Full name: Nguyn Minh Dng

Class: Tesol 13B

REFLECTION 1:

Raising English Teachers Awareness of Using

Concept Checking Questions (CCQ) for Vocabulary

Through three lessons presented by the lecturer on September 25 th, October 2nd,
and October 9th , three main issues seem to be focused on including learners both
inside and outside the classroom, concept checking, and introductory activities.
Among three main issues, concept checking is likely to impress the members of the
class most because they might not realize fully the importance of concept checking
in checking students understanding about information that the teachers has given.
In the limit of this reflection paper, concept checking questions (CCQ) for vocabulary
will be discussed in order to make English teachers pay more attention to the
techniques used to confirm whether their students understand or not.
Concept Checking
According to British Council BBC , the aim of concept checking is to check if a
learner has got the information delivered by the teacher, and the teacher has
various ways to do it such as using CCQ. It also states that concept checking plays
an important role in teaching a language inductively. For example, the teacher asks
students to point to people who are wearing glasses to know if the students get the
meaning of glasses.

The Teach-This.Com provides more information about

concept checking. Concept checking is believed to enable to deal with grammatical

structures, lexical items, and idomatic and functional expressions as well.
Concept Checking Questions (CCQ)
British Council BBC also gives such a brief definition of CCQ. CCQ are employed to
confirm whether learners have understood items described by the teacher, and CCQ
seem to be either yes/no questions or short answers.

Teachers are sugesgested

preparing CCQ before going to class (TESLNET). ESL FOCUS provides fairly details of
CCQ for lexis consisting of Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Idiomatic, and Functional
phrases. For instance, some recommended CCQ for Noun are asking learners to give

one example or describing its shape, size, function, etc. The teacher may ask their
learners to point at that thing, or gives places people can find it or reasons why
people need it. These ideas for checking each lexis are quite useful and specific for
teachers to question their students.
English has 4 skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and language areas
(vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation). This reflection paper intends to focus on
CCQ for vocabulary mostly because vocabulary is one of the most difficult aspects
for language learners to learn. Having enough vocabulary may help them feel
comfortaable with other skills and language areas as well.
How to Create CCQ for Vocabulary?
Roberts (2013) provides clear instructions and examples of CCQ for vocabulary after
giving the reasons why teachers should have proper ways to check students
understading . Firstly, teachers are supposed to know the exact meaning of the
word or phrase by looking up a reliable dictionary. The role of a dictionary is
important because it will give characteristics of meaning of that word or phrase. For
example, the word cosy described by the Longman Exams dictionary is A place
that is cosy is small, comfortable and warm:the living room was warm and cosy.
Hence, key features of the word are small, comfortable, warm, and used to
describe rooms. Secondly, teachers are expected to give examples in order to test
students understanding of above features by employing short and simple
questions, pictures, diagrams, mime ,etc. Teachers may ask students
questions such as If you are cosy, are you usually warm or cold?, Which is the
cosiest room in your house? Why?. Thirdly, she also lists some important notes that
teachers should remember when they use CCQ for vocabulary. Teachers should not
use a kind of language which is more complex than the language they are trying to
test. ELTTP (2000) describes clearer typical mistakes that teachers quite often make
such as teachers tend to overcheck, use long questions with complex words, or
even use the target items to test the target items, ask learners to give a long
answer, and like saying Do you understand?. Furthermore, ELTTP (2000) also
makes a short list about principles of concept checking. There are 6 principles:
1. Language should be presented in situations.
2. Students should be involved and kept interest by checking questions.

3.
4.
5.
6.

The meaning, usage, pronunciation, and form should be checked.

CCQ should be brief and simple.
Overchecking should be avoided.
Checking techniques should be conducted during the lesson.

Applying CCQ for vocabulary at secondary schools in Vietnam

It seems possible for English teachers at secondary schools to utilize CCQ in their
classroom if they consider factors such as learners proficiency, facilities, time for
each lesson, etc. For example, if learners level is quite low, the teacher should use
as many words as they can. Furthermore, they should combine the using of pictures
or body gestures with that of CCQ to help learners understand the meaning of CCQ.
Additionally, teachers voice must be clear and slow enough for low-level students
to catch up with the meaning of CCQ given by the teacher. Teachers should
encourage students more when they succeed a small task.
In order to save teachers preparation time, English teachers should work together
to create a bank of CCQ, teaching tools, and teaching experiences for lessons. Some
teachers will take charge of a certain number of lessons. Hence, teachers enable to
save their time and energy , and they may get more teaching experiences as well.
In brief, English teachers seem to like using the question Do you understand? to
test their students understanding, and it is not a good techniques or a good habit.
Using CCQ for vocabulary may make learners feel comfortable, improve their
listening skills, maintain their interests in the lesson, increase student-talking time
and interaction between the teacher and students as well, etc. There are so many
advantages to encourage teachers to use CCQ during their vocabulary lessons or in
lessons of other skills and language areas.
References:
Concept checking. British Council BBC. Retrieved October 22, 2013, from
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/concept-checking
Concept

qs.

British

Council

BBC.

Retrieved

October

22,

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/concept-qs

2013,

from

Concept

checking.

Teach-this.com.

Retrieved

October

22,

2013,

from

http://www.teach-this.com/ideas/concept-checking
Roberts, R. (2013). A short guide to concept checking vocabulary. ELT-Resourceful.
Retrieved from October 22, 2013, from http://elt-resourceful.com/2013/05/10/ashort-guide-to-concept-checking-vocabulary/
ELTTP (2000). Teaching language. Chapter 8: checking.
Teaching tip 19: concept checking. TESL NET. Retrieved October 22, 2013, from
http://www.tefl.net/teaching/teaching-tip_19.htm
Using concept checking in teaching. ESL Focus The World Guide.Retrieved from
October
from
446.html

23,

2013,

.http://www.eslfocus.com/articles/using_concept_checking_in_teaching-