Teaching Students to Ask Better Questions: A Neglected Speaking Skill

The problem most ESL pair discussions have is not that students don't speak - it's that they don't listen. Both students deliver answers and neither asks follow-up questions. The result is two monologues running in parallel rather than a genuine conversation.

The skill of asking good follow-up questions is one of the most practically useful communicative skills in English and one of the least directly taught. Students who can ask questions that show genuine interest, build on what was just said, and push a conversation deeper are rare - and they stand out in every context from casual conversation to IELTS Part 3.

YapYapGo is a classroom speaking practice tool for ESL and EFL teachers. Teaching follow-up questioning improves the quality of every pair activity across its six speaking modes. Here's how to do it.

Why asking questions is harder than it looks

Question formation is grammatically complex. Subject-verb inversion, do-support, question word order - English question formation is genuinely tricky, especially for speakers of languages with very different question structures. Many students avoid asking questions because forming them under time pressure is cognitively demanding. Students don't know what to ask. This is the more fundamental problem. A student who has genuinely listened to their partner has something to follow up on. A student who was planning their own next answer while their partner spoke has nothing. Teaching follow-up questioning first requires teaching active listening. Follow-up questions require real-time responsiveness. You can prepare a presentation. You cannot prepare a follow-up question - it has to emerge from what was just said. This spontaneity is exactly the capacity that builds communicative competence, but it's also what makes it hard to practise with predetermined activity formats.

The question types to teach

Clarifying questions: "What do you mean by...?" / "Could you explain...?" / "I'm not sure I follow - can you say more about...?"

These show genuine engagement and are useful when you didn't fully understand. Many students are reluctant to ask clarifying questions because they feel it reveals incomprehension. Normalise them explicitly: "Asking for clarification is a sign of careful listening, not weakness."

Elaboration questions: "What makes you say that?" / "Can you give me an example?" / "Why do you think that is?"

The most important question type in spoken English. Every opinion statement can be followed by "What makes you say that?" and the conversation continues.

Personal connection questions: "Did that happen to you?" / "Have you experienced something similar?" / "What would you do in that situation?"

These move abstract discussion toward personal narrative, which is often richer and generates more extended production.

Challenge questions: "Do you think that's always the case?" / "What about situations where...?" / "Could you see someone disagreeing with that?"

Higher level and potentially more socially risky - train the phrasing carefully so challenges feel inquisitive rather than confrontational.

Future-oriented questions: "What do you think will happen?" / "How do you think this will change?" / "What would you want to do about it?"

Opens up speculative and hypothetical language naturally.

Teaching activities

1. The question-only round

In a pair discussion, one student speaks. The other is only allowed to ask questions - they cannot make statements, agree or disagree, or share their own view. The speaker keeps talking as long as questions keep coming.

This forces students to listen closely and generate questions in real time. It also dramatically changes the conversation dynamic - the person who is only asking questions often learns more than in a normal discussion.

After three minutes, swap roles. Debrief: "Which questions generated the most interesting answers?"

2. The banned statement round

Students discuss normally, but they cannot make a statement without first asking a question. Every new statement must be preceded by a follow-up question on the previous statement.

"I think social media is bad for teenagers." → [Partner can't respond with another statement yet] → "Why do you think it's particularly bad for teenagers rather than adults?" → "Because teenagers are more susceptible to comparison..." → "Have you seen that happening with anyone you know?" → etc.

This slows the conversation down, forces listening, and produces more connected discourse than parallel statement delivery.

3. The question quality rating

After a speaking activity, students rate the questions their partner asked on a 1-5 scale: 1 = yes/no question, 3 = interesting follow-up, 5 = question that led to the most interesting part of the conversation. Share the best questions with the class.

This makes question quality visible and valued. Students who receive high ratings on their questions feel noticed for a skill that usually goes unacknowledged.

Tool tip: YapYapGo's Custom Topic mode generates questions that students respond to - which models good question-asking behaviour. Observing the type of questions the AI generates (elaboration, challenge, personal connection) gives students a template to adapt in their own pair work. A classroom countdown timer keeps the question-only round to a focused three minutes.

4. The question bank build

At the start of a lesson, give students a discussion topic. Their preparation task (instead of preparing what they'll say) is to write three questions they genuinely want to know the answer to about their partner's view on this topic.

The discussion then begins with each student asking one of their prepared questions. This inverts the usual dynamic - the activity starts with listening, not speaking.

5. The follow-up chain challenge

Student A makes one statement. Student B asks a follow-up. Student A responds with another statement. Student B asks another follow-up. The chain continues until Student B cannot generate another follow-up question within five seconds.

Competitive, fast, and directly trains real-time question generation. Works well as a brief energizer.

The long game

Teaching follow-up questioning is a term-length project, not a one-lesson intervention. Build a habit: after every pair discussion, ask students to share one question their partner asked that they found particularly interesting. Over weeks, the class develops a shared vocabulary for what good questioning looks like.

A random student picker is useful for calling on pairs to demonstrate their question chains. An activity timer labelled "Question-only round" keeps the format focused. For related skills, see our posts on peer assessment for speaking and how to structure a conversation class.

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Sources:

• Long, M. (1996). The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition. Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. - Negotiation of meaning through questioning as an acquisition driver.
• Mackey, A. (1999). Input, Interaction, and Second Language Development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. - Follow-up questions and their role in sustained interaction.
• Ur, P. (1981). Discussions That Work. Cambridge University Press. - Question types and their effects on discussion quality.