FAQs about the 2-minute Speaking Questions Challenge - 3 years on

I started the 2-minute Speaking Questions Challenge 3 years ago, because I wanted to make sure that every student speaks, every lesson. This routine has such a huge impact on accuracy, speed, and confidence in my classroom - it rehearses understanding questions, using key verbs accurately in context, speed of recall, clear pronunciation, and immediate feedback. In essence, building fluency.

I've blogged before about what this is and how I do it; you can read this here.

To summarise the process:

1. I start the 2 minute timer
2. I ask a question in TL
3. I start the randomiser
4. The selected student answers it in TL
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until the timer runs out
6. Count how many questions have been answered in the time (tally as you go, or use randomiser to count as it goes)
7. Add the score to the class leaderboard
8. Give quick, specific feedback & praise

I’ve shared a couple of social media posts about this before too, and I tend to get the same few questions, so I’m going to address these here.

Can I repeat the same questions?

Yes absolutely! I repeat the same questions all the time, and ultimately the questions you want to use and how much you want to repeat them should be based on your teacher judgement about what is best for your class. 

You could have a few questions you’ve been practicing and repeat these in a predictable cycle, or say question 1 a few times and move to question 2 etc, or ask them completely at random - it’s up to you! If it helps you may even want to have a slide with the questions on - to briefly show students beforehand to jog their memory, or just to help you personally to keep track.

The two most important elements of question selection for me are 1. verbs, and 2. recycling. I want students to have to consider important verbs we have been learning, and I want them to have to remember verbs from several terms/topics and years ago. 

How many different questions do you train students on?

This depends on the topic and year group. When we start in year 7, I only use ‘comment tu t’appelles ?’ and ‘comment ça va ?’ for the first time, when introducing the routine - students have to listen to whichever of the 2 questions I randomly say, and they pre-plan an answer on mini whiteboards to refer back to if they wish. The next time, they won’t be able to pre-plan it, and from there I add new questions pretty rapidly in year 7. Then throughout the year when I know I will add a question, they may pre-plan an answer to just that question on their boards.

In later years, I find it is easier to introduce more questions by focusing on question structure. For example, at the start of year 8 we do a module on sports in French, so very early on I start asking ‘quel sport fais-tu ?’. As soon as we start looking at opinions, they have access to a huge range of questions following the same predictable structure (incidentally the same structures as we train year 11s to listen out for during the unseen questions section of the speaking exam). These include ‘que penses-tu de…’, and ‘quel est ton opinion de…’, and this means I can ask questions about a whole range of sports - and students can successfully answer a question that they may never have heard in full before. Likewise, asking ‘quel sport fais-tu ?’ can easily become ‘quel sport fait ton ami ?’, which then allows for more ‘surprise’ questions where students must rely on key structures they know, such as ‘quel sport fait ton frère ?’, ‘quel sport fait ta sœur ?’, ‘quel sport fait ta mère ?’ etc.

Year 8 and year 9 naturally will have lots of questions to choose from, since I always include everything from previous years as an option, depending on what I want to practice on the day. For example, a year 9 clas might spend 30 seconds answering questions about year 9 topics like hobbies in the past tense, and media/films, then answer a couple of questions about their age, birthday, or personality, then back to past tense, then some about sports from year 8, etc.

How long should my students’ answers be?

Not long at all. This routine is a springboard for further development - and I can hugely see the impact of it when it comes to longer productive tasks, especially writing paragraphs - but this is not the core focus. For the sports questions examples above, I would accept answers such as ‘je joue au foot’, ‘je joue au tennis’ or ‘je fais de la danse’. I WON’T accept answers that are missing a verb, so if students just say ‘rugby’ then this would not get a 'point'! As this is so well embedded in my classroom, a glance is enough for them to self-correct 9 times out of 10, and I will move on after the student says their answer again with a verb. You could also prompt them by just saying ‘with a verb please!’ or similar. This obviously takes longer, so they will quickly get the idea!

We also need to consider that answers that are too long would result a lower class score for arguably better answers, since they would answer less within the time limit. ‘Too long’ is hard to define though - it barely takes seconds to add more detail, while hesitation is much ‘worse’ in terms of scores! I get around this by making it clear that detail is great, but this challenge is about developing speed which is important for fluency - and we do lots of other speaking tasks that reward detail specifically. If a student does add lots more detail in their answer, such as ‘je joue au basket parce que selon moi c’est intéressant’, then I will simply add one more extra 'point' (for the extra verb/clause). Some students will be motivated to do this regularly which is great, and if not then the core purpose of this task is still met.

Will this work with a low ability/nurture set? 

Absolutely! I have always taught at least one nurture set each year throughout my teaching career so far, and predictable routines are great for these groups. It may take a little longer to set up and properly routinise, but I have found this super helpful for memorising vocab, especially key verbs.

If you need a few ways to scaffold this further (especially in the beginning), this is what I recommend:

• Reduce the number of questions they have to listen out for
• Tell them the questions immediately in advance of the challenge (takes 30 seconds and could be done with cold calling, ie. what is the question ‘quelle est la date de ton anniversaire’ asking us about… name?’)
• Write the key verbs students will need on the board before you start - not necessarily in order or with translations
• Allow them to read from a knowledge organiser or sentence builder

As always with scaffolding, the aim is to remove it over time and encourage independence, and with this routine I have been able to do this successfully with these types of sets.

What do you do if students get it wrong or don’t say anything?

These are 2 separate issues - if students are getting it wrong then your reaction will depend on how many students this is, and how it is wrong. If you only asked one student then this may not be enough data to assume anything, but if it is quite a few then probably you introduced this as a new question too soon (ie. before they have practiced producing it in lessons at all), or you have come across something from previous learning which wasn’t as solid as you thought, and could do with reteaching. If it is a specific error - grammar or pronunciation - then you can give quick specific feedback about this immediately afterwards and quickly practice this point. You could say things like ‘I heard some people say ‘je joue’, and some people said ‘j’ai joue’ - on your whiteboards, tell me which one is correct and why’. 

During the actual timed challenge itself I tend to only pick up on this if it is a major error, and/or if I know the student CAN correct themselves quickly and easily, ie. missing out the verb, or a phonics error we have been drilling lots. When giving any feedback I also think it's really important to add some specific praise too - for example ‘last lesson a couple of people said ‘mon ami je joue’ because they forgot that you need to replace the pronoun je to talk about another person, but everybody with this question answered this perfectly today so well done, great progress’.

The issue of students refusing or not being able to say anything is not one I encounter often at all - which I strongly feel is down to the classroom culture. If it's just refusal, use your school behaviour policy (and I recommend a restorative conversation to find out what the issue is and make expectations clear for next time). Speaking is an essential part of learning languages, not an optional extra ‘fun’ activity. If a student is genuinely struggling, I give a model answer for students to repeat back to me, and if this persisted, I would find time later to discuss why they are struggling and find a solution.

How do you set up the timer and randomiser?

Personally, my school uses synergy - so I use their built-in randomiser and timer that is attached to my class register. I’m not sure if other similar systems have an equivalent or not.

There are a few alternatives I’m aware of - you can get timers with a simple Google search, https://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/, classroomscreen.com, or by embedding a timer into your PPT, such as these fantastic examples https://www.a6training.co.uk/resources_powerpoint.php. For randomisers, you could use wheelofnames.com or flippity.net, or failing that, simply shout a name at the end of your question and tick them off a register as you go.

I truly believe this challenge is the most impactful target language classroom routine you can do in 2 minutes. It targets the exact things that are essential for students feeling confident, successful, and fluent. It’s no-prep, hugely adaptable and responsive to the needs of your class and your curriculum, and builds skills in verbs, pronunciation, and understanding and responding at speed. Give it a go and let me know your thoughts!