Eliciting abstract concepts

[TCurrie]

Hi everyone,

I'm around 70% done with my EFL teaching course and a few tasks in the assignments call for eliciting. I know what that means and all's well when it's something simple for lower level learners, but the vocabulary I need to elicit from my B2 class are words mostly used for abstract concepts and ones which have very little synonyms (or synonyms they would not yet be familiar with).

The examples given in the course are easy enough to illustrate or define, words like 'divorced' and 'treat', but I'm finding it difficult to script how I would elicit 'communities', for example, when the only synonym they would be familiar with is 'neighbourhood'.
I'm aiming that they offer the word without me having to provide it, but the more I try script the approach, the more I envision a sea of blank faces staring back at me :?

Anyone have ideas? Or are there resources I could research that explain eliciting for words that have singular meanings and very few synonyms, and concepts that are vital to understanding context but are difficult to describe?

Thank you so much for your help!