Why Drills Still Deserve a Place in the ESL Classroom

Alan David Pritchard
Sep 19
3 min read

ESL-Wise: Blog 17

By Alan David Pritchard

Teacher points at students raising hands in a classroom. Green chalkboard with verbs: go-went, buy-bought, come-came. Engaged mood. Drills.

I used to avoid drills. I had been told they belonged to another era. Repetition, parroting, chanting in unison were part of the old audiolingual method we were supposed to have left behind. My training told me to keep things communicative and to build meaning before form.

Drills are Great for Irregular Verbs

And yet, the moments that have stuck with me over the years often involve a good, old-fashioned drill. I can picture a Year 8 class, restless after lunch, slouching in their chairs. We did five minutes on irregular verbs: went, bought, caught, thought. I fired them out quickly, first as a chorus, then around the room.

They groaned at the start, but by the end they were racing each other to answer. The next day those same verbs slipped more naturally into their writing.

That was not an accident.

This is why I still use drills to this day.

Verb conjugation chart showing present, past, and past participle forms: drive-drove, drink-drank, eat-ate, fall-fell, feel-felt, fight-fought. — Here is an example of an irregular verbs drill game used in my lessons. The blue boxes are animated to fade away when the students provide the correct answer.

Drills were pushed aside because they became overused and mechanical. Too often, they were all students did. Whole lessons of parroting left no space for real communication. But it was never the drill itself that was the problem. It was the way it was used.

For learners who keep forgetting the –s in “he goes” or who hesitate every time they need a past tense, drills still have value.

Advantages of Drills

Repetition helps patterns stick.
Quick-fire practice frees up memory so students can concentrate on ideas rather than forms.
Sometimes, when a class is low in energy, a brisk drill can snap everyone back into focus.

I am not suggesting we return to the 1950s. The classroom has moved on. Drills need to be short, purposeful, and linked to something more.

I rarely spend more than three or four minutes on one. I move from whole class to groups to individuals. And I try to follow them with a chance to use the same forms in a sentence or a short exchange.

Tag questions image with dialogue on cake and verb tense chart. Text shows highlights and blanks for practice. Vibrant colors used. — Here is an example of how the drill is linked to something more. After drilling, we can then apply the learning to a speaking activity to practise tag questions and 3rd conditionals.

Drills are a Tool

The point is that drills are not a method. They are a tool. A hammer is useless if it is the only thing in your hand, but sometimes you need it. Irregular verbs, subject–verb agreement, tricky conjugations are areas where a little repetition pays off.

When I hear colleagues dismiss drills as outdated, I think of the faces of students who finally stop stumbling after a round of practice. That confidence matters. It gives them the courage to move on to something more ambitious.

I do not see drills as a step backwards. I see them as one of the many ways we can support learners on the way forwards.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

I’d love to hear from you.

Why Drills Still Deserve a Place in the ESL Classroom

Drills are Great for Irregular Verbs

Advantages of Drills

Drills are a Tool

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