Primary English Question Decoding: Command Words, Relationships and Task Demands

Wait, What? Reading the Passage Is Only Half the Job

A student can understand a text and still lose marks because the question itself was decoded poorly. Question decoding means identifying what kind of response is required, what relationship must be shown and what evidence belongs in the answer.

Do not hunt for an answer until you know the job the question is asking you to perform.

Four Things to Decode

• Command: identify, explain, compare, describe, give a reason, infer.
• Target: person, event, phrase, change, feeling, purpose or relationship.
• Boundary: which part of the text or source should control the answer?
• Output: fact, reason, comparison, inference, evidence or explanation.

Why and How

“Why” usually requires a cause, reason or purpose. “How” can ask for method, manner, change or evidence depending on context. Students should not memorise command words as rigid formulas; they should read the whole question and identify the relationship.

Compare

A comparison requires a shared dimension. “Ali was nervous. Ben was confident.” works because both statements describe emotional state. Two unrelated facts about the characters do not form a useful comparison merely because both are true.

Inference

An inference question asks the learner to move from evidence to a supported conclusion. Copying the clue alone is incomplete; guessing beyond the evidence is also incomplete. The answer must stay inside what the text reasonably supports.

A Five-Second Routine

1. Underline or mentally identify the target.
2. Name the relationship.
3. Locate the strongest relevant evidence.
4. Build the smallest complete response.
5. Check that the sentence answers the actual question.

Worked Example

Question: “How did Lena’s attitude towards the competition change after speaking to her coach?” The target is Lena’s attitude. The relationship is change over time. A complete answer needs both states: what she felt before and what she felt after. A sentence describing only the coach’s advice does not answer the task.

The Quiet Return

Question decoding is not an examination trick. It is the language skill of understanding what another person is actually asking you to do.