anticipated problems and possible solutions:

Students may have difficulty following the tasks during the activity hence teacher will guide the student / pair in the process of the activity or give
further clarification on what will be required from the students besides modeling

Remarks:

This lesson adopts the humanistic approach for the pre-activity and approaches to the standard method, with as much student-centered
questioning as possible.

Appendix A
1) Where is Takashimaya?

2) Where are these books from?

Takashimaya is at Orchard Road.

These books are from the school library.

Page 3

3) What is your favourite food?

4) What are they doing?

My favourite food is chicken rice.

They are dancing.

5) When is break time?

6) When are Ben and Jane coming?

Break time is at 9.30am.

They are coming at 5pm.

7) Who is the president of the United States of America (USA)?

8) Who are they?

Barack Obama is the president of USA.

They are my neighbours.

9) Why is John late?

10) Why are the students here?

John is late because of the heavy rain.

They are here because they want to know their exam results.

Appendix B
Wh-question word

Answer

1) Where

Place

2) When

Time
Page 4

3) What

Object / action / idea

4) Who

Person(s)

5) Why

Reason

Page 5