The Evidence is IN: Drills are OUT

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The Evidence is IN Drills are OUT

• Wong, W. VanPatten, B. 2003. The evidence is
  IN Drills are OUT. Foreign Language Annals, 36,
  403-423.
• (Presentation created by Mark Kay)

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Abstract

• After reviewing research on the utility of
  drills, the authors conclude that these
  activities are not necessary or beneficial for
  foreign language acquisition or the development
  of fluency and should be discarded from
  instructional practice.

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Linguistic System Vs. Productive Skill

• Two aspects to learning a language
• An underlying implicit linguistic system
• The development of the ability to use that system

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Linguistic System Vs. Productive Skill

• The system is complex
• Phonological
• Abstract syntactical system
• Network of lexical items
• Morphological forms (inflections)
• A pragmatic system
• Sociological system

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Linguistic System Vs. Productive Skill

• the development of this complex and implicit
  linguistic system is not dependent on learner
  practice of language but rather is dependent on
  exposure to what is called input.

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The Nature of Drills

• The Audio-lingual Period

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The Nature of Drills

• The Audio-lingual Period
• Originated in 1940s
• Army language training programs
• Language learning was the result of mechanical
  habit formation
• Later, learner moves from repetition to
  self-expression.

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The Eclectic Period

• Late 1960s and early 1970s
• Mechanical drills
• Complete control of the response
• Only one correct answer
• Those who do not know the target language can
  complete the drill
• Nonsense words can be substituted

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The Eclectic Period

• Meaningful drills
• The learner must comprehend the stimulus
• The question is completely controlled
• The question cannot be answered unless it is
  understood

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The Eclectic Period

• Communicative drills
• Require learners to supply information
• No right or wrong answer except in terms of
  grammatical well formedness
• The free transfer of learned language patterns to
  appropriate situations.

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The Prevalence of Drills in FL Instruction

• Structural pattern practice is still regarded as
  a necessary prerequisite before learners engage
  in self-expression.
• As recently as 2001
• Concern of authors is the belief that mechanical
  drills are essential for acquisition.

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A Theoretical Perspective on Why Drills Do Not
Work

• Since 1970 SLA research as gathered a tremendous
  amount of data.
• Two important insights from research
• Learners bring internal mechanisms to the task of
  acquisition that cannot be manipulated by
  explicit instruction.
• Learners need access to input (meaningful or
  communicatively oriented language).

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Internal Mechanisms

• Learners tend to pass through various stages on
  their way to acquisition.
• Stages are universal
• Learners acquired certain surface features of
  language in a certain sequence over time and are
  not learned in block units.
• The acquisition of the tense and aspectual
  systems of language is unaffected by
  instructional intervention.

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Internal Mechanisms

• Learners have demonstrated evidence of knowing
  more than what they have been taught.
• First language transfer is not the major error
  source.
• Bottom Line We can teach whatever we want to,
  but the brain is responsible for learning.

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Input

• Meaning-based language that learners hear or see
  in context.
• Input is not the explanation of rules or forms.
• Input is not practice in the language
• Input is not consulting a rulebook.

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Input

• Fundamental problem with drills They involve
  learner production and not learner comprehension.
• The learners job is not to comprehend but to
  correctly produce a form or structure.
• Acquisition of a linguistic system is
  input-dependant.

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Early Classroom-Based Research That Questioned
Drills

• Savignons (1972) study of ALM.
• Suggested that drills are not effective in
  developing communicative competence.
• Study by Lightbown (1983).
• Subjects tended to overuse certain grammatical
  morphemes.
• Their acquisition was apparently delayed.
• Practice may be harmful to L2 learners
  interlanguage development

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Contemporary Research that Challenges the Role of
Drills

• Processing Instruction (PI)
• Is designed to avoid specific problems that
  learners have in processing input.
• Learners posses a default strategy that assigns
  the role of agent (or subject) to the first noun
  they encounter.

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Processing Instruction Lesson

• First A brief explanation of what the structure
  is and looks like is presented.
• Second Learners are informed of incorrect
  tendencies that they might transfer from their
  first language.

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Processing Instruction Lesson

• Third Referential Structured Input Activities
  are presented.
• There is a right or wrong answer.
• Learner must rely on targeted grammatical form to
  get meaning.

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Processing Instruction Lesson

• Fourth Affective structured input activities.
• Learners express an opinion, belief, or some
  other affective response.
• Learners process information about the real world

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Processing Instruction Lesson

• How is PI different from drills?
• Learners initially do not produce the targeted
  form or structure.
• Learners must show evidence of having correctly
  processed it during comprehension.
• Learners are required to pay attention to meaning.

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Processing Instruction Lesson

• Activities are designed to cause a change in
  underlying learner strategies of processing input
  for acquisition.

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Research Instruction with Drills vs. Instruction
Devoid of Drills

• Study by VanPatten and Cadierno (1993)
• PI versus TI (traditional instruction).
• Three groups (1) A PI group, (2) a TI group, (3)
  a control group with no instruction.
• On a sentence level test of interpretation the PI
  group made significant gains.
• One a production test both PI and TI did well.

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Research Instruction with Drills vs. Instruction
Devoid of Drills

• Conclusion
• PI did well in both the interpretation and
  production tests.
• Drills are not necessary.

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Instruction That Shows Learning Gains Without
Mechanical Drills

• Farley (2002)
• Silver (2000)

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The Role of Explicit Information(information on
the grammar)

• This might surprise you
• But, Sanz and Morgan-Short (2002)
• Showed that neither explicit information nor
  explicit feedback seemed to be crucial for a
  change in performance.

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Some Possible Objections to PI

• The role of output in acquisition.
• How is it that learners develop automaticity or
  fluency and accuracy if they are not engaged in
  output practice?
• The degree to which the purpose of learning and
  the nature of the language to be learned make a
  difference.

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The Role of Output

• Swain (1985)
• Output stimulates the process required for
  acquisition.
• Noticing of linguistic features in the input
• Hypothesis testing
• Conscious awareness
• Gass (1997)

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Context and Target Language

• more difficult languages (Russian)
• Laws of physics developed on Earth are the same
  as the moon, Mars, or another galaxy.
• The role of drills cannot change depending on
  language.

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Meaningful and Communicative Drills

• There are drillsbut they need to be meaningful
  and communicative.
• Since, acquisition is input-dependent, the drills
  must also be input-dependent.
• Traditional mechanical drills are all
  output-oriented.
• Yo _____ (comer) mucha comida anoche.
• Yo ____ mucha comida anoche.
  (comer, leer, caminar)

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But Thats the Way I learned It

• This is a mentality frequently seen.
• Logic that A precedes B then A must cause B.
• A explanation practice
• B eventual ability to use the language
• A may have preceded B, but C (and D and E) were
  fundamental building blocks of acquisition.

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But Thats the Way I learned It

• Every advanced learner has lived abroad,
  interacted with other speakers, read in the
  second language, seen films and perhaps watched
  TV, and listened to songs in the second
  language.
• All activities involving input.

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But Thats the Way I learned It

• There is no research that supports the fact that
  mechanical drills lead to acquisition only
  anecdotal feelings.
• However, research has shown that using mechanical
  drills serves as a psychological crutch (by both
  the student and the instructor).

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Efficiency Effectiveness

• Research isnt saying that Traditional
  Instruction (with focus on mechanical drills for
  grammar practice) is wrong.
• However, research has shown that Processing
  Instruction is more effective and efficient in
  language acquisition.

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Conclusion

• Drills are not necessary!