68 Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together
The pros and cons of using this technique are set out in the following list, but
most teachers find it very useful.
The pros first:
✓ Eliciting keeps your class on their toes. They’re interested and involved
because they have constant opportunities for interaction. Passively lis-
tening for extended periods is dull, so in EFL you rarely give lecture-style
presentations.
✓ Eliciting gets the students guessing. When you ask them questions they
try to work things out spontaneously. This is a great skill because in
the real world your students often have to take a stab at the meaning of
words or sentences and may not have anyone there to explain. So, being
prepared to have a go and guess is a good habit.
✓ Students really understand what’s going on. When you elicit, you’re
getting regular feedback from the students so you can gauge whether or
not they’re with you, so to speak.
✓ You reduce Teacher Talking Time (TTT). As the students should do
most of the talking in a lesson, eliciting allows you to reduce TTT and
instead, keep students interacting with you.
Eliciting has a few drawbacks, though:
✓ It can drag on. If your students don’t get the point quickly (possibly
because you’re asking the wrong questions) this stage of the lesson can
be rather long and drawn out. It’s definitely quicker to just tell the stu-
dents what’s what.
✓ It encourages dominant students. Far be it from me to suggest that you
may have a teacher’s pet in your class but it has been known to happen.
Sometimes you have one student who has their hand up permanently, or
who you know is pretty smart, so that one student ends up answering all
the elicitation questions. This is obviously annoying for everyone else.
✓ Poor or excessive eliciting may put students’ backs up. If your ques-
tions are too easy the class may feel that you’re somewhat condescend-
ing and refuse to answer. The class may also wonder whether you’re
capable of uttering a simple statement if you seem to turn everything
into a question.
With these points in mind, follow a few suggestions when eliciting to make it a
positive experience for your students:
✓ Make sure that your questions have a definite answer that the class has
a good chance of guessing or knowing – no vague questions.
