CHAIN DRILLS


Chain drills are exercises that allow learners to practice dialogue, build vocabulary and develop ideas about a familiar topic using repetition as the primary teaching strategy. It was a key feature of audio-lingual approaches to language teaching through oral practices.

Nowadays, we know language learning is a complex process, is more than a list of structures to be memorized…Drilling can be a useful technique in the classroom, if we used it appropriately.

In question and answer drills, the prompt is a question and the response is the answer, as “Can I have a (pen) please?”, “Yes, here you are”. The word in brackets can be substituted during the drill. This example tell us that in all drills, learners have little choices, because there is one correct answer and the main focus is on getting it. But, drills can provide learners with intensive practices in pronunciation, listening and speaking words, phrases and sentences.

Also, drills can help to the teachers in the classroom management and to recognize if the new language is causing pronunciation problems, because most teachers use drilling regularly in the classes and they are focus in the pronunciation, especially in the sounds.

In my opinion, drilling is very useful but for young learners, because it is working without thinking in the natural process of the discourse and it must be developed with some cognitive support.

“This technique can be boring sometimes and students may get upset”.