Input session · CELTA
Getting language out of students instead of putting it in. A lead-in, eleven ways to elicit, a practice table, then your turn.
Two teachers, same target word. Read both, then click to reveal who is eliciting and who is telling.
Eleven ways to get language out of students instead of giving it to them. Click each card.
Item 1 is done for you as an example. For items 2 to 7, write the meaning and your own CCQs, then reveal to compare.
In groups, choose at least 5 of these words. For each one, plan how you would elicit it (which technique?), then write one CCQ to check it. Take turns eliciting and checking each other's words.
Open the page on the screen; trainees can follow on their own devices for the practice table. Nothing to print unless you want the practice table on paper: Print the handout gives it with the answers hidden.
| Stage | What you do |
|---|---|
| Spot the elicitor | Read both teachers aloud yourself, with the voices. Ask the room who is eliciting before anyone clicks. Then click, and ask what Teacher B did that A did not: built a situation, left the word for them. |
| Ways to elicit | Click through the eleven as a class, but make them guess the technique from the example first, not the other way round. Ask for a twelfth of their own; there is always one (translation, a song, a smell). |
| Practice table | Item 1 is done. Do item 2 together on the board before they touch the page: meaning in plain words first, CCQs second. Then pairs on 3 to 7, reveal as they finish, not all at once. |
| Your turn | Pairs. Each pair takes two words (the pair tags are on the cards), plans the elicitation and one CCQ, then elicits their words from another pair. Monitor for CCQs that use the target word. |
| Close | One sentence each: the technique you will use in your next TP, and the word. |
The practice table’s meanings and CCQs are on the page behind Reveal answer; they are made up for this session. The practice words in Your turn have no key: any technique that gets the word out of a student is right, and any CCQ with a yes-or-no or short answer that does not contain the word is right.
Sources. The practice table's sentences, meanings and CCQs are made up for this session. The technique of concept questions and time lines is standard on initial teacher training courses; see Graham Workman, Concept Questions and Time Lines (Gem Publishing, 2005).