How can we paraphrase this passage?

[Silverobama]

My student has already finished learning the IPA (international phonetic alphabet) with me and we're studying some short articles now.



In order to help her with her spoken English, I asked her to paraphrase these short articles after we finish learning them. What questions can I ask to encourage her to try to use her own words to rephrase the whole passage? How about?

How can we paraphrase this passage?

Or perhaps the article is too long and I'd better ask her to paraphrase just a part of it?

 

[emsr2d2]

@Silverobama, I think you should change your profile member type to "English teacher". I can't be the only person who sees "Student or Learner" as the member profile and is then confused to read a text starting with "My student", and later saying "In order to help her with her spoken English".

I've moved this thread to the "Teaching English" section.

 

[jutfrank]

'I can't hear a word!' I said angrily.
'It's none of your business,' the young man said rudely. 'This is a private conversation!'

Does this make sense to you?

 

[Silverobama]

@Silverobama, I think you should change your profile member type to "English teacher". I can't be the only person who sees "Student or Learner" as the member profile and is then confused to read a text starting with "My student", and later saying "In order to help her with her spoken English".

I've moved this thread to the "Teaching English" section.

Thanks a lot for calling me a teacher, emsr2d2, I think I'm always learning here. However, yes, I'm teaching some students simple English.

'I can't hear a word!' I said angrily.
'It's none of your business,' the young man said rudely. 'This is a private conversation!'

Does this make sense to you?

It does. My apologies. I should've made myself clearer.

I want to ask my student to paraphrase this whole passage, and yes, she could possibly say the above. But my question is, how can I raise the question?

Is it natural to say "Could you please paraphrase this whole passage? Do you want to give it a try" or something?

 

[jutfrank]

It does.

No, it doesn't. That was my point.

Is it natural to say "Could you please paraphrase this whole passage? Do you want to give it a try" or something?

It's not typical to give instructions in question form. There's no need to ask a question. Just tell her what to do.

What exactly do you want her to do and why?

 

[5jj]

'I can't hear a word!' I said angrily.
'It's none of your business,' the young man said rudely. 'This is a private conversation!'

Does this make sense to you?

It does to me. It's meant to be funny.

 

[jutfrank]

It does to me. It's meant to be funny.

Oh, I see it's a joke! I didn't notice. Sorry, everyone.

 

[Silverobama]

It's not typical to give instructions in question form. There's no need to ask a question. Just tell her what to do.

What exactly do you want her to do and why?

I want her to paraphrase the whole passage using her own words. Are these sentences good?

1) Can you paraphrase the passage using your own words?
2) Now, can you retell the story in your own words?

 

[emsr2d2]

I want her to paraphrase the whole passage using her own words. Are these sentences good?

1) Can you paraphrase the passage using your own words?
2) Now, can you retell the story in your own words?

I agree with jutfrank's earlier point. You shouldn't be framing instructions as a question. You're the teacher. Tell her what you want her to do.

Paraphrase the passage in your own words.
Retell the story in your own words.

If you start with "Can you ...", she might just shrug and say "No"!