Asking Questions in English
by The hows and whys of asking questions for the new language speaker.
The use of questions in English is complicated for the learner as if he has to rethink what questions are in the first place. All he has to know to start is that there are questions of information and ones regarding confirmation. But maybe these words should not be lightly used.
The student thinks along the lines of what he says in his own language primarily and perhaps similarities should be pointed out on occasion between the French and English over the fact that both would have their auxiliaries before a subject when wanting to confirm something, get an affirmation or a negation.
The foreign language student has difficulties understand why a question would be asked in the negative and not just in the positive. The affirmative form is used when the questioner has no doubt about the answer should be and the negative form is used when the one is doubtful or unsure that the person asked will be affirmative or not. The teacher can also apply tags to questions to suggest doubt. The use of tags, additional words added onto a sentence in order to create a question form from it, is quite popular. Tags will incorporate the negation of the affirmation at the beginning of the sentence or vice-versa. Once the person hears a tagged question, he understands that the questioner is not only looking for a confirmation but may also be doubtful at the time he asked the question.
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