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[LongShiKong]

Is it just my N.A bias or does the UK/EU still favour the older drill-based or audio-lingual methods? Seems we North Americans are more likely to use communicative methods such as CLL which I'd observed being used in a Canadian primary French class last fall.

Everyone with a TEFL knows Berlitz (France) started drilling language in the 19th century (and still does?) but it seems the more contemporary Pimsleur (France) method does pretty much the same with its listen-and-repeat audio courses. Compare Longman's Side by Side with it's pattern drill substitutions to the UK-published but American-authored Interchange series with more contextualized language presentation and the distinction is clear.

I recently resigned from teaching at a Longman School in China (Pearson-Longman is London-based). It seems their most popular coursebooks in Asia focus on rote memorization (drilling) yet claim to adopt the 'communicative approach' (US). With limited dialogues, I found it difficult to do any meaningful practice without adding language. In fact, Longman's Superkids author herself asked of her Yahoo UsersGroup if even more, (not less) drilling of the minimal language in her books could resolve the problem her students had in responding in the same way to every question.

Although I've taught for a decade, intensive drilling is rather new to me. Last week I was in Shanghai for training at UK/Japan-based Saxoncourt (known in Asia as Shane English). Over a dozen drilling methods were introduced. Having spent years teaching at American-owned franchises where the focus was on comprehension and communication, the thought of drilling language in such a systematic way from flashcards concerns me. I don't want to be a drill sergeant nor one of those parents who push their child toward me instructing them what to say.

[santi84]

Drills are still alive & well here in Canada, depending on who/where/what. Here in Quebec, drills are unpopular all around - the vast majority of ESL learners are francophone Quebecois and do not care for that method (plus their motivations are primarily business and lifestyle related, needing to learn the language of the majority of the country). Even the non-Quebecois ESL students tend to be European and have similar ideas about drilling.

In British Columbia, drilling was still very popular when I left (summer 2010!). Many of the ESL learners were from Asia (particularly China) and considered drilling to be the best (if not only) way to learn the language.

Of course, that's a bunch of generalizations - many of the government run ESL programs in British Columbia are communicative in nature but the private businesses? The customer with the biggest wallet tends to get their way

[Teacher in Rome]

When I did my Dip back in 1988 (that's how old I am!) we were taught about the old-fashioned way of practising forms which was known as the drilling method... But even then, we were taught that drilling might have its occasional, limited uses.

So has it come back into fashion? Maybe if you're in Asia the coursebooks used there mirror more traditional teaching methods. Certainly there's not that much drilling in European-biased coursebooks. (By those I mean published in the UK for a European audience.)

[spiral78]

I've taught in the EU and in Canada for nearly 14 years and have never come across a situation where drill was more than a minor tool in the box.

[Landon]

I studied Spanish and Portuguese for years. I took many university level courses and intense immersion communication driven studying in South America. For me, nothing compared to the drilling. I could understand all the rules and grammar in the context of a conversation, but a person needs to be able to recall the information immediately throughout the course of a converstaion and not struggle with the pronunciation and congugation once they find the right phrase. I only became good at this through rote learning, the use of flash cards and constant repetition. I still remember several Portuguese phrases that I would repeat to myself over and over again in mock conversations with myself trying to take my "head" out the equation.

Drilling caused me to be able to recall words and phrases with correct pronunciation without even thinking because it was so ingrained. You know you are progessing in a language when conversation becomes automatic with very little thinking or translating involved. I first realized this many years ago when my 1 on 1 teacher was sick for a couple a days and a substitute showed up with a giant stack of flash cards. We drilled those flash cards for pretty much 2 days straight. After that, I never had to "think" about any of those words or situations again. Recall was routine. Maybe this is not technically "learning the language", but it is "speaking" the language. They both go hand in hand.

[santi84]

[Shroob]

I'm new to the TEFL industry, but having recently completed a CELTA course in the UK I can tell you that where I studied the emphasis was definitely on the communicative approach.

[Sashadroogie]

A quick look at any UK course book in general use will show you that the UK is quite progressive in terms of using the communicative approach and methodology, as is Australia, for that matter. I cannot comment on course books which may have been developed for specific local markets in Asia, though. Saxoncourt and Berlitz are not typical of mainstream methodology any more, as far as I am aware, so would not be the best yardstick to use when comparing US or EU language learning methods. Indeed, it is the US which seems mired in behaviourism, however. Gross generalisation, I know, but that is what I have experienced with US-trained teachers and US course books, though all in learning contexts based outside the US. Perhaps my sample is also very limited.

In any case, quite the opposite of the OP's take.

[reddevil79]

Ah, the old �drilling� debate. Some of the posters here talk of it as if it�s a bad thing. It�s not my favourite tool, but there�s a lot of sense in what Landon says. During my eight years of French schooling, we were drilled constantly on verbs, and it was effective. Same at university when I was studying Spanish; it was used a fair bit in beginners classes by the Spanish teachers. I would disagree strongly though that the UK favours drilling/audio-lingual methods.

It�s worth remembering that a wide range of activities fall under the umbrella of drilling/audio-lingual; I�ve lost count the number of times a teacher claims to be purely �communicative� in their teaching, and then goes to use various forms of drilling/audio-lingual methods for 20-30% or more of their class.

Drilling/audio-lingual methods form the basis of many strategies and techniques taught on teacher training courses, despite their claims of employing various communicative approaches (or any buzzword going round). It may be a dirty word in TEFL, but many teachers find that it works, and it�ll be here for a while yet�

[riverboat]

I'm British, and took my CELTA in France a couple of years ago. It was taught entirely by British trainers. Drilling was pretty heavily emphasised during the course. I'd go so far as to say it was presented as the linchpin (lynchpin?) around which everything else hung.

Furthermore, the adults who I now teach in France have obviously been drilled pretty heavily in some things during their English lessons as schoolchildren. I receive some students who can't string a sentence together, but can still chant infinitive-past simple-past participle verb tables until the cow comes home, even though they haven't a clue what any of the verbs actually mean.

I however, rarely use drilling in my own classes (still in France). Sometimes for pronunciation, but that's it. It feels inappropriate and not that effective with the adult professionals who I teach. I believe most teachers in my school are the same.

I do know that drilling is still live and kicking in the Berlitz schools in France though. Friend of a friend taught there recently, and was getting heartily sick of the whole "Is this a pen / No it is not a pen / We use pens for writing / This is a pen / Is this a pen? / No it is not a pen" routine after a few weeks...

[LongShiKong]

Over the past few decades, rote memorization in N.A. public education has all but been eliminated from the curriculum. I'm sure it's the reason why my 100 hr TESL in Vancouver 10 yrs ago hardly touched on drilling. However, education academics are starting to see inherent value in rote memorization methods thanks to recent neural research.

Given what I perceive as N.A's reluctance to use drilling contrasts sharply with Asia's tradition-bound total reliance on it. That's why I'm trying to get a sense of where the EU/UK is.

This seems to have caused a split among TEFLers, publishers and academics which is why I started this thread. In one camp are those such as Superkids author Aleda Krause who apparently see no other means but drilling to teach language and in the other camp are those like myself who loathe turning students into puppets mindlessly repeating whatever the teacher expects of them.

[Jbhughes]

I suppose that the main focus of this thread goes beyond using drilling for pronunciation, but I wonder if those that don't advocate the use of drilling for memorisation would go further and say it shouldn't be used for training pronunciation either?

[fluffyhamster]

[LongShiKong]

Thanks, everyone for posting.

Re: Side-by-Side vs Interchange.
SBS hasn't been revised in over a decade but apparently it's had more appeal in Eastern Europe than here in China where Interchange is available in China's national bookstore chain. It's obvious why--those who buy the books are working professionals who want some exposure to more contextualized langauge for a change.

[rotemmay]

Well, I'll admit that I haven't taught in the schools in Israel (yet...) but I do have friends who have for years. From what I gather from them, in Israel, the communicative method definitely rules. That's probably because Israel is a very pragmatic country and many people here realize that English is necessary to get on in the international market and business world, so the focus is on knowing how to communicate with the language.

Israelis begin to learn English as a foreign language from grade 3 or 4 (and some are even pushing for it to be earlier) and do "bagrut" (matriculation?) exams in the language as a requirement for a high school diploma equivalent. So you'll actually find many Israeli's quite able to communicate in English (though sometimes rather poorly and heavily accented) and very willing to do so. I have a friend who has lived in the country for 40+ years, teaching English, knows Hebrew like a native, and insists on speaking English in places like restaurants, supermarkets, etc. (her reason is that she is helping Israelis use the language so they have a chance to practice it, whether they want to or not ). She's never had a problem with anyone refusing or unable to speak English with her (though of course, some have been better than others).

Just some insights on English in the Holy Land ...

Rotem