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In TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), the term 'drilling' is used to describe an activity whereby the teacher models the pronunciation of a word or phrase by speaking it out loud, followed by their students repeating after them. This process occurs several times over, and can be executed chorally (where the whole class repeats after the teacher) or individually (where selected individual students repeat after the teacher). This essay aims to discuss both the potential advantages of drilling as a teaching tool and the limitations of drilling as such a tool; as well as discussing commonly-used methods of maximizing the effectiveness of drilling in the TEFL classroom. Because English is not a phonetic language (one cannot always detect how a word is pronounced simply by reading it), drilling serves a vital role in helping students master pronunciation. It does this by providing students with an accurate, authentic model of the spoken language (the teacher), and with plentiful practice in forming the sounds required to verbally produce the language. Not only does repetition aid in students' abilities to remember what they have learnt; the process of repetitively forming the mouth shapes and tongue postures required to produce the required sounds also allows students to store and later draw upon muscle memory in order to better retain learned speech. For example, the word 'vinyl' is pronounced very differently to how it is written, and in some languages (Japanese for instance), some of the sounds required to speak this word may not come naturally to TEFL students. Hence it is only through practice that such students can learn to recognize and say the word − and drilling provides a simple, effective way to enable this. However, teachers should not rely too heavily on drilling, as there are significant drawbacks to this method if it is overused. As with any heavily-repeated activity, drilling can become dull and cumbersome for the students if a teacher overuses this tool (after all, drilling is all about repetition). This, in turn, can lead to students feeling bored and frustrated, hence having a negative impact on their enthusiasm and motivation to learn in class. Additionally, while particularly shy students may feel quite uncomfortable being singled out in individual drills and having to pronounce a newly-learned word or phrase in front of the whole class, the choral drills (where one cannot easily hear individuals' voices) may lead − especially if a class is large − to some students remaining silent rather than taking part in the activity. There are, however, tried and tested creative ways around the difficulties and drawbacks outlined above. As a general rule, a blend of both choral and individual drilling is considered to be the most effective method of using drilling in a TEFL classroom, and a drilling session usually consists of three choral drills followed by three individual drills. This keeps drilling sessions short and fun, but repetitive enough to allow students to commit the sound and feel of a word or phrase to memory. Drilling should be used in the classroom in moderation, to prevent the repetitive nature of this tool from boring the students. The ESA (Engage, Study & Activate) framework for lesson planning can be of great help to this effect − drilling usually only occurs within the 'study' phase/s of a lesson, and this allows for plenty of time for students to engage in other activities to balance out these drilling sessions; such as discussions, games, debates, class surveys and a multitude of other activities to engage students, allow them to study language, and allow them to activate what they have learnt. In conclusion, drilling can be a highly effective tool in teaching English as a foreign language to students; however, teachers should put thought and care into when, how and how much they use this tool in their language lessons; as with any other teaching tool. Because different students will experience different levels of comfort and willingness to participate in different activities, 'mixing things up' in the classroom is vital to a conductive learning environment.
