5 guidelines for teaching French question forms

Questions in French are a tricky area to teach for several reasons and it's tempting to just let students pick them up over time through input and repeated use. Some students will be able to do this, though few will figure out how to use the subject/verb inverted forms. They are formal and hard to learn..Most students will be able to use a limited range of high frequency questions hey have heard and used many times over (Qu'est-ce que tu fais? Comment t'appelles-tu? Quel âge as-tu? Qu'est-ce que tu as visité? — that sort of thing.  In this post I'm going to share my tips for teaching questions to students of varying aptitude

First, a quick reminder why questions are are a challenge. I think first of two types of questions: yes/no (elle est grande? est-ce que'elle est grande? est elle grande?)  and open-ended question word questions (qu'est-ce qu'elle fait. elle fait quoi, que fait-elle). I then think of the structure of questions taking four forms: inversion, est-ce que, 'question word later' and intonation questions. 

1. Inversion: Quand marc va-t-il au travail ?
2. Est-ce que: Quand est-ce que Marc va au travail ?
3. Question word later: Marc va au travail quand ? Il va où au travail ?
4. Intonation: Il va où ? (Pitch dependent on context.)

Yes/no questions do not have a 'question word' like que, quand, qui, quel(le) or comment. Open-ended questions do have these question words. Second, question formation is very different from in English where we have other challenges, notably the use of do/does — When does she go to school? That's a problem for French learners.

Now, with my homespun explanations out of the way, I would only ever consider teaching the various forms of questions in one go to the most high-flying classes, and even these may get a little confused. This comprehensive declarative knowledge of question forms (knowing the rules - being able to explain them) may be usefful for the most able students who have time to form questions on paper. It may help them recognise question forms too, especially in writing. But we know only too well that there is a major leap from 'knowing the rules' (declarative knowledge) to being able to use them (procedural knowledge, skill).

So, rule one: avoid overly complex explanations of question formation.

Since the inversion form (Quand Sandra va-t-elle au travail? Quand va-t-elle au travail?) is the most complex — in cognitive load theory terms we can say it has the most 'interacting elements' — inversion, use of the 't' and hyphens, word order challenge. An since inversion is generally a formal, written form and lthe least prodictive for school students, there is a strong case for only mentioning it in passing.

So, rule 2 for me: avoid inversion question forms.

Yes/no questions are the easier ones to form since intonation is enough (Il va bien?). But est-ce que is worth teaching because it's straightforward. It is phonologically very noticeable (easy to perceive), there is no later change in word order to worry about, and is useful when students wnat to use question word questions (Qu'est-ce que...; Quand est-ce que...). There is potential confusion between est-ce que and qu'est-ce que, however. Why not do a little drill to focus students on the phonological and meaning contrast?

So, rule 3 for me would be to encourage and practise use of intonation and est-ce que.

To simplify issues for students, you can practise the use of the most informal and easy question forms. No doubt they are common and informal because they are easy. For example: Anne travaille à quelle heure? Il va où au travail? Elle sort avec qui? (the 'question word later form I descibed above). Although structurally speaking the syntax here is unlike English, they are relatively easy to perceive and use. Tell students to think of est-ce que as one sound (/esk/). Tell them that est-ce que is like saying is it that. "Is it that he goes to school by bus?" Tell them that wjen they hear /esk/ it's a signal that there is a question going on.

Rule 4, therefore: encourage and practise the most informal question structures with question word questions. They are fine. Students at lower levels do not need to worry about formality and 'grammatical correctness' to this degree.

Next, for question word questions, I think it's worth formalising this construction:

Q word + est-ce que + rest of sentence

- Quand - est-ce que - Karim fait ses devoirs?

- Où - est-ce que - tu travailles?

- Comment - est-ce que - Marc va au collège?

Although there is a slight formality to this syntax, it is still pretty natural and, crucially, the structure is very clear to students.

So, rule 5 - explicitly teach this three part structure to some classes. I would not do so with weaker groups. There are other fish to fry with them.

Up to now, I have only given examples in the present tense, but changing tense does not create new issues, unless using inversion forms (Quand est-elle partie au boulot?)

Finally, a few more little points I learned from experience:

Some question words are less 'salient' (i.e. noticiable by students) than others. The word Comment is an example. This may be for a couple of reasons: it does not have a 'qu' in the spelling, although it does begin with a velar plosive (/k/). Also, it may be used less often, which means students get less used to it. (Since I knew students perceived it less well, paradoxically it was tempting to avoid it in order to keep input comprehensible. This would be a mistake — it should be given extra attention, I think.)

Que, when used on its own, may be less salient than Qu'est-ce que. This may be because it is very short and easily confused with qui and quand. Always remember how much we overestimate students' ability to preceive minor phoneme differences when listening. I would not get into desribing different usages of que and quoi, but you could encourage use of a few common coollocations such as Tu fais quoi ? 

Ultimately, of course, skill with question forms comes from huge amounts of comprehensible input and communicative use. Very often students are responding to a teacher in class, not asking questions. So lack of frequent use can make it harder for students to use questions when they have to. So include plenty of role-plays, dialogues and information gap tasks in lessons, all of which can require the use of questions. By repeated exposure and usage, many students will pick up question formation without much explicit teaching and formal practice.