Page 29 - ELG2111 Nov Issue 478

REVIEW .

USING DRILLS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEACHING
By Tony Penston
ISBN 978-0-9531323-6-2
I
t’s always a good idea to have some
extra reading material close at hand
when travelling by plane. As I tend to
do this quite a lot for work (always in a
mask and maintaining social distancing, of
course), I tend to carry copies of titles for
review that I dip into and scribble notes
on. This one, Tony Penston’s smashing
little booklet on drilling, kept me suitably
absorbed while waiting to board over the
summer just gone. (In case you ever need to
know, the late Sunday evening flights out of
Istanbul are never on time.) Using Drills in
English Language Teaching is, in fact, rather
light. Weighing in at 48 glossy pages, it fits
snugly in one’s hand luggage. It’s certainly
not lightweight on content, I must add,
and helped pass several hours of thought-
provoking reading. PHOTO BY MICHAEL SCHWARZENBERGER FROM PIXABAY
Consisting of two parts, this self-published
title first delves into the background
and rationale behind what, for many, is
considered a rather old-fashioned aspect
of ELT. The author outlines the early
influence of the audio-lingual method
and its emphasis on practice and habit
formation, then moves on to the effect
of the communicative approach and a
shift in the ELT world from repetition
to meaningful interaction. The first five
pages thus treat readers to a potted history Drilling for success
of two of the most influential epochs of
language teaching.
There is good reason for persisting with an
Limitless fun is age-old method, says Wayne Trotman

in store for the
language teacher who
The second, and by far the longest part each, how to use short gap-fill dialogues,
is prepared to get of this title, is called ‘Drilling in practice’. video, poetry, jazz chants (remember them
stuck into material This first outlines how good teaching from the 1990s?), songs and limericks to
explore language via drilling. Limitless
involves drilling the phrase after correcting,
such as this and how to keep things alive by, for fun is in store for the language teacher
example, using minimal pairs, such as ship who is prepared to get stuck into material
and sheep. My own favourites also tended such as this, not to mention the laughter
Following the above are examples of what to involve piece and sheet, but let’s not go drilling tends to produce among learners
the author describes as ‘bad drilling’, first there today. who are, perhaps even for brief moments,
where a person is not identified: She’s gone I was delighted to read how the author released from the all-too-present grammar
to the movie. Learners clearly need to know feels backchaining still has a place in the analysis lesson. Go on, give drilling a try.
who she actually is. Next up are drills with classroom. This involves starting from You won’t be disappointed and might even
little or no coherence: Teacher: I have a new the end of the phrase, which is generally amaze yourself.
car. Student: Have you? And lastly, change where learners have most difficulty, and
of intonation, stress or volume without building up from right to left: to the park...
reason, ie, asking students to repeat the going to the park... we all love going to the
same phrase, such as We’re going to visit the park. Other useful sections here outline
vet, but in a sad or happy tone. Clearly, much when to choral drill, using controlled Wayne Trotman is
more context is needed for the learners to practice and drilling a sentence written a teacher educator
understand just why they are either sad or on the whiteboard. at Izmir Katip
(hopefully) happy about their visit. Ending One of the final sections, humbly titled Çelebi University,
part one are seven reasons for drilling, ‘Other activities’, provides perhaps the Izmir, Turkey.
including because there are learners who most useful material in this book. Here the
like it and how it builds confidence. author explains, with several examples in
editorial@elgazette.com 29