One sentence about your weekend
One sentence about last weekend. Just one, and then stop talking.
Your teacher will ask three follow-ups. Notice how far one sentence can be made to go.
One prediction before the twenty minutes.
1. With a follow-up compulsory after every answer, what will run out first?
Where the next question comes from
One answer, five questions inside it
Answer: I drove down to my sister's on Saturday morning and stayed the night.
Every noun and every verb in that sentence is a question waiting to be asked:
drove → How long did it take? · down to → Where does she live? · my sister's → Does she live alone? · Saturday morning → What time did you set off? · stayed the night → What did you do in the evening?
You never need a new topic. The next question is always already inside the last answer. Pick any noun or any verb in it and ask about that.
This is why "I could not think of anything to ask" is almost never true. It means you were listening for the topic rather than for the words.
Five answers. Match each to a follow-up question that comes from inside it.
One question about the technique.
1. Someone answers Nothing, really. What do you do?
Showing interest without asking
Reactions
Six of these. They cost nothing and they keep the other person talking. Tap each to hear the intonation — every one of them rises.
The echo. Repeat their own fact back as a question: they say four hours, you say Four hours? It costs you no new language at all and it reliably produces another sentence.
This is the cheapest move in conversational English, and it is the one Portuguese speakers use least, because Portuguese reacts with Nossa! rather than by echoing.
Match each reaction to the situation it fits.
Question, answer, question
One word per gap. Complete the exchange — the follow-ups have gone missing.
— What did you do on Saturday? — I went to a wedding. — Oh, you? whose? — A friend from university. — was it? — In a hotel outside the city. — long did it last? — About nine hours. — Nine hours? You must been exhausted. — I was. I not get home until two.
Put the six moves in the order a good exchange uses them.
Twenty minutes, one rule
The longest speaking stretch of the unit.
Task card · Speaking
You interview your partner about their weekend. Then they interview you.
Ten minutes each. A follow-up after every single answer — no exceptions, including after Nothing much.
- The follow-up must come from inside their answer. No new topics until the old one is exhausted.
- At least four reactions across the ten minutes, and at least two echoes.
- If you cannot think of a question, react first. The reaction buys you three seconds and often produces the question for you.
- Your partner may not volunteer anything. They answer what is asked and stop.
Stop at five minutes and answer. Then carry on.
1. How many topics have you covered?
2. What is happening when you cannot think of a follow-up?
The transcript
Your teacher wrote down every question you asked. Read them back yourself, out loud, before anyone says anything about them.
You will hear at least two errors without being told. Those are the ones you can already fix.
Answer from your own transcript.
1. How many questions did you ask in ten minutes?
2. What kind of error appears most in the transcript?
3. Did you follow up after every answer?
Carry the transcript
One question.
1. Where does the next question come from?
Before Lesson 6. Take your transcript home. Mark every question you now think is wrong, and write the corrected version next to it.
Do not ask anyone. Lesson 6 compares your marks with your teacher's, and the gap between them is the lesson.