The Whole Enchilada: How to Elicit Full Sentence Answers

I really do. I’ve been paying attention to the teenage lingo, and I’m not completely lost when around it. I encourage my students to copy what they hear, and to try to sound native; this often means adopting slang and other idiomatic forms, and I’m fine with that, truly.
One exception to this pattern, as I’ve written about before is my dislike of ‘like’. I take steps to eradicate it whenever I hear it. My students are split on this; some agree that it makes them sound like a vacuous teenager, while others regard it as an essential element of the linguistic Zeitgeist. Debate can be spirited, and that’s as it should be.
And I have to say that another exception to my generally permissive attitude is that short-hand, irritatingly brief interrogative expression, ‘What?’
And before you roll your eyes at the prospect of another TeflGuy monologue on just how terrible the modern world has become, bear with me for a paragraph or two while I set out my stall. I suspect we’ll find a good deal of common ground.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it helps us to consider why ‘what?’ is so common.
Let me give you a couple of examples of situations where it might be impossible to know which of these purposes the question has:
Example 1
Jerry: | Did you see The Martian? |
Pete: | Yeah, I loved it. My favorite actor was Chiwetel Ejiofor |
Jerry: | What? |
Did Jerry not hear the name? Did he forget that Ejiofor was in this film? Or does he disbelieve that Jerry prefers Ejiofor over Matt Damon, or another actor?
Example 2
Sandra: | The company’s downsizing soon. |
Paula: | Oh no! What are they going to do. |
Sandra: | They’re going to bring in efficiency experts from Eclareon |
Paula: | What? |
Did Paula not hear the ‘efficiency experts’ part? Did she not understand (or recognize) the company name? Or perhaps she doesn’t believe their management could do such a thing?
We can’t know, because the question is too blunt. One word just isn’t enough.
In the same way that I try to ban ‘like’ as a method of stalling and approximation, and I’ve outlawed silence in my classroom, I’ve also tried to make ‘what?’ illegal. Instead, I encourage my students to say what they actually mean, and to try to describe the problem. Once they’ve let the speaker know what it is they haven’t understood, we can fix the problem quickly.
I raise awareness of this by:
I also undertake something of an investigation into the students’ own languages, in order to discover whether there is a similar one-word interrogative expression, and if so, how it is seen and used. More often than not, it’s also seen as a bit blunt and direct, although there are notable exceptions, including Chinese and, to a lesser extent, Russian.
If the question crops up in listening exercises, or when we’re watching a TV show or a movie, I stop and ask the students to think of an alternative question.
Simply put, I follow the principle that, when it comes to language learning and production, more words are better than fewer, and moreover, precise language is better than vague language. We’ve got tremendously nuanced expressions for requesting more information and expressing our reaction to what’s been said, and I believe our students should learn to access these important resources.
Almost anything will do. Provided it’s not a one-word sentence, and conveys some sense of why you need the sentiment repeated, I’ll be happy. I teach any and all of the following phrases, among others:
Incomprehension
Could you say that again?
Which one did you mean?
I’m sorry, what does that word mean?
If you speak a little more slowly, I’ll understand you
I don’t recognize that name / expression / word
Is that the same as…
Is that the opposite of…
I’m sorry, you’ve lost me.
That’s a new word for me / I’ve never heard that before.
Hang on, did you mean to say that…
Surprise
Where did you hear that?
Wow, I didn’t expect that.
Well, isn’t that something.
You’re going to have to run that past me again.
Disbelief
Are you serious?
That’s unbelievable!
How can that be?
You’ve got to be kidding.
You’re pulling my leg, right?
I’m sure you can add to this list.
I suppose you could say that I just don’t care for one-word sentences, no matter why or how they happen.
I suppose you could say that I just don’t care for one-word sentences, no matter why or how they happen. I find them unpleasing and abrupt. Call me old-fashioned or pedantic, but there are more reasons than this for jettisoning ‘what?’ as a common expression in the ESL classroom. It reminds our students to be exact, to compose full sentences, and to express in detail what problem they’re having. It’ll help them sound engaged and polite and, you never know, it might just help nudge them a little further along the road to fluency.