Maryam Alfadhli

Lesson Plan
Tag Questions

The Grammar Point:

In this lesson plan, I will explain the Tag Question which is a question form related to a previous statement.
Summarize the form:
The main points of the form of the tag question are:
a. If the statement is affirmative, the tag is negative, and vice versa.(Murphy, 1989)
Example: It was a good film, wasnt it?
She doesn't write a novel, does she?
b. In tag questions, we use the auxiliary verbs, for the present and past we use: do/does/did:
They arrive early, dont they?
He wrote the letter, didn't he?
c. There are some exceptions with the Tag Questions that called Idiosyncratic Tag Questions:
- After Lets . the rag question is shall we?
- After the imperatives ( do/ dont do something) the tag is will you?
- After (Im) the tag question is (arent I) ?
- After (There isnt) . the tag question is (is there)?
d. When the statement contains a word with a negative meaning, the question tag needs to be positive
e.g: He hardly ever eats, does he?
e. Negative tags have two forms:
1- Contracted form [ she eats the apple, doesnt she?].
2- Uncontracted negative, where the negative must be separated from the verb [ she eats the apple, does she not?].
f. Responding to tag-questions:
1.
short answer with yes or no [ and this is unusual with English between native speakers]
example: A: she is smart, isnt she?
B: yes, she is.
2. Affirmative answers such as thats right or additional information may be added.
Summarize the meaning
1.
2.

It is about the certainty of the truth of a proposition (confirmation or agreement).

It may add additional meaning such as: sarcasm and dare.

Summarize the use

I will mention that tag-questions occur in oral discourse more than written discourse (Brown:1981) and the main
functions are:
1.

Indicating inference.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Seeking agreement.
Inviting confirmation.
Expressing doubt.
Expressing opinion.

And the six minor functions are:

1.
keeping the conversation going.
2.
expressing intrest.
3.
expressing humor or sarcasm.
4.
begining a conversation.
5.
making a polite request.
6.
expressing surprise.

-The level of students that my lesson is geared toward and the errors I expect at this level?
I will present this lesson to intermediate level of ESL students who do not know too much about tag-questions in
English. There are three expected errors with this point of grammar:
a.

Students may overgeneralize one frequently occurring tag in English because their native languages (such as
French and Chinese) have invariant tags which are simpler than English, so they may use isnt it with
different cases of tag-questions.
b.
Since some languages use yes or no with raising intonation to form a tag, they may produce errors such
as:
*She isnt here, yes?
c.
Students may face problems with the correct place of the tags because some languages have different order for
tags then English( such as Polish, Ute or Russian).
What aspects of the grammar point you will focus on for this level?
Because of the class time I will focus only on the main form of the tag question, If the statement is affirmative, the
tag is negative, and vice versa, and the exceptions that I mentioned under the point (c) in the previous form analysis.
For the meaning, I want them to get the main meaning of tag-questions (confirmation or agreement) and if it is a real
question.
The lesson Plan
Warm up activity: [5 minutes]
a. I will put 5 sentences that have errors in a basket and I will ask each student to pick one and try to correct the error
in the sentence. The sentences will include errors in forming yes/no questions (which supposed to be the previous
lesson) as following:
1) did you went to the movie last night? [ went is wrong, go is the correct verb]
2) Do you do all of your homework? [ it must be did instead of do]
3) Am you a student? [ am is wrong and are is the correct Aux with the subject you]
4) Are she smart? [ Are is wrong and is the correct Aux]
5) She does attend the lecture? [ the order is wrong. it should be does she etc]

Tag- Question Introduction: [ 15 minutes]

I will answer and explain the following questions as I mentioned them before:
1- What is a tag-question? and why we use it?
They are mini questions that we put on the end of a sentence [Murphu, 1989]
Examples:
You are not working late, are you?
She is a good girl, isnt she?
We use the tag-question either to ask a real question or to to ask the other person to agree with us:
a- If the voice goes down, we are only asking for agreement:
- Mary doesn't look very well today, does she? No she looks awful.
- They won the game, they are very strong team, aren't they?
b. If the voice goes up, it is a real question:
- You don't know were Anna is, do you? Sorry, I have no idea
- You wouldn't have an extra pen, would you? yes, here you are
2- We use positive tag-question with a negative sentence, examples:
It isnt very good, is it?
They arent late, are they?

3- We use negative tag-questions with positive sentences, examples:

- Sara will be here soon, wont she? [ here I will mention the we use pronouns in tags to refer to names]
- *Sam likes onion, doesnt Sam?
- It is a great book, isnt it?
4- I will mention the exceptions in form of tag-questions, examples:
a. After Lets, the tag-question is shall we?:
- Lets go to the store, shall we?
b. After the imperatives ( do, dont do something) the tag is will you?, examples:
- Open the door, will you?
c. After (Im), the tag question is (arent I?), examples:
Im late, arent I?
notice [ aren't I = am I not]
d. After (There isnt), the tag question is (is there?), example:
- There isnt ATM here, is there?

Grammar practice [20 minutes]

Activities:

- Material and items: work sheet , pictures and song.

1- Form activity: I will give the students a worksheet with the following exercise:
Put a tag question on the end of each sentence:
1.She is collecting stickers,? [ isn't she]
2.Lets clean our house, ..? [ shall we]

3.You have cleaned your bike, .? [ haven't you]

4.John and Max don't like maths, .? [ do they]
5.Peter played handball yesterday, .? [didnt he]
6. Brush your teeth,.? [will you]
7.Mary didn't do her homework last Monday,. [did she]
8.He could have bought a new car,? [couldnt he]
9.Kevin will come tonight, ..? [wont he]
10.Im clever,..? [arent I]
I will ask different students to answer the previous 10 fill in the blank sentences, if a student do not answer correctly,
I will let another student help him/her with the correct answer, and I will ask a third one to explain the error
and the correction. (This activity is explicitly taught)

2- Meaning and use activity: I will show them pictures that have specific situations, and I will say one to two
sentences about each picture and ask them to make a question using a tag question as the following example: (This
activity is explicitly taught)
[ see the following page]

The situation

The picture

A possible correct answer

you want a cigarette. perhaps

Tom has one. Ask him.

Tom, you don't have an extra

cigarette, do you?

You are looking for your purse.

Perhaps Anna has seen it. Ask
her.

Anna, you didn't see my purse,

did you?

You need some papers. Perhaps

Sam has some. Ask him.

You do have some papers,

haven't you?

You will attend a party tomorrow.

Your friend may come with you.
Ask him.

You will come with me to morrow,

wont you?

You need a help from your

brother. You want him to carry a
heavy box with you. Ask him.

Carry this box with me, will you?

Tag song: I will show the lyrics of the A Little Time by The beautiful south on the board and play the song so
students can listen to it and sing with it [ the tags are missing on the board version so students can predict them]
(This activity is implicitly taught) [bilinguish.com]

A brief wrap-up: [ 5 minutes]

I will summarize the main points of the tag forms and the main meaning of it. And I will ask students to say
sentences about each other using tag questions, such as:
Sara, you are tall, aren't you?
Donna is smart, isn't she?

*References:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The Grammar Book, 1999, Murcia.

Grammar in Use, 1989, Murphy.
http://bilinguish.com/2012/08/17/tag-questions/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question