how best to elicit meaning and form (from English as a foreign language students ) using the phrase ''What does....mean?'' as an example??

Question

The question asks me to write a production activity that teaches the phrase ' What does ... mean?' to foreign students. 

 I need to elicit meaning form and pronunciation from students but i am drawing blanks on how best to present this lesson. 

i on have a maximum of 50 words to write my answer. Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated :) 

Answer 1

I can see how this assignment might appear confusing. The question "What does ... mean?" is not a question that you are going to use to ask students, but it is the phrase to be taught so that students can use the phrase to ask questions themselves. Why? Because ESL students would most likely not construct the sentence this way, but say something like "What mean ...?" or "What is mean ...?". Also, students might not understand what the sentence means and what they can use it for. And finally, they might not be able to pronounce it correctly. Therefore, you need to analyze form, meaning, and pronunciation of this phrase.

FORM means that you use a question word (what), followed by the conjugated third person singular present simple verb form of "do", followed by the variable/ blank (whichever word they want to ask about), followed by the verb "mean" in its infinitive form.

MEANING means that this question allows students to indicate that they don't understand a word and to inquire about the meaning of this unknown vocabulary item.

PRONUNCIATION means that you are simply supposed to write the sentence again using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).