THEME ((TECHNIQUES FOR ELICITING NEW VOCABULARY AT UPPER – SECONDARY SCHOOL))

Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

CONTENTS
A. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH
B. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
C. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
D. MAIN CONTENT
I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. What is Eliciting?
2. Eliciting Lexis (Vocabulary)
3. Principles and advantages
II. TECHNIQUES FOR ELICITING NEW VOCABULARY
1. Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary.
2. Demonstration.
3. Some suggestions for the teachers.
E. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
F. CONCLUSION
G. REFERENCE BOOKS

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

A. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH
Vocabulary is one of the important aspects of language to teach. There are
many quotations from famous linguistics to support this idea. For example,
"Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can
be conveyed." (Wilkins 1972:111) and "When students travel, they don't carry
grammar books, they carry dictionaries." (Krashen in Lewis 1993: iii).
Moreover, errors of vocabulary are potentially more misleading than those of

grammar. Sometimes the context of the utterance would lead a listener to
question their first interpretation, but a chance response such as "Yes, my father
has an affair in that village'(confusing the Swedish affar meaning 'shop' with the
English 'affair' which can mean 'extra-marital relationship') gives the listener the
wrong impression. From above, you will see the importance of vocabulary.
Hence teachers should know how to present vocabulary effectively in order to
help student develop vocabulary.
B. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
- To introducing eliciting new vocabulary and showing its benefits.
- To show ways of eliciting new vocabulary.
- To show how new vocabulary can be presented for various classroom
activities.
- To draw out what the learners know through their relationship to the
words they understand.
C. SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD
- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Le Hoan
upper-secondary school.
- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of organizing activities in
the class.
- Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other
teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
D. CONTENT
I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. What is Eliciting?
Synonyms: searching, drawing out, discovering, realizing, understanding.
Eliciting is a technique used by the teacher during the lesson that involves the
language learner in the process of discovering and understanding language.
Anything in the lesson can be elicited: vocabulary, grammar, experiences,
and ideas. The objective of eliciting is to allow the learners the chance to
participate in the learning process by letting them express their acquired or

intuitive knowledge, and through critical thinking which will enhance their
language abilities by adding to what they already know.
To understand what effective eliciting is, it will help to know what it is
not. Eliciting is not asking, “What does ________mean?” It is not a “you
should know this” question similar to that used by a teacher in an academic
setting. It is not a vague, trivia-based question in which the learner must provide
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

some definition similar to a word game or puzzle. Eliciting draws out what the
learners know through their relationship to the words they understand. But
further than that, it allows the teacher to see what the learner knows, and so
permits the teacher to add to their knowledge.
The key to successful eliciting lies in an artful interaction between the
teacher and the learner. There is no special time for eliciting to occur during the
lesson. It can be used as needed—during any of the engage, study and activate
sections of the lesson.
2. Eliciting Lexis (Vocabulary)
Let’s say that there is a text about the common cold. Let’s say you want to
present this reading to your learners. How can you prepare them to wholly
understand the text? By engaging them through eliciting, you can start talking
about health in general and then more personally and specifically: For example,
the teacher elicits:
What kinds of health problems are common in most people?
What kinds of common health problems do you suffer from?
Within text, you will need to determine the key lexis or vocabulary for
this reading. You will decide on the key lexis based on your knowledge of your
learners and what you feel is essential for them to understand, before they read,

in order to get the gist of the text. Some of the words they may already know,
some may be new to them. Whatever the case, you will try to get your learners
to use these words in order to show they understand them. Otherwise, you can
use them yourself interactively through discussion of the theme, by asking
questions and using the key words in context.
For the example of a text on the common cold, you could start by having
your learners will start out by providing you with some of the basic, general
language about common illnesses---words and phrases they know already. You
can write these words and phrases on the board as they bring them up,
organizing them into parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. Later, you’ll
be able to erase all but the key words located in your text.
For example, let’s assume that most of your learners know the words “a
cold” and “a virus”, but you aren’t sure they know the verb, “to spread”. The
teacher elicits:
A virus can spread colds. What other illnesses can be spread?
Assuming the learners already know the meaning of colds and/or virus,
they can deduce the meaning of SPREAD from context. If the teacher adds a
gesture to show SPREAD (I.e., using your hands to sweep across the room is a
spreading gesture), then the learners will most certainly access meaning.
The teacher shouldn’t assume, however, that the learners have understood
the word(s) by the assent of the learners (by their saying only the word, or
merely nodding their heads). The teacher will then want to CONCEPT CHECK
meaning by asking something like, “What other illness can be spread?” The
teacher should expect to hear something like, “the flu can be spread, or malaria,
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

or AIDS.” By doing this, the teacher ensures that everyone has understood its

precise meaning (see Concept Checking).
Eliciting is often used to pre-teach key vocabulary (words that will appear
in the study and activate stages of the lesson). In doing this stage interactively,
with the teacher and the learners collaborating and negotiating language (teacher
draws out, learners discover, and together you arrive at understanding), the
learners will more likely hold onto the meaning of these words not only in the
lesson, but beyond it.
Effective eliciting of lexis can enhance the learners’ overall understanding
of a lesson, especially in reading and listening lessons. Effective ways to elicit:
Ask, “What is another way to say ______?” For example: What is
another way to say that you are very, very hungry? (I'm starving)
Provide a simple definition. For example: It is something that we drink
hot coffee and tea out of. (a mug)
Act it out. For example: Wipe your brow and pretend to fall. Then ask,
“What did I do?” (I fainted)
Ask, “What is the opposite of ______?” For example: What is the
opposite of tall? (short)
Use a visual. For example: Shoe a picture of two people who look the
same and ask, “What do we call two people who look the same?” (identical
twins).
3. Principles and advantages
Eliciting is based on several premises:
Collectively, students have a great deal of knowledge, both of the
language and of the real world. This knowledge needs to be activated and used
constructively.
The teaching of new knowledge is often based on what the learners
already know.
Questioning assists in self-discovery, which makes information more
memorable.
Eliciting helps to develop a learner-centred classroom and a stimulating

environment, while making learning memorable by linking new and old
information. Eliciting is not limited to language and global knowledge. The
teacher can elicit ideas, feelings, meaning, situations, associations and
memories. For the teacher, eliciting is a powerful diagnostic 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 which is already known.
II. TECHNIQUES FOR ELICITING NEW VOCABULARY
What’s your favorite way to elicit new vocabulary? Do you mime, or
draw, or do something else? Please share in the comments below!
1. Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary.
1.1. Opposites
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

This works for certain adjectives, verbs, nouns, adverbs, determiners etc,
e.g. “What’s the opposite of dark/ stop/ an idiot/ suddenly/ few?”
1.2. Ranks, sequences and sliding scales
We can extend the idea of giving opposites to include things that could be
written with two opposites as steps on a scale, e.g. (words you are trying to elicit
in brackets) “What comes next? Cold, hot, (boiling)/ Dislike, like, (love)” This
can be extended to anything else that could be seen to have some kind of
sequence such as “pupil, undergraduate, (graduate)”, “tap, hit, (bash)” or “today,
yesterday, (the day before yesterday)”.
1.3. Similarities
This is another good way of eliciting “the day before yesterday”- “If
tomorrow is followed by the day after tomorrow, what is yesterday preceded
by?” This works for word forms (e.g. “the noun of ‘act’ is made the same way as

the noun for ‘connect’ that we learnt last week”) and similarities inspelling and
pronunciation (e.g. “It has the same spelling/pronunciation/grammatical form as
‘bought’”).
1.4. Definitions
This is the technique that new teachers tend to use most often and most
naturally. This is perhaps because we often use it when we really can’t
remember a word or name in our own language and are hoping the person we
are speaking to can come up with it or at least understand what we are talking
about anyway, as in “I need one of those, what do you call them? Things to get
your car off the ground so you can change a tyre” “A jack?” “Yes, that’s it.”
You can make the definitions you use to elicit in class easier to come up with
and understand by writing all the definitions you are going to use on your lesson
plan, taking them straight out of a dictionary or the teacher’s book, writing the
definition up on the board as well as or instead of saying it, or only using words
they should know at that level (perhaps from a vocabulary list) when writing
definitions. You might also want to have a plan B definition in case the first one
is not understood or is confused with another word.
1.5. Synonyms
If you are lucky, you won’t need to go through a whole long definition if
there is a word that means approximately the same (it doesn’t always matter if it
is not an exact synonym as long as it produces the word you want, but make sure
that it doesn’t reinforce their wrong idea that two different words are the same).
You can increase your chances of using this method successfully and often by
getting the students used to doing exercises on synonyms in class and for
homework. If there are several synonyms, you might want to check with a
teacher with more knowledge of students with that L1 which of them is more
likely to be familiar because it is similar to their own language, is more often
studied in the school system, is part of a well known product name etc.
1.6. When we talked about it before

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

Another method we use naturally in our normal speech we can exploit in
the classroom is “Who was that actor we were talking about yesterday? You
remember, when we were talking about films that we hate. That’s right, Beat
Takeshi. Well, he…” with variations like “Remember the word everyone had
problems with in the test?” and “What was the word for the kind of shop that we
did a roleplay about last week?”
1.7. Memory
The idea of getting them to remember things to elicit words can be
extended to, for example, seeing if they can remember a word from a dialogue
they have just been doing, e.g. “What was the third product he asked for in the
shop?”
1.8. Gaps
This could mean a word with letters blanked out, a typical sentences with
the word or expression you are trying to elicit blanked out, or a combination of
the two, e.g. “He let the c_t out of the bag”. This can be used with spoken
elicitation as well as written elicitation by humming the missing part of the
sentence.
1.9. Stress clues
By humming the rhythm of the word or drawing its stress pattern on the
board, you can help students work out which of several similar words you are
trying to elicit from them.
1.10. Multiple choice
You can really go for it with giving clues by telling students options they
can choose from, although if you have chosen this method because students
actually have no idea of the answer this makes it more of a presentation than an

elicitation.
1.11. Brainstorm
Although not many people think of it this way, brainstorming is basically
a form of eliciting but without the words you want them to come up with
necessarily being defined. A brainstorming stage can then be moved onto a more
traditional elicitation by showing them which of words they have already given
you is most similar to the one you want.
1.12. Spider diagrams/ Mind maps
Brainstorming can also be done in a more organised manner with words
being added to categories and subcategories like the branches and twigs of a
tree. You can then point to the place where the word you want to elicit would be
if it was on that mind map, using other elicitation methods to help them work
out which of the possibilities that could be there you are thinking of.
1.13. Common mistakes
Another technique that teachers don’t often think of combining with
elicitation is talking about errors, but in fact giving hints about what mistakes
students make with a word or expression can be a great hint about which one
you are thinking of (e.g. “People often confuse it with ‘butter’, but it has flour
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

and is put on something that you deep fry” for “batter”, or “Spanish speakers
often think it means pregnant, but it actually means ashamed” for
“embarrassed”). This technique can also lead onto talking about subjects like
false friends, pronunciation mistakes, negative and positive connotations
(“People who call someone fat should probably use this word that we learnt last
term instead”) and formality mistakes (“Although some people write ‘hello’ at
the beginning of a business email, the word we want starts with ‘d’ and is…?”)

1.14. Visuals
Just like your students when they get totally stuck communicating in
English during their travels, you might find that a quick sketch is the only way
to get them to understand and produce the word or expression that you mean. In
you think a picture might be the best way of explaining something, you also
have the option of using a flashcard or a printout from the internet (try searching
in the images option of Google).
1.15. Multimedia
If you have internet access in the classroom, there is also the option to just
search for an image as the topic comes up (as long as the students can’t see the
search terms you are using, as this means there is nothing left to elicit!) Using
video takes a lot more preparation, but you could use a very short clip to elicit
the name of something you can see on a video, or even something that is going
to appear but hasn’t yet.
2. Demonstration
Visuals:
Examples 1: A car
A4 card or blackboard

Examples 2: Athletic
Magazine picture

Mime
Example: cold
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

T: mimes feeling cold

T. asks, “How do I feel?”
Example: (to) fly a kite
T. mimes flying a kite
T. asks, “What am I doing?”
Realia
Example: bananas (count.), rice (uncount.)
T. brings real bananas and rice into class.
T. asks, “What’s this?”
Example: open (adj), closed (adj)
T. opens and closes the door.
T. says, “Tell me about the door: It’s…what?”
Situation/ Explaination
Example 1: honest
T. explains, “I don’t tell lies. I don’t cheat in the exam. I tell the truth.”
T. asks, “What am I? tell me the word in Vietnamese.” Good. Now listen
to it in English “Honest”.
Example 2: Furniture:
T. lists examples of furniture: “Table, chairs, beds – these are
all….(Furniture)…. Give me another example of….(Furniture).
Example 3: (to) complain.
T. says, “The bed is too hard. I don’t like it. The room is too small. It’s no
good, etc.”
T. asks, “What am I doing?”
Synonym/ Antonym
Example 1: Intelligent
T. asks, “What’s another word for clever?”
Example 2: stupid
T. asks, “What’s the opposite of clever?”
Translation
Example: (to) forget

T. asks, “How do you say “quên” in English?”
2. Some suggestions for the teachers
Each teacher has ways to teach new words. Whatever teaching style are
used the suggestions which may help teachers are followings:
2.1. Teacher has to prepare the way to show meaning. For example, if
the words which the teacher is going to present are concrete, the teacher
should prepare picture of those words to present.
2.2. Teacher has to ask students to tell the meaning first in order to
elicit meaning from students before they offer the meaning.

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

2.3. Teacher has to think about how to show the meaning of a word
with related words such as synonyms, antonyms etc. Moreover, the example
words should be the word that students are already known.
2.4. Teacher has to think about how to check students' understanding.
2.5. Teacher has to think about the context in real situation where the
words might be used in order to relate learning language to real life and also
promotes high motivation.
2.6. Teacher should review the vocabulary via a game or activity in
order to motivate them in learning.
2.7. Teacher should give them some assignment by telling them to
read, watch films, listen to songs etc and note the useful word. It is a good
way to study vocabulary by themselves.
2.8. Teacher should have a section of board for vocabulary items that
come up while teacher are teaching. Use different colours for the word / the
phonetics /the part of speech.

2.9. It is a good idea to teach vocabulary with associated meanings
together.
2.10. Teacher should encourage students to use a good dictionary.
2.11. Whenever the student asks the word that has never heard of the
word, you tell the student that you will check and get back to them later.
2.12. Teacher should enough examples sentences to make sure that the
students understand what the teacher taught and give extra example if the
students are unsure and encourage them to write the word in an example
sentence.
E. APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Unit 9: Deserts
Lesson 1: Reading
Class: 12A1, 12A6, 12A11.
I. Objectives
By the end of the lesson Ss will be able to:
- understand the passage about deserts and scan for specific information.
- use vocabulary related to the topic of the lesson through exercises.
II. Teaching aids
- Textbook, chalk, posters, pictures.
III. Procedures
TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES
STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES
I. WARM – UP ( 5 min.)
- Ask Ss to look at pictures in their Discuss and answer the questions
textbooks and discuss the questions
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

below

Answers' suggestion:
1. What is the name of the animal?
1. It is a camel
2. Where does it live?
2. It lives in deserts
3. How are deserts?
3. They are dry, hot. Dunes are
4. Name some deserts (Sahara, around deserts.
Simpson, Gobbon...)
4. They are: Sahara, Simpson,
* Introduce the title of the lesson U9: Sonoran (Bac My), King Canyon
DESERTS
(Uc)
Today we're going to read about
- Ss pay attention and answer the
Simpson desert.
questions.
II. PRESENTATION ( 35 min.)
II. PRESENTATION
1. Pre- reading: Guess the meaning of - Ss pay attention and take notes
some words
 Vocabulary:
- to comprise :
- enormous (adj)
- mystery (n)
- corridor (n):
- stable (a)
- shrubland (n)

elicits the new words:
a. (to) comprise: T. uses synonym to
elicit the verb.
(to) comprise: “(to) include or (to)
consist of”
T. asks “What does it mean in - Ss answer: bao g m.
Vietnamese?”
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

b. enormous (a):
T. uses synonym to elicit the word.
“enormous”: extremely large.
T. asks “What does it mean in - Ss answer: h ng l , to l n.
Vietnamese?”
c. mystery (n):
T. uses explaination to elicit the word.
“Mystery” means something secret.
T. asks Ss, “What does it mean in - Ss answer: i u b n
Vietnamese?
d. corridor (n)
T. uses visual aids (a picture of a
corridor)

- T. asks “What can you see in the - Ss answer: M t h nh lang nh
picture?”
- T says “Yes, it is. So Corridor means
e. stable (a):

T. uses explaination to elicit the word.
Stable means “not likely to move or
change”
- T. asks “What does it means in - Ss answer: n nh , c
nh.
Vietnamese?”
f. shrub-land:
- T. uses translation.
shrub-land: v ng t c nhi u c y b i.
* Rub out remember
2. While reading :
Task 1: Checking the vocabulary :
Task1:
Give
the
Vietnamese Matching (a poster)
equivalents to the following words or
phrases
- Ask students to read through the text A (English)
B (Vietnamese)
once to find out some new words,
- cuéc kh¶o
- 'aerial servey
guess the main idea.
s¸t
trªn
- Ask Ss to read the passage silently,
kh«ng
- dune
stop when they meet a new word or a

- ®ôn c¸t.
- sloping
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper secondary school

phrase and find words or phrases in
the passage which have the following
meaning given in the Task 1.
- Give feedback.

cồn cát
dốc
thoai
thoải
- gò , đống
- thổ dân úc

- hummock
Australian
Aborigine
- crest
- spinifex
- stretch
- đỉnh , nóc
-Royal
- cỏ lá nhọn
Geographical
Society

of - kéo dài,
căng ra
Australia
- Hội địa lí
- steep
hoàng gia Uc
- Sandy
- dốc đứng
- có cát

Task 2: Decide whether the following
statements are true (T) or false (F):
- Guide Ss the way to do Task 2 and Task 2:
ask them to work in pairs
- Get Ss to check theirs answers and
explain their choices.
- T calls on some Ss to read theirs
answers and explain their choices.
1. F (There are five: the Great
Victoria, the Gibbon, Great Sandy,
Tanami and Simpson)
2. F (Simpson is the last part of
Australia.
3. T (Until Madigan made an aerial
survey in 1929, he ...)
4. F (Colson and Australia
Aborigine)
5. F (In the western ...., there is a
network of short dunes, and in the
northern part ..., the dunes are ...)

- T comments and gives feedbacks.
6. T (In the northern .... dry salt
Task 3: Answer the following
lakes ....)
questions
- Ask Ss to read the passage silently Task 3:
and answer the questions individually 1. There are Great Victoria Deserts,
- Ask Ss to work in pairs to compare Gibbon, Great Sandy, Tanami
deserts and Simpson Deserts.
their answers.
- Call on some Ss to write the answers 2. It lies between Lake Eyre in the
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

on the board.
- Check with the class.
- Give feedback.

3. Post reading: * Read this story and
answer the questions.
- Ask Ss to work in pairs
- Go around for help
- Call on some pairs to present
- Give comments .

III. CONSOLIDATION &
HOMEWORK ( 5')
- Learn vocabulary

- Prepare section B - SPEAKING

south, the Macdonnel Ranges in the
north, the Mulligan and the
Diamantia Rivers in the east and the
Macumba and Finke Rivers in the
west.
3. In 1845
4. He was the president of the South
Autralian Branch of the Royal
Geographical Society of Australia.
5. They took camels across the
desert.
6. In the west part, they are short,
mostly less than 10 meters high, and
in the northern part, they are parallel
and are up to 20 meters high.
7.Two. They are hummock grasses
and spinifex.
- Ss read the story silently,
individually and answer the
following questions.
1. I think it is funny
2. dessert (mãn tr¸ng miÖng)
and desert (sa m¹c)
- Do exercise at class

UNIT 11: NATIONAL PARKS
Lesson 3 – LISTENING
Class: 10A2

I. Objectives:
1. Knowlege: After the lesson students are able to understand the information
about Cuc Phuong National Park
2. Skills: Help the students to practise listening main ideas and getting the
information about Cuc Phuong National Park to do the multiple choice practice.
3. Attitudes: Motivate students, help them take interests in the subject and be
aware of the conservation.
II. Preparation:
1. Teacher’s preparation: Textbook, pictures, chalks, lesson-plan, handout....
2. Students’preparation: Textbooks, pens, pencils.....
III. Procedure:
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

1. Check the previuos lesson.
Lead to the new lesson
Teacher’s activities
WARM UP (4’)
- Ask Ss to work in groups close your
book and answer question:
Write down some names of National
Parks In Viet Nam?
- Give comments and present new lesson:
Unit 11 (cont) – C. Listening
2. The new lesson
Teacher’s activities
I – BEFORE YOU LISTEN (10’)
Introduce the new lesson: You are going

to listen to a passage about Cuc Phuong
National Park.
-Ask Ss to work in pairs to discuss the
following questions:
1. Where is Cuc Phuong National Park?
2. What is the area of the rainforest in Cuc
Phuong National Park?
3. When is the best time to visit Cuc
Phuong National Park?
4. What can be seen in Cuc Phuong
National Park?
- Go around helping if necessary.
- Call on some to answer out loud.
- Give comments and correct answers.
- Elicit some of the words given in the
book or those taken from the listening
passage.
threatened and endangered species:
ethnic minority:
flora
(n)
fauna
(n)
defeat
(v)

Students’ activities
- Work in groups to answer:
Suggested answers:
Cat Ba, Cat Tien, Cuc Phuong , U

Mi , ……

Students’ activities

- Work in pairs to answer
questions:
Suggested answers:
1. It is south west of Ha Noi.
2. It contains over 200 square
kilometers of rainforest.
3. It is during the dry season, from
October to April, when rainy
season is over.
4. Butterflies, caves, mountains
and 1000-year old trees can be
seen there.
- Give the answers.
- Listen and write down.

a. Threatened and endangered species
T. uses explaination to elicit the phrase.
“Tigers, lions, elephants, etc. are
threatened and endangered species.”
T. asks “What does the phrase mean?”
- Ss answer: Các loài bị đe dọa và
nguy hiểm
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

b. ethnic minority (np):
- T uses visual aids and asks “who are - Ss answer: Ng
they in Vietnamese?”
s .

- --T says “so the phrase means dân tộc thiểu
số
c. flora (n)
T. uses translation
Flora (n): hệ thực vật
d. Fauna (n)
T. uses antonym
The meaning of fauna is opposite to the
meaning of flora.
e. defeat (v)
T. uses situation to elicit the verb.
Exmple 1:
Vietnam football team defeated Thailand
football team with the score 3 – 0 in 1998.
example 2: We defeated French Colony
and American invaders in the past.
T. asks students “so what do you think
about the meaning of the verb ‘defeat’?”
- Read the new words and words in the
textbook once.
- Ask Ss to read in chorus after T.
- Call on some Ss to read out loud.
- Correct Ss’ mistakes of pronunciation.
II – WHILE YOU LISTEN (20’)

Task 1 (8’): Filling missing information
and verifying the guesses.
Giving instruction: you are going to
listen to a passage to fill in the missing
information and check your answers to the
quiz.

- Students say: hệ

- Ss say: đá

i d n t c thi u

ng vật.

bại

- Listen to T.
- Read after T.
- Read aloud in front of the class.
- Work individually to read the
sentences.

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

* Give handout
- Before Ss listen and do the task, instruct

them to use some strategies:
+ Read the sentences carefully:
* Try to work out what they are going to
hear.
* Anticipate the grammatical form as well
as vocabulary.
+ Fill in each blank as they listen. The - Listen to the tape.
information will be given in the same - Check the answers with a friend.
order as the sentences although it may be
expressed differently.
- Play/read the tape three times.
- Let them have some minutes to check
their answers with a friend, If a lot of Ss
have the same wrong answer, play the tape
again for Ss to check the answers.
- Call on some Ss to give answers.
- Some Ss give answers:
1. A
2. B
3. D
4. A
5. B
- Give comments and feedbacks.
Task 2: (12’) Chossing the best answer
for question 1, 2, 4 and decide T or F for
question 3, 5
Giving instruction: You listen to the tape
again to choose the best answer for each
question.
* Give handout

- Instruct Ss to use some strategies to do
the task:
+ Ask Ss to read the questions to
understand them and underline key words.
+ Listen to the tape and pay attention to
the key words.
+ Choose the answers.

- Read the questions to understand
them and underline key words:
1. how many provinces, belong to
2. how far, Hanoi to Cuc Phuong
3. what, come to Cuc Phuong for
4. when, Nguyen Hue defeat the
Qing invader
5. Muong ethnic minority, live
mainly on.

- Listen to the tape to check their
answers.

- Play/read the tape once for Ss to check
their answers.
- Ask Ss to work in pairs to compare their - Work in pairs to compare their
answers.
answers.
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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

- Calling on some Ss to explain their - Explain their answers
answers.
Answer:
1. B
2. C
3. F
- Give comments and feedbacks.
4. D
5. F
III – AFTER YOU LISTEN (7’)
* Elicit some pictures
- Ask Ss to work individually to write - Work individually to write about
about the special features of Cuc Phuong the special features of Cuc Phuong
National Park in five minutes.
National Park in five minutes.
- After 5 minutes T tells them to stop
- Read his/her sentences out loud.
writing and ask them the number of
Other Ss listen and comment.
sentences they can write. The Ss with the
biggest number of sentences will read
his/her sentences out loud. Other Ss listen
and comment.
3. Consolidation: (2’)
- Summarize the main points of the lesson:
+ New words that related to the lesson.
+ Some main, special features of Cuc Phuong National Park.
4. Homework: (2’)
- Learn by heart all the new words.

- Remember Some main, special features of Cuc Phuong National Park..
- Prepare for new lesson.
* Handout
Task 1 (8’): Filling missing information and verifying the guesses.
1. Cuc Phuong National Park was officially opened in _____.
A. 1960
B. 1970 C. 1980
D. 1990
2. Cuc Phuong is located _____ Hanoi.
A. 150 km South West of
B. 160 km South West of
C. 170 km South West of
D. 180 km South West of
3. In 2002, nearly _____ visited Cuc Phuong.
A. 400.000 visitors
B. 300.000 visitors
C. 200.000 visitors
D. 100.000 visitors
4. There are ______ different spicies of flora and ______ spicies of fauna.
A. 2,000 – 450
B. 450 – 2,000
C. 1,000 – 450
D. 2,000 – 350
5. Nguyen Hue’s army was stationed in Quen Voi before it made its ______ on
Thang Long.
A. accidental attack
B. surprise attack
C. accidental defeat
D. surprise defeat

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

Task 2: (12’) Chossing the best answer for question 1, 2, 4 and decide T or F
for question 3, 5
1. How many provices does Cuc Phuong National Park belong to?
A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5
2. How far is it from Hanoi to Cuc Phuong?
A. about 140 km
B. about 150 km
C. about 160 km
D. about 170 km
4. When did Nguyen Hue defeat the Qing invaders?
A. 1786 B. 1787
C. 1788
D. 1789
3. They come to see the work being done to protect threatened and endangered
species.
5. They live mainly on bee keeping and working in the factory.
F. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING
Class
12A1
12A6
10A2

Excellent-good
40%
35%
43%

Average
55%
58%
53%

Weak (bad)
5%
7%
4%

G. CONCLUSION:
The success of eliciting depends largely on the attitudes of teachers and
learners to their respective roles. Ideally it promotes the notion of an exchange
of information, helps to break down traditional teacher-centredness, and begins
to establish a variety of interaction patterns in the classroom. It is also
fundamental to the inductive approach to teaching language and to learning
through tasks and self-discovery, and a simple and effective way of getting
learners to produce language.

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Techniques for eliciting new vocabulary at upper – secondary school

REFERENCE BOOKS

1. Jeanne mcCarten. (2007) Teaching Vocabulary. New York : Cambridge
University Press.
2. Pual Naion. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. USA :
Heinle&Henle.
3.

Richard

Frost.

(2004).

Presenting

vocabulary.

from

/>4. Tricia Hedge. (2008). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom.
New York : Cambridge University Press.
5. Wallace M. (1987) Teaching Vocabulary 3rd Edition. London: Heinemann
6. Practical English Usage ( written by Michael Swan)
7. A course in language teaching - Practical and Theory (written by Penny Ur)
Cambrige university press
9. English Language Teaching Methodology (edited by Hanoi university)
. Ph ng ph p d y ti ng Anh Trung h c ph th ng (written by Nguy n H nh Dung)
11. Practical handbook of language teaching (written by David Cross)

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