The Nature of Cue Cards

28 communicative drills. In mechanical drills, the students do not need to understand the meaning of the words or the sentences because there is a pattern to control the responses. The purpose of mechanical drills is the students can give responses completely in good sentence construction, proper pronunciation and intonation. An example of a mechanical drill would be presented as follows. Pattern : I’m holding a book. Cue : Magazine Response : I’m holding a magazine. Cue : Banana Response : I’m holding a banana. Rivers, 1983, p. 45 In meaningful drills, the students must have understanding completely in grammar and meaning although there is still a pattern to control the responses. The students must understand the meaning of the cue to make a meaningful conversation. The following conversation is an example of a meaningful drill: Question : When did you arrive this morning? Answer : I arrived at nine o’clock. Question : When will you leave this evening? Answer : I’ll leave at six o’clock. Rivers, 1983, p. 45 In communicative drills, the students must have understood completely in grammar and semantic but there is not any pattern to control the response. The students have free choices to answer. However, Paulston 1970 underlines “..whatever control there is lies in the stimulus…. It still remains a drill rather than free communication because we are still within the realm of the cue-response pattern ” as cited in Rivers, 1983, p. 46. An example of mechanical drills is presented as follows. Question : What did you have for breakfast? 29 Answer : I had toast and coffee for breakfast. OR Answer : I slept late night and skipped breakfast so I wouldn’t miss the bus. Rivers, 1983, p. 46 Furthermore, Palmer 1970 as cited by Rivers 1983, p. 46 states communication practice drills are useful for teaching speaking. Communication practice drills provide the students find the response not only in linguistically acceptable but also in personally relevant to themselves and other people. Palmer 1970 underlines drills shou ld be done carefully to build the students’ characters. This is the illustration of Palmer’s communication practice drills. Pattern : I would tell him to shut the door. Teacher : Karen, if you and Susan came to class at 8 a.m. and it was winter and the room was dark at 8 a.m., what would you tell Susan? Karen : I would tell her to turn on the light. Teacher : And how about you, Paul, if you were with Mary and you wanted to read, what would you do? Paul : I would tell her to turn on the light. Teacher : You as a boy would tell a girl to do that for you? Now, if you came alone, and I was in the room, what would you do? Paul : I would tell you to turn on the light. Teacher : Then I would throw you out of the class. Rivers, 1983, p. 46 The i llustration above shows that Paul’s response is mechanically correct but unfortunately he does not know the implication of his response in a certain setting. In social interaction, it is impolite if young people ask elder people to do something. Teacher’s teasing in this drill is used to increase the students’ self awareness on using the language. Rivers 1983, p. 47 notes having training in such drills can help the students to be able to produce more original responses.