Checking understanding

A) Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques for checking that learners have
understood new words.

 The teacher asks a learner to translate the word (or phrase) into their own language.

 The teacher asks Do you understand?

 The teacher asks the students to use the word in a sentence.

 The teacher asks short, easy-to-answer questions. For example: If you are head over heels
in love, are you in love a lot or a little?1

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CCQs (concept-checking questions):

submarine (n) (pre-int)

Definition: A ship that can travel both under the sea and on top of it.

Context: Show a picture!

CCQs:

Is it a kind of ship? (yes)

Can it go under the water? (yes)

Is this a submarine? (no)

1
Thornbury, Scott and Peter Watkins. The CELTA Course – Trainee Book. Cambridge University Press, 2007, p 23.
sluggish (adj) (upper int)

Definition: Not performing or reacting as well as usual.

Context: Steve woke up feeling very tired and he couldn’t do anything very quickly. He wasn’t ill,
but he felt very sluggish until he had a coffee.

CCQs:

Does ‘sluggish’ mean slow? (yes)

Is it temporary? (yes)

If you are sluggish, are you always slow? (no)

Is this slow moving or slow thinking? (both)

Can you say this about machines eg cars? (yes)

staff (n) [U] (int)

Definition: The people who work for a particular company, organisation or institution.

Context: I work in a school with about 40 full time and part time staff. Most of them are
teachers, but there are also teaching assistants, cleaners and cooks.

CCQs:

Does this mean one person or more than one? (more than one)

Are they working? (yes)

Do they work for someone else? (yes)

Are you ‘staff’ if you have your own company? (no, but you can have staff)
 In order to provide effective CCQs, you should:

 Start from the definition of the lexical

item (word or phrase);
 Make sure that you are checking the
meaning;
 Make sure that you are specific about
the meaning;
 Avoid the target language in the
question;
 Grade the vocabulary and structures
that you use below the target language;
 Target the right language.

B) Over to you: design minimum three CCQs for each of the following words: dress, embarrassed,
outgoing.
 Anticipating problems2

Look at the following words. What problems of meaning (including style and use) or form
(either spoken or written) might they present to learners? Discuss what you could do in
class to help learners with these problems.

stomachache actually lawyer

gentleman thorough crisps

comfortable remind furniture

invaluable get on with chuffed

2
Thornbury, Scott, How to teach vocabulary. Pearson Education Limited, 2002, p 168.