Elicitation technique

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For other uses, see Elicitation (disambiguation).

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Find sources: "Elicitation technique" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2018)

An elicitation technique is any of a number of data collection techniques used in anthropology, cognitive science, counseling, education, knowledge engineering, linguistics, management, philosophy, psychology, or other fields to gather knowledge or information from people. Recent work in behavioral economics has purported that elicitation techniques can be used to control subject misconceptions and mitigate errors from generally accepted experimental design practices.^[1] Elicitation, in which knowledge is sought directly from human beings, is usually distinguished from indirect methods such as gathering information from written sources.^[2]

A person who interacts with human subjects in order to elicit information from them may be called an elicitor, an analyst, experimenter, or knowledge engineer, depending on the field of study.^[2]

Elicitation techniques include interviews, observation of either naturally occurring behavior (including as part of participant observation) or behavior in a laboratory setting, or the analysis of assigned tasks.^[2]

List of elicitation techniques[edit]

• Interviews

• Existing System

• Project Scope

• Brain Storming

• Focus Groups

• Exploratory Prototypes

• User Task Analysis

• Observation

• Surveys

• Questionnaire

• Story Board

References[edit]

• ^ Zeiler, Kathryn (2005-01-01). "The Willingness to Pay-Willingness to Accept Gap, the 'Endowment Effect,' Subject Misconceptions, and Experimental Procedures for Eliciting Valuations". American Economic Review. 95 (3): 530–545. doi:10.1257/0002828054201387.

• ^

• Jump up to:

• ^{a b c} Cooke, Nancy J. (1994). "Varieties of knowledge elicitation techniques". International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 41 (6): 801–849. doi:10.1006/ijhc.1994.1083.

Eliciting Techniques, Questions, Activities & Tips for ESL Teachers

If you’re an English teacher that wants to learn more about eliciting, a popular ESL teaching technique, then keep on reading. Eliciting information from students is a very beneficial use of class time. Find out why, along with some of the best activities and situations in which to do this.

Eliciting information for ESL teachers

What is Eliciting?

Eliciting is a technique that teachers can use to find out what information the students know, or don’t know. For example, if you’re teaching about the simple past or weather vocabulary, it’s likely that the students have studied these things before unless they are absolute beginners.

In this case, if you elicit some of these grammar concepts or vocabulary, it can help students activate their prior knowledge. This is useful for helping students to grasp onto the new things. Plus, you can avoid focusing too heavily on the things that students already know.

There are a number of things you can elicit besides grammar and vocabulary. You may also want to focus on synonyms, antonyms, forms and rules, general or background knowledge, memories, opinions, feelings or contexts, etc. Get creative because there really is a lot you can do in terms of eliciting information in a TEFL class.

Eliciting Meaning

According to the Cambridge dictionary, the meaning of eliciting as it relates to education is as follows:

“To get a student to provide or remember a fact, response, etc. rather than telling them the answer.”

Why Elicit Information? Top 5 Reasons

There are a number of reason why you might want to use things like eliciting questions with your students. Here are some of the most important ones.

#1: Focus on Things Students Don’t Know

It’s sometimes the case that you already have a good idea of what vocabulary your students already know, along with grammar concepts they’re familiar with. However, if you’re unsure, it’s a good idea to use this eliciting ESL technique to gain some important knowledge that can inform the rest of your lesson.

#2: Students Can Retain New Information Better

Almost all of our students, unless they’re total beginners have already seen most of the concepts that we’re teaching them before. This is normal in language learning as you really need to see things a number of times before you actually “know” it.

If we elicit from the students what they already know, this can help with retaining the new information. It’s a nice way to help students hook together their prior knowledge with the new knowledge inside the language learning centres of their brain. Cool, right?

#3: It’s Student-Centred

I love using student-centred activities and games, as well as ESL teaching techniques in all my classes. After all, the students should be doing the hard work of learning a language, not me!

To this end, eliciting information from our students is one of the most student-centred things we can do! It’s asking them what they already know before jumping into the new stuff.

#4: Context is Everything

When teaching a language, context is everything. Students have to know not only how to use a language but when they should as well. A nice way to introduce something new is to elicit some information from our students related to their memories, background knowledge, opinions or feelings about the topic of the day. This is a nice way to set the context so that students know how to use the new things in real life.

I love the ideas found in the Cognitive Load Theory by Sweller. It says that helping students activate what they already know about a topic can be extremely useful if they are to retain new information.

#5: It’s Ideal for Introducing New Information

Whenever we take in new information, we consolidate it with the old information we already have in our brains. Does it match? How does it compare? This teaching technique is ideal for helping our students do this as well.

ESL Eliciting Techniques

There are a number of situations in which you may want to elicit some information from your students. Here are the most common ones.

#1: Eliciting Vocabulary

It’s often the case that students have learned much of the “new” vocabulary that you’re teaching them before. This is especially true with popular units in ESL textbooks like movies, sports, hobbies, family, weather, etc.

There are a number of things you can do including getting students to make a mind map in a small group related to a certain topic. Or, you may give students definitions and see if they can come up with the word. Synonyms or antonyms are another way to elicit vocabulary words. You could also pretend to forget the word you want the students to come up with and describe it to them. For young learners, consider using flashcards or pictures to elicit vocabulary words.

Check out the next section for more details about specific ESL activities you can consider to elicit words from your students. Here are a number of brainstorm game ideas for doing this.

#2: Eliciting Grammar

When teaching grammar, I rarely lecture my students. Instead, I get students to help me fill in the bits and pieces. This is always what I do unless it’s sometimes very tricky that I’m pretty sure my students have never seen before.

To do this, I’ll use timelines, leading questions, dialogue, drawings or modelling. I’ll always be sure to set the context and use lots of CCQ’s (concept checking questions).

A nice way to introduce or review grammar is with a reading passage or listening dialogue. Elicit from the students examples of the certain grammar point you’re teaching.

#3: Prediction for Reading or Listening

One of the best ways to set the context for a reading or listening exercise is to get students to predict what might happen. Show them a picture or the headline of the story and then get them to talk with a partner about what they think they will read or hear.

This is the perfect way to elicit prior knowledge from the students and can lead into a very fruitful lesson. Here are some of the best ideas: Making Predictions ESL Activities.

#4: Eliciting Background Knowledge

Everyone has feelings, background, memories, etc. related to certain situations. Eliciting these things from students before jumping into the heart of a lesson helps connect what you’re teaching to real life.

Top 5 Eliciting ESL Activities

There are a number of things you can do in your class to elicit information, discover background knowledge, etc. Here are some o the best activities to consider trying out with your students.

#1: Word Association

This activity is basically mind-mapping about a certain topic, whatever you’re teaching that day. It’s ideal for helping student activate their prior knowledge and you can elicit lots of vocabulary words that students already know.

Learn more about it here: ESL Word Association Activity.

#2: A to Z Alphabet Game

It’s often the case that students already know lots of vocabulary about certain topics like animals or jobs. If this is the case but that’s the topic for the day in the textbook that you’re using, consider using this warm-up game.

The way it works is that students need to think of an many jobs (or whatever else) as possible, one that begins with each letter of the alphabet. The team with the most number of jobs at the end of the allotted time is the winner. Find out all the details about it: A-Z Alphabet Activity.

#3: Listening for 1 Specific Thing

A nice way to elicit certain grammar or vocabulary from students is to get them to listen to a passage but to focus on one specific thing. For example, words related to a certain topic. Or, examples of the future tense. Find out more about this here: Listening for One Specific Thing.

#4: Dialogue Substitution

A common way that many textbooks introduce new grammar or vocabulary is though a dialogue of some kind. But, what to do if you’re pretty sure that your students have studied it before? Remove the key words. Then, it moves from a straight up reading challenge to one that’s more focused on meaning as well.

#5: Picture Prompt

One of the best ways to elicit words from students is to show them some pictures related to the topic of the day. Ask leading questions and you’ll have some eliciting gold right there!

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Have your Say about ESL Eliciting

Do you have any tips or tricks for using eliciting in your English classes? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think about this important concept. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful resource.

ESL teaching technique: eliciting

Last update on 2021-12-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults. She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

https://www.eslactivity.org/eliciting/

Home » Eliciting Techniques: How to Use in the ESL Classroom

Eliciting Techniques: How to Use in the ESL Classroom

February 1, 2021 by Caitriona Maria

Eliciting is a learner-centered approach to learning. Rather than getting the teacher to explain something, we want to get the learners to say what they know about the subject already.

The learner activates their knowledge, and teachers will know what they know and don’t know.

The knowledge has already been taught previously, but rather than teaching them the words, like in reviewing, we are trying to get the learner’s own ideas.

So, in a nutshell:

What is Eliciting?

Eliciting is a technique that ESL teachers use to get information about what students know and what they don’t know. We get the students to think and talk about the subject by asking questions and giving clues.

The student receives some kind of stimulus that would help them produce the desired language.

We can use pictures, prompts (visual, linguistic, a graphic organizer), a board drawing, gap-fill sentence, actions, gestures, a verbal explanation, or a combination of these.

The prompts help jog the students’ memory.

These motivate the students to say something about the topic.

Example of Eliciting in the Classroom

For example, let’s say a student wants to know the past tense of the verb “bought.”

Instead of immediately saying the answer, we could say that it was a good question, and ask others what they think.

Or, if we want the students to think of a new vocabulary word, like “fast food restaurant,” and we tell them that “we eat fries and hamburgers here.” We could even show them a picture of the restaurant.

With some luck, the students will recognize and say the vocabulary word without the teacher

saying it. This is called eliciting.

How can we elicit answers from students?

There are multiple ways we can elicit answers from students. Here are just some of the many ways to elicit an appropriate response:

Antonyms/ Synonyms

We can ask the students for the opposite of a word.

We can also give a similar word, in meaning, spelling, or pronunciation, to elicit vocabulary.

Give the Definition

We can define a word by describing it ourselves or by using a dictionary.

Students may be able to recall the word from the definition.

Remind them when they previously learned the word

Remind the students when they previously learned the word and give some context.

You could say, “remember the story we read yesterday. What was the keyword we learned to describe the wolf…?”

Pictures

We can use pictures to encourage them to say the keyword. You can ask them what they can see, draw a diagram, or print out flashcards in advance to help them.

Multiple Choice

Multiple choice questions break down the possible answers and give students the clues they need to find the answer.

Common Errors

We can tell students typical mistakes and ask them for the correct vocabulary.

For example, we could say that “people often say “cook a cake,” but instead we say…”

Or, “instead of saying fireman, we can say this to make it inclusive to both men and women…”

Mind Maps

We can use mind maps to encourage students to think about a topic in detail and use the branches to express what we want them to talk about.

Eliciting in Teaching Grammar

We can help prepare students for the real world by trying some grammar eliciting techniques.

Conversation Prompts

To elicit grammar techniques, we can have a conversation prompt that will require them to use the new grammatical structure.

We can also ask the students many questions to figure out the grammatical structure, such as if it is in the past, present, or future, how many verbs they can see, or to find some examples of it in the text.

Pictures

We can use pictures to elicit the appropriate grammatical responses.

For example, by asking them what the people are doing in the picture, we can practice the present progressive.

Examples

We can also get the students to give their own relevant examples using the grammar construction the teacher had just taught them.

Tips for Eliciting

• We can use eliciting techniques throughout the lesson to help students recall information

• Ask open-ended questions for higher-level, ask guided questions for lower levels

• Learners can also work in groups and elicit from each other, particularly in brainstorming activities

• Provide enough context or information

• Manage silences with further input but give them enough time to answer

• When you receive the elicited response, concept check with the other students to make sure they understand it too

• We can encourage quiet students by asking different parts of the room to speak, rather than calling on them directly

Follow Up with Concept Checking Questions

If someone elicits an appropriate response, that’s great! But we still have to make sure the other students know what they are talking about through concept-checking questions.

Concept-checking questions clarify the function or meaning of the language. Simple “what, why, where, when, how” questions or “yes, no” questions should work well here.

Don’t Overuse Eliciting.

Eliciting techniques are a fun way to get students thinking, but don’t make the entire class a guessing game.

Prepare to elicit certain things in class but not everything, which may actually create a counterproductive student experience.

Eliciting Video

To see eliciting in action in the classroom, watch this short video:

Benefits of Eliciting Techniques

• It reduces teacher talk time, and the class becomes more center-focused.

• It can help promote teamwork if students have to work in groups to answer.

• It motivates students and gets them thinking.

• It helps students build upon their foundation of knowledge.

• It builds the students’ problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

• It helps foster the students’ confidence and English knowledge without spoon-feeding them.

• It allows for more interaction and productive thinking.

What if they can’t guess the answer?

You can give them some more obvious clues, but if they still can’t guess the answer, then you can give it to them.

What if they get the answer wrong?

Never say that students are wrong because that is humiliating. Ask several students the same question or move on, don’t focus on the wrong answer. Or offer alternative answers to get the student thinking further.

In Conclusion

Eliciting techniques are an important part of the ESL classroom.

Teachers can use these techniques to invoke thinking and encourage students to get involved in the lesson.

There are a variety of ways that teachers can elicit answers from the students, such as visual prompts, brainstorming, or paraphrasing.

Teachers can follow up with some concept-checking questions to ensure the rest of the students understand before moving on.

Useful Links

• Guiding Questions for students

• 12 Scaffolding Techniques to implement in your classroom

• Best Practices for Online Teachers

• How to Use Loom for Teaching

• Teach online with no experience (companies hiring)

https://www.tprteaching.com/eliciting-techniques/

5 Ways to Elicit Effectively in the EFL Classroom

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Home » Blog » 2018 » March » 5 Ways to Elicit Effectively in the EFL Classroom

Published 8th March 2018

One of the many teaching techniques we can use in the English as a foreign language classroom is eliciting.

Eliciting is a range of techniques which are used by teachers to get information from students. Eliciting is used to

get students to come up with vocabulary items, word meanings, ideas or associations.

Why do we use elicitation in the EFL classroom?

More and more we are moving towards student-centred classrooms. Traditionally, teachers stood at the front of the

classroom and gave information to students who were passive participants in the lesson, but these days we prefer to

give the students more power in the lesson and allow them to do more work. As a result, instead of the teacher giving

answers to the students all the time, we encourage the students to contribute what they already know to the lesson.

This further helps them to build on their foundation of knowledge.

How can we use elicitation in the EFL classroom?

There are a few guidelines for eliciting:

Use pictures

Pictures are the easiest way to elicit a particular item, especially if a word lends itself to visual representation.

Use pictures whenever you can but be careful that your pictures are not ambiguous.

Use actions

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 description

If a picture won’t work, describe the word or situation. Use definitions, synonyms and antonyms to provide a context to

try to elicit words or meaning.

Don’t try to elicit everything

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.

Don’t flog a dead horse

Sometimes even with the best of intentions, our students won’t know what on earth we are trying to elicit and will guess everything

under the sun except what we are looking for. 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.

https://www.theteflacademy.com/blog/2018/03/5-ways-to-elicit-effectively-in-the-efl-classroom/

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