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Date Posted: 16:48:54 06/13/07 Wed
Author: Fernanda Gabriela
Subject: Task 4

FERNANDA GABRIELA DE SOUZA


Using drills to teach grammar



For a long time, when the behaviorist methods were used, it was thought that to learn a second or foreign language the students should just repeat phrases correctly lots of times; this process of repeating sentences was called drill. Nowadays, with the development of different approaches, it is known that it is not like this, learning a language is a very complex process, it is not just memorizing and repeating a list of structures; and then, drills were avoided. However, drills do have an important function in acquiring a language, they should be used because they can be absolutely useful if the teacher is able to know when and what to drill.

Drills are useful both for learners and for teachers. Not only do drills help the learners to imitate intonation that may be different from that of their first language, but also make them notice the correct form or pronunciation of a word. Besides, it is claimed that repeating some structures is good to memorize common language patterns. Furthermore, using drills is an important way to make teachers recognize the problems that the learners may have such as pronunciation and intonation. Another good point, as Julie Tice has stated: “[drills] help in terms of classroom management, enabling us to vary the pace of the lesson or to get all learners involved.”

The traditional behaviorist’s methods were criticized because they used just repetitions of sentences. On the other hand, as it was stated before, drills are very important, but it is necessary to know what should be drilled. Therefore, not everything may be repeated, the teacher have to be able to use drills both when there are sounds that are different or do not exist in the first language and to make clear the stress or intonation of a sentence or word. Besides, using drills is a good way to help students to memorize common language chunks, such as “How are you?” and “Nice to meet you.” However, as Julie Tice argued, grammar structures should not be drilled because of the mental processing that is necessary to apply grammar rules accurately.

It has been claimed that the subject that is taught should always be contextualized; therefore, it is necessary that teachers know the proper time to use drills. In order to make the class not to be tiring, drills should not be used too many times, and it must never be out of context. Thus, it is very useful to use drills after a fluency task as a correction strategy to check whether the students have learned what was taught accurately or not. Furthermore, it is important that the teachers vary the way in which they do drills to help make the language more worth remembering.

In conclusion, drills were used during a long time and then, when the communicative approach and others contextualized approaches arrived, drills were prevented from happening. However, drills have an important part to teach a foreign or second language, it is necessary that the teacher knows when and how to use it. Besides, drills, if used appropriately in the classroom, are useful both for teachers and for learners.



Reference:
TICE, Julie acessed on 06/10/2007

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