15 This technique is usually used for helping student of second language or
foreign language in the class. Drilling has relation with the models, such as teacher, video tape or recorder, and audio visual or pictures. The model is also as
the main component for helping the students to practice frequently and regularly through the lesson. This drill helps the students to learn new vocabulary by
repeating phrases, words, sentences, or even tenses forms.
b. Types of Drills
There are many kinds of drills that the teacher usually conducts for the class activity, such as ‘repetition drill, substitution drill, chain drill, choral drill,
question and answer drill, transformation drill and translation drill’ T.C. Baruah, 1991. In the classroom activity there are three common drills that is usually
conducted .i.e. repetition drill, substitution drill and transformation drill. Each drill has different approaches and has different objects being focused. The explicit
information is made clear in several points below. a Repetition Drill
‘Repetition drill is simplest drill used in learning language patterns. It is used as the beginning of the class. This may be used for the presentation of new
vocabulary and will be useful for pronunciation class’ Silampari, 2009. Repetition drill is common-used by the teacher for introducing new vocabulary
and meaning. It can be in phrases, words and sentences for example: Teacher : I study in the morning.
Students : I study in the morning. Teacher : I study in the afternoon.
Students : I study in the afternoon. Repeating same vocabulary
with correct pronunciaton
16 If the students still mispronounce the words, the teacher should repeat it at least
three times. The point of this drilling is about spelling the word correctly. b Substitution Drill
This drill has same role as repetition drill, but it can be used to practice different structures or vocabularies and substitute or change some words. This
drill is called substitution drill. This drill trains the students to recognize new structure from the sentences that is given by the teacher.
A substitution drill is a classroom technique used to practice new language. It involves the teacher first modelling a word or a sentence and
the learners repeating it. The teacher then substitutes one or more key words, or changes the prompt, and the learners say the new structure.
Julie BBC, 2010. The drill focuses on the students self-learning by identifying and adding
appropriate words into correct structure. The following sequences are example sentences of substitution drill by T.C. Baruah :
T : showing picture of cat. This is a cat.
P : That is a cat.
T : showing picture of dog.
P : That is a dog, etc.
T : His father is a doctor.
P : His father is a doctor.
T : uncle,
teacher P
: His uncle is a teacher. T :
sister, doctor
P : His sister is a doctor,etc.
c Transformation Drill Transformation drill is a drill that usually used by the teacher to
single substitution
multiple substitution
17 differentiate patterns of the tenses. ‘Language learners are required to change
sentences from negative to positive, from positive to interrogative, or from simple present tense to simple past tense depending on the instruction from the teacher’
Silampari,2009. The example of this drill is: Teacher
: The book is new. Positive sentence Students
: Is the book new? Interrogative sentence Teacher
: We are in the class. Students
: Are we in the class ? Each drill can be conducted chorally or in whole of the class, in groups, or
even individuals. The role of the teacher is selecting the appropriate drilling for teaching the grammar and improving the students’ grammar. By combining the
strategy of teaching the teacher applies the appropriate type of drilling to hit the target of the subject material. The use of this drills depend on the learning
materials that is implemented.
3. Basic Tenses
