Input session · CELTA
Drilling, and what comes after it. A cued dialogue to start, a video, why and how we drill, thirteen types of drill, meaningful drills, a jazz chant, and an information gap.
Work in pairs and follow the cues in order to build a natural phone conversation. Student A starts. Use each cue to write your own line.
Inspector Clouseau and his dialect coach: a drill, taken to the limit. Two minutes.
If the frame stays black, watch it on YouTube.
What do you think of the drilling techniques the teacher is using?
In your group: why do we drill? When should we drill? Write your ideas before revealing.
Click a pill on the left, then click its matching example on the right.
Source: Donn Byrne, Teaching Oral English
For each technique, your tutor will demonstrate one example live. Then write your own example of using that technique. Check against the answers at the bottom when you're done.
Let's look at one together first: a chain drill.
Now it's your turn. Here are 13 more drill types. Before you check, try to guess what each one means from the name alone; discuss with your group. Then match each one to its definition.
These drills are slower; the teacher is less concerned with 100% correct responses.
Example: a guessing drill
A way of drilling sentences to a beat, often set to music, popularised by Carolyn Graham. Easy to create your own: follow the beat. This one is made up for this session.
Transformation drill: the teacher gives a cue, learners transform the sentence.
Substitution drill: the teacher gives a new word, learners substitute it into the sentence.
Try it yourself: write two more transformation or substitution cues you could use in class:
Extension: draw a picture of the scene.
Now try the information gap yourselves. Keep your list from your partner.
Sound for the film (the Pink Panther dialect-coach scene, 2 minutes). The nine techniques in part 2 are yours to demonstrate live in Your turn, so have the sentence ready: "I’m going to the market" does for all nine. Jazz chant: a beat, your hand on the table.
| Stage | What you do |
|---|---|
| Cued dialogue | Pairs, before anything else. They build the phone call from the cues and act it. Then the question: how much help did the cues give you? That is less-guided practice, felt before it is named. |
| The film | Watch, then the question on the page. They will laugh; then ask what the coach did that worked (chunks, repetition, no explanation) and what did not (no meaning). |
| Why drill | Groups write first, then reveal. Add your own: confidence, and the sound of the sentence in the mouth before the brain is asked for it. |
| Techniques | Match the nine. Then Your turn: you demonstrate each technique live on one sentence, they write their own example, reveal the answers at the end. |
| Types of drill | Chain drill together, then thirteen to match in pairs. The examples appear after Check answers; read three aloud and run them on the room. |
| Meaningful drills | Four cards. Run the guessing drill for real: pick a sport, they ask yes-no questions. |
| Jazz chant | Beat first, then the chant, twice. Do not explain it. |
| Transformation and substitution | Run both on the room from the page, then they write two cues of their own. |
| Information gap | Pairs, A and B, lists hidden from each other. Then the question: where on the guided-to-free line does this sit, and why? |
On the page: the nine technique matches, the thirteen drill types with an example each after checking, the exit ticket has none. The cued dialogue has no key; any line that fits the cue is right.
Sources. The examples, the cued dialogue, the chant and the information gap on this page are made up for this session. The drilling techniques are standard in language teaching; see Donn Byrne, Teaching Oral English (Longman, 1986). Jazz chants were popularised by Carolyn Graham (Jazz Chants, Oxford University Press). Video: The Pink Panther (2006, MGM), the dialect-coach scene, on the Movieclips channel.