To focus strictly on grammar practice, these are useful. It's a class competition. The idea is that students have to put the card words in an envelope, into the right order to form questions/sentences -each of which is in a different colour. The teacher has to monitor and tell the students about the "wrong words" and "authorise" them to write the questions when they're right. Students work in pairs with only one question at a time. The winner is the pair that ends first with all the correct answers. Students work in pairs or threes dictating a question/sentence but without saying the words! They can only say the "key" words, and get to their matching square, where they find the word they need. Each student has a sheet of paper like a chess board. Each square at the top and on the left has a "key": maybe a sound or word you want them to practise. The rest of squares are full of useful words to make the questions e.g. if I say "/m/-caught", the matching point has the word "Where". Depending on the group, this can turn into a collaborative activity. Your own design of "Snakes and Ladders" is also very effective to make students conscious of grammar structures.

Here is a motivating activity which involves both asking and exchanging information. This works for intermediate to advanced students:

• Tell students to get a blank piece of paper. Teacher dictates several things. Example: On the left hand corner, write the year when you started your secondary school.
• Below, write your favourite month.
• Below, write the date which is most significant to you.
• Then go to the bottom right corner, in a circle, write the name of a teacher you really disliked as a child.
• Below, write the name of somebody who helped you when you were in trouble. Now go to the center of the page...Etc.

The students end up with a page full of names and dates inside and outside circles, all over the page. Then, ask students to form pairs and exchange pages. The aim is to ask each other questions about those misteruious names and words. For instance, by pointing at a random date or name. They take turns to ask each other as much as possible about their lifes regarding the date or name written on the page. This really works on a first or second day, when students do not know much about each other.

When teaching beginners, I use a drilling sequence, involving:

1. Asking a Yes/No Question
2. Replying with a short answer
3. Asking a Wh-word question
4. Replying with a short / full answer.

Teacher and student take turns to ask one another. I use this drill to work round the tenses, combining question/statement formation, practical knowledge of the use of different tenses, and the formation of irregular verbs. This drill is currently used at the head of each lesson. It only takes a few minutes.

An example:

1. Have you eaten anything today?
2. Yes, I have.
3. What have you eaten?
4. I've eaten some toast.
5. Did you eat anything yesterday?
6. etc.

If treated as a form of press-ups, they carry a hidden reward - they give a sense of steady attainment and progress. Cf regular work-outs at the gym.

Hi there I have been practising questions by telling the students the answer and asking them what the question is. The answers can be as brief or complicated as you want. It makes them think more if the answer is long, even if the question is short! Hope that helps. Good luck.

Think of the many opportunities in real life, real situations when people ask questions:

• interviews
• surveys
• when shopping (asking, price, size, color, etc.)
• meeting a new friend, a guy, a girl, a newcomer to school
• getting information about an event, a party, a movie, a play, a song, a music group, a topic of interest for a certain age group
• children's why's; ages when they keep asking Why about everything 4, 5, 6 ,7 years old

Then plan activities or tasks for students to learn to ask questions with accuracy both in pronunciation (intonation, etc) and grammar. Kinds of questions: Wh q's, yes/no q's, etc.

Direct transference from mother tongue to second language could be helpful (not translation). "How do you ask ......in English?"

Does this help? I hope so.