VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
CAO THI
̣
HÔ
̀
NG PHƢƠNG

TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITING TECHNIQUES IN ENGLISH
SPEAKING LESSONS AT SON TAY UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL,
HANOI

(Sử dụng thu
̉
thuâ
̣
t gơ
̣
i mơ
̉
trong giơ
̀
da
̣
y no
́
i Tiê

HÔ
̀
NG PHƢƠNG
TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITING TECHNIQUES IN ENGLISH
SPEAKING LESSONS AT SON TAY UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL,
HANOI
(Sử dụng thu
̉
thuâ
̣
t gơ
̣
i mơ
̉
trong giơ
̀
da
̣
y no
́
i Tiê
́
ng Anh cu
̉
a gia
́
o viên ta

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study
2. Research Aims and Research Questions
3. Scope of the Study
4. Significance of the Study
5. Methodology of the Study
6. Organization of the Study
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Eliciting
1.1. Definitions of Eliciting
1. 2. Types of Eliciting Techniques
1.2. 1. Asking Questions
1.2. 2. Asking Questions Combined with Using Pictures
1.2. 3. Asking Questions Combined with Using Games or Activities
1.2. 4. Asking Questions Combined with Using Texts and Dialogues
1.2. 5. Asking Questions Combined with Using Non-verbal Language
1.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Eliciting Techniques
2. Speaking
2.1. Definition of Speaking
2.2. Characteristics of a Successful Speaking Activity
2.3. Approaches to Speaking
3. Eliciting Techniques and Speaking in Second Language Teaching
4. Phases to Teach Speaking
5. Related Studies
6. Summary
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research Questions
2.2. Research Approach
2.3. Sampling Method

APPENDIX 2
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS
APPENDIX 3
APPENDIX 4 - FIGURE 1
APPENDIX 4 - FIGURE 2
APPENDIX 4 - FIGURE 3
APPENDIX 4 -FIGURE 4
APPENDIX 4 - FIGURE 5
APPENDIX 4 - FIGURE 6
APPENDIX 4 - TABLE 1

vii LITS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: The use of eliciting techniques in English speaking lessons of grade 10- from
the student questionnaire
Figure 2: The use of eliciting techniques in English speaking lessons of grade 11- from
the student questionnaire
Figure 3: The use of eliciting techniques in English speaking lessons of grade 12- from
the student questionnaire
Figure 4: The frequency of using eliciting techniques in speaking lessons of grade 10
Figure 5: The frequency of using eliciting techniques in speaking lessons of grade 11
Figure 6: The frequency of using eliciting techniques in speaking lessons of grade 12
Table 1: Stages in which eliciting techniques are employed in speaking lessons of grade
10, 11, and 12.

opportunity to develop their communicative competence in English in their classrooms
(Nunan, 1991, p. 25).
Actually, eliciting is of great significance in speaking lessons as a tool of creating and
stimulating a communicative language learning environment. It is implied that teacher can
elicit ideas, feelings, meanings, situations, associations, memories or anything that help
provide the key information about a topic, encouraging students to get involved in the
communicative process. That confirms the reasons why eliciting techniques play a vital
role in helping students develop speaking ability
Whether or not teachers apply any kinds of eliciting techniques to encourage students to
take part in speaking activities is of great concern for all teachers of English in Son Tay
upper secondary school. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the fact may lay the
foundation for the improvement of teaching and learning speaking situation. This
assumption has led me to undertake the study entitled “teachers‟ use of eliciting techniques
in English speaking lessons at Son Tay Upper Secondary School, Hanoi” with the hope of
better understanding about the reality, thus some recommendations may be proposed in
order to improve the quality of teaching speaking in my school.
2. Research Aims and Research Questions
The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of eliciting techniques by teachers of
English in Son Tay upper secondary school in speaking lessons. Specifically, it addressed
the following research questions
Question 1. What eliciting techniques are used in English speaking lessons for Grade 10,
11 and 12 students at Son Tay Upper Secondary School, Hanoi?
Question 2. How are these techniques used to elicit student talk?
3. Scope of the Study
The study is limited to the search for teachers‟ use of eliciting techniques in speaking
lessons at Son Tay upper secondary school. The work involves firstly in the investigation
into the reality of which eliciting techniques are used in English speaking lessons of Son
Tay upper secondary school. Then it identifies the frequency of employing these
techniques. It finally offers some implications to improve the quality of teaching and
learning speaking skill in Son Tay upper secondary school.

6. Organization of the Study
Part A (Introduction) provides a flow of information the rationales, the aims, the
significance as well as the methods of the study.
Part B (Development)
Chapter 1 (Literature review) offers the theoretical background of the study, including
discussions of key concepts and the related studies.
Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the research setting, participants, instruments of data
collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis.
Chapter 3 (Data analysis and discussion) presents, analyses and discusses the findings that
the researcher found out from the data collected according to the two research questions.
Chapter 4 (Conclusion) summarizes the answers to the two research questions, several
pedagogical recommendations concerning the research topic, the limitations of the research
as well as some suggestions for further studies. Following this chapter are the references
and appendices
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents some theoretical background based on which the study is carried
out. Firstly, a detailed presentation of research background will be described with the key
concepts, including “eliciting techniques”, “speaking”, and “approaches to speaking”.
Some descriptions about the advantages of elicitation are also presented. Finally, a brief
review of the related studies will reveal the research gaps and hence, lays the concrete
foundation for the aims and objectives of this research paper.
1. Eliciting
1.1. Definitions of Eliciting
Different methodologists define the term “elicitation” in a number of academic ways,
therefore the nature of this term can be seen in the light of the verb “to elicit”. In language
teaching and learning, the term “eliciting” can be stated as a means of getting information
from learners. “To elicit” is “to get information or reaction from somebody, often with
difficulty” is defined in Oxford Advanced Dictionary, (7
th

Although different authors share various view points about types of eliciting techniques,
they show the common assumptions that eliciting is not just asking “What does this or that
mean?” but to draw out to what extent students know about the target knowledge. In order
to serve that purpose, eliciting as in Doff‟s (1988, cited in To et al., 2010) idea is mainly
carried out by the teacher asking questions or asking questions combined with other means
including pictures, games or activities, texts or dialogues and non-verbal language.
1.2. 1. Asking Questions
Asking eliciting questions is assumed to be one of the most common ways to provoke
students‟ ideas, therefore asking eliciting questions is considered as an art or skill in
teaching and learning a foreign language. Doff (1988, cited in To et al., 2010, p.12) states
that “eliciting can take place at any stage of the lesson and is mainly done by asking
questions,” which means that asking questions is the leading technique to elicit ideas and
responses from students. As acknowledged by Darn (2008), asking questions is not only
the natural feature of communication, but also one of the most significant tools teachers
have at their disposal. With this perception, questioning is indispensable for the way
teachers manage the class to engage students in the lesson, promote communicative
process as well as increase students‟ understanding.
Ur (1996, p.230) points out the characteristics of “effective questions” as follows: Once a
question generates stimulating, rather immediate, suitable and comprehensive answers, it
can be an efficient questioning technique. On the contrary, using questioning technique can
cause pauses or only excellent students can answer the questions, or make the classroom
environment become boring, or only short and ineffective responses are elicited.
In terms of question types, there are numerous ways of classification. This section of the
study would like to introduce the most common systems of question classification
according to three different criteria covering three aspects: grammatical form,
communicative value and content (Wei Liu, 2005, p.16). However, “the dimension of the
content-oriented question has long been ignored in questioning study” (Wei, 2005, p.18).
As a result, this criterion of questioning system will be discussed in another study.
Classification of questions by grammatical form
As presented in the preceding part, eliciting is asking students questions teachers‟ aim

questioning type are directing, propelling and managing classroom activities. Besides,
Wang (2001, cited in Wei, 2005) added that these questions could also serve the functions
of developing students‟ pronunciation, intonation, sense of language and the use of
language that students can imitate in the real English use. Some examples of this type are
“Is everything clear? Can you make it clearer? Can you understand? Can you read this or
that?”
Secondly, the fact that teacher has already known the answers of such questions or not
distinguishes questioning types into two subtypes, including “display questions” and
“referential questions”.
“Display questions” or “pseudo questions” (Tsui, 2001), or “factual questions” (Borg et
al., 1970, cited in Nunan, 1991), or “known-information questions” (Allright & Beiley,
1991) are those used to help the teacher test students‟ knowledge and understanding while
teachers have already known the answers. As a result, display questions are form-oriented
or known-information-based (Wei, 2005, p.17). “Who is the main character?” can be taken
as an example. These questions are not only easy for students as a number of students‟
answers are available in the texts but also unproblematic for teachers to make and check
because they have already known the answers. However, overuse of this questioning type
throughout the lesson may cause the lesson boring or less active.
On the contrary, “referential questions” encourage authentic language production as they
are questions used in real communication (Doff, 1988). The answers have not been known
by both teachers and students, which increases teachers‟ interest in hearing students‟
responses. So “referential questions” can be called “meaning driven” as stated in Wei
(2005, p.17). Referential questions are able to elicit students‟ talk longer because they
require more thoughtful responses.
In summary, both kinds of questions are of essence in a language class; specifically the
speaking class and teachers should take every advantage of questions of referential type
which promote students‟ production of more imaginative and personal response.
1.2. 2. Asking Questions Combined with Using Pictures
Doff (1988, cited in To et al., 2010, p.12) gives his support for this technique as one of the
easiest way to elicit new vocabulary or structure: “The teacher uses pictures to set the

disposal to motivate students‟ responses. These non-verbal tools can be alternated or used
together with other tools to change the class atmosphere and make students attentive in
class. By making use of this technique, teachers can partly provoke students‟ curiosity,
attention, and then utter the expected language items.
1.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Eliciting Techniques
Like any other tools of communication, questioning or eliciting is used for a great many
specific purposes. When considering questioning and answering as parts of the normal
human use of language, it can be used to find out what people do not know or to clarify
what is still unclear, and to help the person who is questioned understand something better
or to prompt him or her to remember something.
Eliciting is of great importance. In the presentation stage, students are usually passive to
listen to or to wait for their teachers‟ explanations and presentations of the new knowledge.
If teachers elicit from students, they can get them actively involved in the classroom
activities (Ur, 1996, p. 229)
The first positive point to be addressed is that eliciting technique involves the class by
keeping students alert, drawing their attention as well as making them think. Doff (1988,
p.159) has diagnosed the problem that in the presentation stage, it is likely that teachers
will talk most of the time in order to provide as much knowledge as possible while
students‟ main task is listening to the teachers‟ instruction, meaning “this part of the lesson
will be dominated by teacher – he or she is using English to introduce new materials.” As
a consequence, even the best students can find their minds wandering occasionally in class.
If the teacher can activate students‟ mind and call back their attention by asking them to
contribute to this stage of the lesson, there is a far less chance that distracting factors can
drift into students‟ minds. This leads to the fact that students‟ logical, reflective or
imaginative thinking will be stimulated by answering the teacher‟s questions throughout
the lesson.
Secondly, elicitation helps maximize student talking time and simultaneously minimize
teacher talking time. In class, if students respond to most of the questions provided by
teachers in almost every stage of the lesson, they undoubtedly speak more than they do if
they just listen to teachers‟ explanation. As a consequence, questioning raised in

technique that should be applied in language teaching and learning.
In short, eliciting technique is beneficial for both teachers and students. There are a great
number of purposes for teachers to use elicitation; as a result, teachers should take every
chance when possible in order to apply appropriate types and forms of questioning in
language teaching classroom.
To sum up, this section has presented the definitions of elicitation, types of eliciting as well
as the benefits of eliciting. In the next section, speaking skill, characteristics of a successful
speaking activity, approaches to speaking, as well as the importance of employing eliciting
techniques in speaking lessons will be discussed.
2. Speaking
2.1. Definition of Speaking
In this section, the author will consider what we mean by “speaking”. In language
teaching, we often talk about four language skills in terms of their direction and modality.
Speaking, in particular, can be regarded as the productive, oral skill.
Speaking serves a vital function in human communication. There is a variety of linguists
defining the term of speaking. Lerris (2003) states that: “Speaking is a chance to notice the
gaps between what you can say; it is the chance to test hypotheses about language.”
Similarly, Bygate (1987) assumes that speaking skill is a medium through which a large
amount of language is learnt. Brown and Yule (1983), in their book, claim that spoken
language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation. There is a
great deal of repetition and overlap between one and another speaker. Speaking is also
considered as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non verbal symbols, in a variety contexts” (Chaney, 1998, p.13, as cited in Kayi, H.
(2006). Additionally, Florez (1991, p. 1) defines speaking as “an interactive process of
constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information”
(cited in Bailey, 2005, p. 2). According to Mackey (1965) “ oral expression involves not
only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a
choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning” ( as cited in
Bygate, 1987, p. 5)
Of all the definitions of speaking given by different methodologists, the author likes the

various implications for EFL teachers. Since communicative competence was constructed
in many aspects, it is crucial for teachers of EFL to understand fully the related
components in order to help learners improve their speaking skill.
3. Eliciting Techniques and Speaking in Second Language Teaching
Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its
importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language
teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of
dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should
improve students' communicative skills. By this way, students can express themselves and
learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative
circumstance. In speaking lessons, students are usually passive to wait for teachers‟
explanations. If teachers elicit from the students, they can get them active and involved in
the speaking activities. Via elicitations, students are encouraged to express their own ideas,
to provoke their flow of information and knowledge. Therefore they can gain much
progress in speaking skill
4. Phases to Teach Speaking
Byrne (1988) distinguishes three following phases to develop learners‟ oral ability: the
presentation phase, the practice phase and the production phase.
In presentation phase, teachers create some communicative activities to warm up students
as well as lead students in the topic of the lessons. In this stage, teachers ask students
questions to elicit information or to provide some key vocabulary related to the topic of the
lesson.
At practice phase learners have to do most of talking as they are provided maximum
amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities to improve vocabulary
and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking. The learners, at this phase, answer
the teacher‟s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to the
topic. At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996) suggested what the teacher should do is
to enhance the learners‟ fluency of speaking. First, attention must be fully paid by the
learners. Second, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated. Third, learners
understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term memory of the material

As regards Vietnam‟s ELT context, the aforementioned issue has not been thoroughly
investigated despite the existence of a few related studies by undergraduates such as Pham
(2006), Tran (2007) and Chu (2009). Pham (2006) investigated the use of elicitation in
teaching vocabulary to 11
th
form students in Hanoi. Tran, in 2007 carried out a research on
eliciting techniques used to teach speaking skill to grade 10 students in Hanoi. Most
recently, Chu (2009) did research on “Techniques teachers use to elicit grade10 „students‟
talk in upper secondary schools in Hanoi.”
It is obvious that all three undergraduates put great efforts to investigate the application of
elicitation in both language competence and language skills in a broad scale of big
population. It can be seen that the above mentioned studies have left gaps for the present
research to continue exploring the teacher‟s use of eliciting techniques. The two first
studies focused on elicitation in lessons of one English language skill and language
component at high schools whereas the third one studied eliciting in lessons of all four
skills in high school context. Therefore the researcher is aware of the essentiality to carry
out the research in a particular context in order to find out the fact to improve the situation
of English teaching and learning in the context where the researcher is presently working
as a teacher of English.
6. Summary
So far the researcher has discussed the definitions of elicitations, the types of eliciting,
advantages of elicitation. Some definitions of speaking, characteristics of a successful
speaking activity, approaches to speaking, phrases to teach speaking as well as the
importance of employing eliciting techniques in speaking lessons have also been presented.
Additionally, a review of some related studies in this chapter has detected a research gap
which the researcher is pursuing to bridge by seeking the answers to the two research
questions.


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY