Why elicit vocabulary

Breakfast T: Well done. Listen: She has breakfast at eight o'clock. T: Do you like coffee? S: Yes I do. T: Do you like tea? S: Yes I do T: Do you like milk? S: No I don't T: What's the question? Ask me. T: Is he talking about the past, present or future?

S: No T: Right. It's a prediction. What verb does he use? S: Will T: Good. Can you give me an example? Cultural considerations While eliciting clearly contributes to student involvement, it does not always produce the desired or expected results. Students are wrongly labelled as lacking knowledge or being too shy when there are often cultural reasons for their reticence.

In many cultures, students are not encouraged to volunteer information or ask questions while in others the teacher is seen as the sole provider of knowledge. The problem is reinforced by the fact that many units in course materials begin with open elicitation questions which create the possibility of making grammatical or pronunciation errors and therefore losing face in front of classmates.

For help with concept checking, see my previous post Concept Checking Revisited. Convey Use a variety of techniques to provide a balance of focus and pace.

Check Use concept checking techniques to ensure students have understood the meaning. Model Provide, or elicit from a student, a clear model of the pronunciation. Drill Allow students to practise saying the item, first together with others choral drilling , then nominating students randomly so you can focus on individual learner problems individual drilling. Board Provide a written model on the board for students to copy and have a written record in their notes.

Eliciting and boarding the part of speech, word stress and any tricky sounds is useful here so the students can have a record of how to use and say the item. See a previous post Cheeky Phonemes for more tips on highlighting tricky sounds on the board.

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Use pictures whenever you can but be careful that your pictures are not ambiguous. If you are eliciting an action, the most effective way to do it if your miming skills are up to scratch is simply to do it. Follow up your acting with concept checking questions to make sure everyone interpreted your actions correctly. Use definitions, synonyms and antonyms to provide a context to try to elicit words or meaning. Eliciting is a useful technique if it is used appropriately. However, you need to be careful not to turn your lessons into guessing games, which may be fun but can also be frustrating and counter-productive.

During your lesson planning decide what can be elicited and make sure you are prepared to do so — be it with pictures or easy explanations. This is pointless and frustrating for everyone. If your students are struggling to understand your elicitation, give them the answer and move on. Elicitation is a technique that should definitely be a part of your teaching arsenal.

Elicitation should be a part of every lesson, so make sure you know how to do it effectively and appropriately. What is that called? S1: A pair of scissors! And I need one of those things you use to draw a straight line or measure them. S2: A ruler! T: Yes! I also need that device we use to fasten papers together with staples. S3: A stapler! There are some words that are best understood in a scale. In this case, establish the frequency by asking the student questions: T: How often do you go to the movies?

I seldom go to the movies. What was that monster you told me about? This is clearly the best strategy for visual learners and young learners in general.