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When teaching speaking, teachers might normally use a conventional drill to introduce new language expressions. Students are asked to repeat the new expressions after their teachers for many times until students more or less memorize them or get used to using them. I did this technique quite often when I taught speaking, but I found my students got bored of doing this. Then, I kept thinking and searching for what other techniques I could use to introduce new language expressions in a way that it would not bore my students. Finally, I found an e-book (Reward Intermediate Resource Pack), which introduced me to mill drill. After reading through it I figured out that mill drill is an effective way to teach new language expressions without making students get tired of doing it. Mill drill is different from conventional drill. It is an interactive way of drilling newly-presented language using cards with picture or word prompts on one or both sides.

In this article, I’m going to share how mill drill is applied using word prompts. Let’s say I’m going to teach my students on asking for and giving personal information, such as names, jobs, and place of work (company/office). Thus, I will let my students practice language expressions like: a) what’s your name? b) what do you do? and c) where do you work?/ What company are you with?. So, prior to teaching, I have to prepare cards (the number of cards depends on the number of the students in class) stating a name of a person, his/her job, and his/her company/office. The cards can appear as the following:






In class, I give each student one card and tell them that they will become the person on their cards. Before doing the mill drill, I elicit from students the above expressions by asking questions like: ‘How do you ask someone’s name?’, “How do you ask someone’s job?’ and ‘How do you ask where someone works?’ When students come up with the expressions, I write them down on the board with the responses included. The board can show this way:

A: What’s your name?
B: My name’s … (Peter Parker)
A: What do you do?
B: I’m a/an … (photographer)
A: Where do you work?
B: I work at … (Parker’s Studio)

As the all expressions have been jotted down, I ask them to say the expressions by repeating after me to let them know the correct pronunciation and intonation. I also check if students can pronounce the name of job on their cards correctly.

The next step is giving the instruction on how to do mill drill. The best way to do it is by demonstrating it. I divide my students into two groups and ask them to stand up in two lines facing one another. I tell them that they will practice the expressions with a friend in front of them. As each student is finished practicing with a friend in front of them, I ask them to move around clockwise by saying ‘move!’ so that each student faces a new partner and practices the expressions again. This activity continues until each student meets his/her first partner. However, if I have a small number of students, I usually give them additional round. This time, each student has to turn around his/her card showing it to a partner in front of them. In other words, each student will read his/her partner’s card to respond the questions. By doing this, students are given an opportunity to make new responses. Students move around again until they meet their first partners.

That’s the concept of mill drill. It differs from conventional drill in that it promotes student - student interactions while providing teachers with an opportunity to monitor their students’ performance, particularly pronunciation and intonation while students are doing the activity. I hope you can take the benefit of it and won’t let your students get bored anymore of conventional drill.