Effectiveness of elicitation in teaching English and literature to high-level learners Abstract

Effectiveness of elicitation in teaching English and literature to high-level learners
Abstract. This paper attempts to show the modern usage of elicitation in teaching methodology which is defined as a powerful diagnostic tool for ESL teachers and independent learners. Elicitation is one of the most effective approaches to help learners become more productive and attentive in a classroom. If it is conducted as a well-organized and innovative part of the lesson planning, it can be a perfect hands-on approach. Thus, the paper discusses the main key points and techniques that explain how to use elicitation in concordance with the latest technologies.
Keywords: elicitation, elicitation techniques, online websites, Kahoot, classroom interaction, lecturers.

An elicitation is a valuable approach in identifying students’ knowledge and at the same time explaining a particular language level not by using grammar rules or textbooks, but by asking quite appropriate questions which students can create a rule by themselves unconsciously. Sinclair and Coulthard first introduce the term elicitation in 1975 to describe utterances in the classroom, which elicit verbal responses (Ramiro, 2002, p. 477). Further, Tsui (as in Jafari 2014, p. 3) adopted this term and defines it as any utterance whose function is to elicit an obligatory verbal response. In the teaching process, rather than using traditional methods based on a teacher-centered atmosphere, making learners respond actively comes first when using elicitation. According to Scrivener (2012), eliciting is a technique of drawing information from students, generally by asking questions, instead of using a teacher's explanation. It leads to greater involvement, encourages thinking, and pushes students to self-discoveries. Nunan (1999, p. 306) describes elicitation as a procedure by which teachers stimulate students to produce a sample of the structure, function, and vocabulary items being taught. It is a standard procedure for the teachers to present the word meaning, for example by showing a picture and asking them to supply the form (Thornbury, 2013, p. 87).

Briefly, elicitation plays an influential role in classroom interaction by making students work with peers and their teachers actively. According to some research at the universities, most students can easily get bored and prefer not to participate in the lesson because of already have exact knowledge in the field of learning general English. It is challenging for lecturers to get the audience’s eyes on the whole lesson. For this purpose, elicitating techniques can be an indispensable tool that can catch the students’ attention and motivate them to interact with great interest.
Darn S. mentioned that eliciting is based on several premises:

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  Collectively, students have a great deal of knowledge, both of the language and the real world. This knowledge needs to be activated and used constructively
  
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  The teaching of new knowledge is often based on what the learners already know
  
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  Questioning assists in self-discovery, which makes information more memorable.
  

In this case, it can be shown that with the help of eliciting techniques learners try to gain more knowledge in the discussion part and also piece together with their peers to give their thoughts. Once they answer more deeply, they begin to understand the gist of the particular topic without being stuck in a great deal of information in the lecture or presentation. However, it truly depends on the teacher’s well-educated experience and ability that can lay to be able to create an appropriate lesson planning by adding elicitation in the right place. Alsubaie (2015) observes that teachers need to work harder on their elicitation skills, especially the ability to ask open questions to practice actual elicitation in the classroom, which will generate learners' more comprehensive responses and classroom interaction. For instance, rather than asking questions like: ‘What do you know about..?’ or ‘ What is this term .?’, it can be more efficient to give two definitions to a particular term and then ask learners to give their own opinions or suggestions.
Eliciting is not limited to language and global knowledge. The teacher can elicit anything based on learners’ characteristics like ideas, feelings, meaning, situations, associations, and memories. For the teacher, eliciting is a helpful and useful tool, providing key information about what the learners know or don't know, and therefore a starting point for lesson planning. Eliciting also encourages teachers to be flexible and to move on rather than dwell on information that is already known( Darn S. ). If it is a topic-based lesson, it can be much more efficient to elicit students’ current knowledge and their understanding of the topic on their own. This can be conducted with the aid of brainstorming activities or authentic materials. They can help students to come up with ideas related to the topic, because of their deep interest in the lesson, they spontaneously start to search for new information and think about its usefulness or importance. Nowadays, thanks to the latest technologies it is much easier and handier to find out more useful activities or websites which ease teachers’ work. It is also beneficial if they use online websites to motivate students more with the combination of elicitation. As an example, Kahoot online teaching and learning platform is an absolutely useful one. To develop students’ critical thinking and independent learning abilities, utilizing the Kahoot platform with elicitation can make successful progress, not only in explaining a topic attractively but also making the lesson more memorable over a long period. Because elicitation is somehow similar to the inductive method firstly using questions, debates, and warm-up activities, creating Kahoot games can be an additional useful way of conducting the lesson more creatively, informatively, and innovative. In general, elicitation can be the most efficient approach in any position of the lesson if it is used correctly by well-experienced teachers. It promotes the notion of exchanging current knowledge and establishing new ones with an active endeavor of the teacher and students.