Have you ever?

Kim Bradford-Watts

Kyoto Women's University

Sometimes teaching "have you ever...?" can be a bit of a chore, with learners needing to juggle verb forms and to use the "Yes, I have" or "No, I haven't" responses. I used the following lesson successfully with a group of older learners in Osaka, who reported having really enjoyed the class. Since then, they have been going out of their way to ask and answer these types of questions.

Quick Guide

Key Words: Verb tense review, past participle, using student-generated vocabulary lists
Learner English Level: High beginner and above
Learner Maturity Level: Junior high school and above
Preparation Time: Nil
Activity Time: 40-60 minutes, depending on the number of learners
Materials: Whiteboard and markers

Preparation

Prepare the board as illustrated below.

Nouns

Verbs

Procedure

Step 1: Elicit from learners as many nouns as possible. You should be able to fill the available space very quickly. Try to encourage learners to offer a variety of nouns, not just things that they can see in the classroom.
Step 2: Elicit from learners as many verbs as possible. This may take a little longer. Sprinkle in some of your own that have suggested themselves from the elicited list of nouns. Be daring.
Step 3: Comment on the large amount of vocabulary that your learners have generated in such a short amount of time.
Step 4: Review tense patterns of each of the verbs. Give an example for a regular verb on the list (e.g. watch, watched, watched), and then for an irregular verb (e.g. eat, ate, eaten). Point to each verb in turn while learners say the appropriate tense pattern. Correct or explain as necessary. This review could be done individually, taking turns, or as a whole group, using a choral response.
Step 5: Write an "I have..." sentence in the space on the bottom of the board. Use a noun and a verb from the student-generated lists. Follow that sentence with the negative form. For example, you may have written, I have eaten snake and I have not eaten snake.
Step 6: Explain that the past participle goes with have. Give a couple of examples using verbs from the list on the board.
Step 7: Write Have you ever…? in the space at the top of the board.
Step 8: Explain that in the question form, the have moves to the top of the sentence and, to indicate that we are talking about events that have occurred ever in our lives until this moment in time, we put ever after the you. This is followed by the past participle verb.
Step 9: Explain that answers to these questions can be Yes, I have eaten snake or No, I haven't eaten snake, but for convenience, we usually just answer Yes, I have or No, I haven't. Put parentheses around the unsaid part of the answer. If it is a really surprising question, however, for emphasis we may say the whole thing.
Step 10: Practice with learners, asking each learner one question.
Step 11: Practice question form by having learners ask you one question.
Step 12: Let learners loose. They should ask every other student 5 questions using the words from the lists on the board. Monitor for common errors. Encourage learners to suggest things that are a bit wild - "Have you ever swung a cat?" "Have you ever kissed a frog?"
Step 13: Regroup.
Step 14: Ask learners what the funniest/strangest/most difficult question was that they were asked. Ask what the answer was.
Step 15: Ask if the learners have any questions for you. This stage brought up a host of funny questions in my class. Learners were genuinely interested to hear answers to their questions, and this encouraged them to ask even more questions.

After the last step, our class went on to the next stage of the 2-hour lesson, for which a learner had prepared material. However, this group now enjoys asking questions related to readings or reports of experiences and always wants to know what the others have done in their lives. It has been a great activity for encouraging the sharing of personal lifelong experiences, and they are comfortable with using the question form, the nuances of their answers, and the extension of materials with such questions.