CENTRE REGIONAL DES METIERS DE LEDUCATION ET DE LA

FORMATION

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Eliciting

What is eliciting?
Eliciting is when the teacher brings out student knowledge, suggestions
and ideas. You can do this by:
asking questions
Encouraging and guiding contributions.
By eliciting, you can:
Find useful ways of setting up activities, whether they are roleplays,
games, listening tasks, the introduction of a new language structure, etc.

What are the advantages of eliciting ?
By eliciting you:
q get the students involved and interested;
q bring relevant information to the front of their minds;
q increase the amount they talk;
q help students take responsibility for their own learning.
q give members of a class the necessary and motivating feeling of being
encouraged to invest part of themselves, give some of their opinions and
contribute some of their kowledge so what happens seems to depend
partly on the students themselves.
get crucial information about what the students already know and can use in
relation to the language you are focusing on. This helps you to avoid teaching
what they already know.

What are the disadvantages of eliciting?

Eliciting can take time and if time is short you may want to tell the
students and quickly check they understand.
You cant elicit something the students dont know in the first place.
You can spend ages trying to elicit language which is just not there
this leads to frustration on the part of the teacher and confusion and
feelings of inadequacy on the part of the students.
There is a danger that if you elicit what youre looking for from one
student you assume (perhaps mistakenly) that all the students in
the group understand.

Techniques for eliciting :

Usually eliciting consists of giving clues and prompts in order to get the students
to make an appropriate contribution. Eliciting should never be simply guessing
whats in the teachers head!

How can I elicit it?

A. Act out (mime)
B. Use gesture with hands or fingers / facial
expression
C. Draw a picture on the board
D. Show a picture
E. Give a definition / explanation
F.

Say a word that means the opposite (antonym)

G. Describe a situation
H. Use a real object
I.

Say famous names

J. Give an example
K. Tell a story
L. Give examples of different types

References:
Teaching Practice Roger Gower, Diane Philips & Steve Walters
How to teach English Jeremy Harmer
http://www.elanguages.org/files/52434
www.teachingenglish.org.uk