Elicitation: A Powerful Diagnostic Tool for Actively Involving Learners in the Learning Process

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the importance of elicitation in language classrooms for teachers and learners as well. Elicitation helps in motivating English language learners. Most of the teachers think that applying elicitation in language classrooms promotes interest among students, set a stress free environment, and increases students' participation. However, all teachers do not share the same attitude towards elicitation because of some drawbacks. Therefore, this paper discusses the effectiveness of using elicitation as a powerful diagnostic tool for actively involving learners in the language classrooms, the merits and demerits of elicitation, necessity of language teachers to focus on this technique in a skilled way that helps the learners develop their English language skills, and some factors affecting the teachers in using the elicitation techniques. For this purpose, a mini-research was conducted where 30 undergraduate students and 15 non-native language teachers of a university in Saudi Arabia were chosen as participants in carrying out the study. This paper also offers some suggestions for both experienced and novice teachers to focus on some criteria for applying elicitation techniques for motivating students and having variety in the language class.