What is drilling?
At its simplest, drilling means listening to a model, provided by the teacher, or a tape or another student, and repeating what is heard. This is a repetition drill, a technique that is still used by many teachers when introducing new language items to their students. The teacher says (models) the word or phrase and the students repeat it.
Other types of drill include substitution drills, or question and answer drills. Substitution drills can be used to practise different structures or vocabulary items(i.e. one or more words change during the drill).
Example:
Prompt: 'I go to work. He?'
Response: 'He goes to work.'
In question and answer drills the prompt is a question and the response is the answer. This is used for practising common adjacency pairs such as 'What's the matter?', 'I've got a (headache') or 'Can I have a (pen) please?', 'Yes here you are.' The words in brackets here can be substituted during the drill.
In all drills learners have no or very little choice over what is said so drills are a form of very controlled practice. There is one correct answer and the main focus is on 'getting it right' i.e. on accuracy. Drills are usually conducted chorally (i.e. the whole class repeats) then individually . There is also the possibility of groups or pairs of students doing language drills together.
What drills can be useful for:
For the learners, drills can:
Provide for a focus on accuracy. Increased accuracy (along with increased fluency and complexity) is one of the ways in which a learner's language improves so there is a need to focus on accuracy at certain stages of the lesson or during certain task types.
Provide learners with intensive practice in hearing and saying particular words or phrases. They can help learners get their tongues around difficult sounds or help them imitate intonation that may be rather different from that of their first language.
Provide a safe environment for learners to experiment with producing the language. This may help build confidence particularly among learners who are not risk-takers.
Help students notice the correct form or pronunciation of a word or phrase. Noticing or consciousness raising of language is an important stage in developing language competence.
Provide an opportunity for learners to get immediate feedback on their accuracy in terms of teacher or peer correction. Many learners want to be corrected.
Help memorisation and automisation of common language patterns and language chunks. This may be particularly true for aural learners.
Meet student expectations i.e. They may think drilling is an essential feature of language classrooms.
For the teacher, drills can:
Help in terms of classroom management, enabling us to vary the pace of the lesson or to get all learners involved.
Help us recognise if new language is causing problems in terms of form or pronunciation.
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