The Art of the CCQ: Check Meaning Without Asking ‘Do You Understand?’

5-Minute English Lab · CELTA Methodology

🎓 The Art of the CCQ: Check Meaning Without Asking ‘Do You Understand?’

⏱ 5 minutes · CELTA Technique · Concept Checking

💬 From my own experience: During my 120 supervised teaching hours, my tutor wrote this on my feedback form: ‘Good use of ICQs, but your CCQs are too close to the meaning.’ That note taught me more about language analysis than any handbook. A bad CCQ just restates the sentence you just taught.

🎯 By the end of this 5 minutes, you can:

write CCQs that genuinely check meaning — distinguishing them from translation requests, definition repeats, and yes/no dead-ends.

Language Focus:

What is a CCQ?CCQ vs ‘Do you understand?’Writing effective CCQsTesting meaning not form3 CCQ types: binary / multiple choice / open

📖 Quick Explanation

A Concept Checking Question (CCQ) is a simple question the teacher asks to verify that learners have understood the meaning of a new language item — without asking them to repeat the definition or say ‘yes.’

Why not ‘Do you understand?’? Because learners almost always say yes — even when they don’t. It checks nothing.

Three CCQ types:

Binary (yes/no): True only if used with a follow-up. ‘I’ve been working here since 2015. Am I still working here now? (Yes) Did I start in 2015? (Yes) Did I finish in 2015? (No)’
Multiple choice: ‘She told him she had finished. Did she finish before or after she told him? (Before)’
Open: ‘I might go to Paris. Is it certain? (No) Is it possible? (Yes) Am I decided? (No)’

Rules for a good CCQ: (a) Simpler language than the target item. (b) Checks the meaning, not the form. (c) Requires thought — not just repetition. (d) Usually 2–3 questions per item.

✏️ Practice

Task 1: Good CCQ or bad CCQ?

Evaluate each as Good (G) or Bad (B). If bad, say why.
1. ‘What does deadline mean?’ after teaching I missed the deadline. · 2. ‘Was the deadline in the past? (yes) Did I meet it? (no) Do I still have time? (no)’ · 3. ‘Do you understand the present perfect?’

💡 Show answer

1. Bad — asks for a definition, not meaning-in-context · 2. Good — three binary questions that verify the three key meaning components (past event, failed obligation, consequence) · 3. Bad — yes/no with no check, learners will just say yes

Task 2: Write CCQs for: ‘I used to smoke’

Write 3 CCQs to check learners understand the meaning of ‘used to + infinitive’ (past habit, no longer true). Use simple language.

💡 Show answer

Do I smoke now? (No) Did I smoke in the past? (Yes) Did I smoke once or many times? (Many times — it was a habit) — These check: past, finished habit, repeated action.

Task 3: Fix this CCQ

Improve this CCQ for the phrase ‘She had already left when I arrived.’:
‘Did she leave before or after you arrived?’
Is this sufficient? What’s missing?

💡 Show answer

It’s a good start but incomplete. Add: ‘Was this in the past? (Yes) Did she leave and then I arrived, or did I arrive and then she left? (She left THEN I arrived — before is the key meaning) How do you know? (had already — the past perfect signals the earlier action)’ — Always check the grammar signal, not just the meaning.

🗣 Use It Now

Choose a piece of target language you teach regularly (a grammar structure, a function, a lexical chunk). Write 3 CCQs for it — one binary, one multiple choice, one open. Test them on a colleague or say them aloud: do they check meaning or just restate it?

✅ Quick Self-Check

I understand the main language point
I completed at least one practice task
I tried the production task

Independent teaching resource. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification. Based on publicly available ELT methodology and 18 years of professional experience.

The Art of the CCQ: Check Meaning Without Asking ‘Do You Understand?’