BOOMERANG-type VS ELICITING All this is seen in more detail in Unit 2, in the textbook, more precisely in 4. 7. A procedure (presentation, practice and production). Eliciting is much simpler than the boomerang procedure. Eliciting is a technique that consists in giving students clues to make them produce the language we, as teachers, would like them to practise. The easiest example has to do with vocabulary, when we give them the definition and we expect them to say the word we have in mind. Here is a longer explanation about eliciting in EFL. The boomerang procedure is explained on page 68 in Harmer's book, and there is a relevant diagram on page 67. It has to do with how we, as teachers, plan different stages in our lessons. Previously in the book Harmer discusses PPP (Presentation. Practice and Production), which is a very common procedure in EFL: 1) new language is presented; 2) that new language is practised, and 3) students try to use the new language in various contexts (production). However, Harmer argues that learning is not necessarily linear, that sequence of presentation>practice>production is not always like that and he suggests a different procedure, ESA: Engage, study, activate. If you look at the diagrams on page 67, Figure 4, the first one, "Straight arrows" is very similar to PPP. However, the learning process may not develop in straight arrows, it may resemble a boomerang (Figure 5), That is, students may engage with the new language, then go straight to practise that new language (what Harmer calls "activate") and then finally study it (which would correspond roughly to the practice part in PPP).
