Grammar Boost: Questions
Closing the Door on 'Closed Questions': Using Open Questions to Drive Fluent Conversation
As an intermediate learner, it means you can communicate!
No problem!
But sometimes, do you feel like your English conversations stall out quickly?
You ask a question, you get a short answer, and then... silence.
The root of this problem often lies in the type of question you are asking: The Closed Question.
Closed Questions are those that can be answered with a single word or a short, simple phrase, most often “Yes” or “No.”
For example, if you ask, “Do you like your job?”, the typical short answer is simply “Yes.”
The conversation ends right there, and you have to struggle to ask another question to keep it going.
Similarly, asking “Are you ready to continue?” only gives you a simple “No,” offering no insight into why the person isn’t ready.
When you ask, “Is the new vocabulary difficult?”, the reply “It is” doesn’t tell you what part is difficult or how you can help.
Closed questions are efficient for getting quick facts, but they are terrible tools for building fluency and rapport because they put the entire burden of restarting the conversation back on you, the speaker.