Communicative Drilling by Julia Pearson

Communicative Drilling? Surely this is a contradiction in terms. The very

word drilling suggests laboriously repeating a structure over and over again
with perhaps a slight variation in the verb or subject or object. A relic of
audi-lingualism. Not for us in this new age of communicative language
teaching and natural language acquisition!
Well, I hope I can give you some ideas on how to drill a structure over and
over and over again without it becoming boring and non-communicative, in
fact it should be quite the reverse, the students will enjoy it and will be so
busy communicating in order to complete an activity or playing a game that
they wont even realise that they are drilling at all. Some of the following
ideas will not be new to you, but maybe you have never thought of them
interms of the drilling potential.
Here are two activities to drill yes/no questions:
ID GAME
Attach a picture or name of a famous person to the back of each student.
The students then walk around the class asking each other yes/no questions
(e.g. Is it a man? Is he American? Is he a sportsman? etc.) They can ask
only one question to each student at a time until they have enough
information to guess correctly who their person is.
A Day in the Life of
Put word or picture prompts on the board such as get up time? Breakfast
food? Drink? Get to school how? How long? Etc One volunteer student sits
at the front of the class and other students find out about his/her day by
asking yes/no questions. They cannot move on to the next question until a
positive answer is received. For example, Did you get up at 7.00? No. Did
you get up at 7.30? No. Did you get up at 7.45? Yes. Did you eat cornflakes
for breakfast? Etc. This can be adapted to present questions by asking about
the students daily routine. This can then be followed up by repeating the
same procedure in pairs. The students can then report their findings to
another student. Thus drilling the past simple or present simple depending
on which was used in the original activity.
Family Tree T
his activity is primarily to drill the genitive s and also practises the
vocabulary of family relationships. It is very easy to prepare, simply draw or
find a typical family tree, EFL resource books are full of them (the one I use
is from 1000+ Pictures A. Wright, Nelson), with 3 generations represented.
Out an enlarged copy on the board or give a copy to each student (or put it
on the OHP). Teacher asks, Who is John? The students take turns relating
Johns relationship to every other member of the family. For example Hes
Barbaras son. Hes Nancys brother etc.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires in various forms are perfect for drilling just about any
language and are very easy to compile (and EFL resource books are full of
them). The initial filling in of the questionnaire obviously drills question
forms and the reporting back drills the positive and negative forms of
whatever structure you choose. Heres an example for drilling the present
perfect and past simple:
Compile a questionnaire with at least 10 questions such as:
Have you ever been to America? When? Where?
Have you ever been in a helicopter? When? Where?
Have you ever met anyone famous? Who? When?
Have you ever been to a language school before? Where? When?
This can be done in pairs. When the students have completed the
questionnaire they report their findings to another student. As a follow up
students write a biography of his/her partner.
Find Someone Who (FSW)
Like questionnaires FSWs can drill any kind of language and can be easily
prepared in just a few minutes. Prepare about 10 sentences. Here are a
couple of examples for drilling present continuous for the future and can
respectively:
Find someone who ...
... is going away for the weeken
... is meeting friends tonight
is eating in a restaurant later
is changing his/her job in the near future

Find someone who..
cannot swim
can speak more than 2 languages
can read music
can touch his/her nose with his/her tongue
You can compile a personalised FSW from the information collected from the
questionnaire in the previous section. For example: Find some who went to
Florida last year to learn English.
Personally, I love using FSWs and find them extremely useful. For example I
use one on the first day as a getting-to-know-you activity. I compile very
general questions such as Find someone who needs English for their job /
is married / thinks every mistake should be corrected / has been on a
language course before, etc. Its a subtle way for everyone to learn each
others name and get a little information and, by joining in yourself, you can
get an idea of what these students expect from the course and expel the
idea of teacher-at-the-front-lecturing that many students bring to the class.
Video Clips Running Commentary
Here is an idea for drilling the present continuous. Choose a short video clip
with plenty of activity and no dialogue. Mr Bean is perfect for this.
Put students into pairs facing each other, one facing the screen and the
other with his/her back to the screen. The students facing the screen relate
what is happening on the video to their partners. After a while change the
pairs around. The commentary will go something like this, Hes taking out a
loaf of bread; he is cutting slices from it with a pair of scissors; he is
trimming the ends with the scissors; he is putting the slices on his lap, etc.
There is a genuine information gap here and in my experience the students
get very animated during this activity and have a lot of fun.
Switch!
The last activity I am going to suggest is a very dynamic activity and work
with any self-contained dialogue involving an exchange of information so it
can be adapted for any language and level by simply changing the dialogue.
The example below is designed to drill the present perfect and past simple at
intermediate level and above but it can easily be adapted for lower levels by
substituting simpler questions and answers.
Write the following dialogue on the board and practise it with pairs of
students across the room using make + cake
What do you do? I ________ ________
Why did you start ________ ____________? I saw a _________- and I
wanted to _________one.
How long have you been ___________ ___________? Ive been
___________ ________since I was a child.
How many __________ have you __________? Ive _______-
thousands of __________

The initial practice will go like this: What do you do? I make cakes. Why
did you start making cakes? I saw a cake and I wanted to make one.
How long have you been making cakes? Ive been making cakes Etc.
Divide the class into 2 groups A and B of even number group A stands in a
circle back-to-back facing outwards. Group B forms an outer circle each
student facing a student from group A. (see diagram).
Explain that the inner circle (As) are the
questioners and must remain where they
are. The outer circle (Bs) each receive a card
with a verb + noun combination (e.g. breed
+ rabbits / climb + mountain) that fits into
the dialogue they have practised. The pairs
have the conversation as quickly s they can
(after a Ready, Steady, Go) and as soon as
one pair has finished they shout SWITCH!
The outside circle then moves one place
clockwise and starts again with the new
partner. This continues until they have gone
a complete circle and are again facing their
original partner. You can then swap groups around and give out new verb +
noun cards. Try and think up some amusing combinations and perhaps a few
tongue twisters (pickle onion or pluck chickens perhaps! By the end of this
activity the students in a class to ten have repeated the above dialogue ten
times. This activity is always a great success but a word of warning, the
students usually get very excited and the noise level can get dangerously
close to unacceptable. (At least to the class next door, that is.)
There are many activities and games with require the students to repeat
structures many times, far too many to go into here. The Communication
Games series by Jill Hadfield (CUP) is full of such activities. For example,
Fishy Stories in the Advanced version is a very enjoyable game which drills
the past continuous. Activity by Jean Greenwood (CUP) also has a delightful
activity to drill the past continuous called When the alarm went off.
Vocabulary Games & Activities and Grammar Games & Activities by Peter
Watcyn-Jones (Penguin) are full of activities, questionnaires and FSWs.
So perhaps its time to look again at the idea of drilling and realise its true
place and potential in todays EFL classroom.

[This article appeared in the Summer 1998 newsletter]