Aranza Gallegos Roque

Conclusion

During this document, the main study was the drill technique, which was so
efficient during the English class so that the students could improve their level of the
language and at the same time that they could obtain greater confidence when they
participated in the classes speaking English. In the same way, it was observed how the
students' mistakes were corrected and how it affected them.

Before beginning this document, it was observed that the students had certain
difficulties in using the English language during the class. One of the reasons that the
students mentioned during the survey was that they did not have an English class in
primary school, so during secondary school it was their first time seeing English as a
class.

Another point that was noticed in this observation was that due to the activities
that were carried out with the teacher and the book, it was not possible to practice
enough the language or participate during the class. Also, when they had the
opportunity to participate, they did not want to do it and when asked why they did not
want to participate, their comments were "I do not know how to speak in English",
"others will make fun of me if I am wrong", among other similar comments.

These were some of the reasons why the topic of this document was chosen by
the students, and during an interview they were asked what was the easiest way for
them to understand and learn English, to which about 16 of the 20 students who
answered that question mentioned that they preferred to listen and repeat what they
had to say and apart from knowing the meaning of what they were talking about.

Before starting the fourth year of the bachelor's degree, the school offered us a
course of Rassias Method where according with the web page The Rassias Center the
main goal of the this Method is

“To make the participant feel comfortable and natural with

the language in a short period of time. This is accomplished
through a specific series of teaching procedures and dramatic
 Aranza Gallegos Roque

techniques which seek to eliminate inhibitions and create an

atmosphere of free expression from the very first day of class.”

(Dartmouth, 2018)

During this course we were taught a strategy that we could use with students in
class that consisted of students listening to and repeating the words or phrases that the
teacher molded.

Personally, I liked this strategy, because I thought it could become very

traditionalist at a time when you only hear and repeat, however as they were different
strategies, when applied, they could attract attention and make the student have fun,
learn and feel comfortable during the class and using the language.

When I met the students with whom I would be working on this document and
seeing their opinions and needs, I thought that this type of strategy could help them, fit
the profile of the students and equally with mine at the time when I was the student who
practiced this and thus felt that it was easy to learn.

At the beginning of this document my thought was that the drills were a good
strategy so that the student could learn, so that the mistakes would decrease and the
confidence would increase and as the practices passed and this study was carried out, I
was learning more.

It was indeed a good choice for me and my students, seeing the progress some
students had. I cannot say that the strategy worked for everyone, but they did have a
noticeable advance on the use of English and participation during class.

Because drills are a strategy where the teacher shapes what will be said, the
students listen and then repeat, this made the students more confident when speaking
and participating in English, since they listened as they had to say the words and from
there they memorized it for future activities.

Also, because the students followed the structure of the sentences or the
pronunciation of the words, the errors became minimal, there were confusions in the
way of working, but because it was the first time that we did activities like this, or in
 Aranza Gallegos Roque

some cases, it came to give very long instructions so, it complicated that the students
understood.

However, when students made a mistake, at the time they were corrected, they
came to ignore the correction with words like "aja" or "yeah, that", but as the practices
passed, the students understood that if they were corrected, it was for them to repeat
the answer but now in the correct way. Even in some cases, in advanced classes, they
corrected each other and helped each other when they didn't understand a word or
when they didn't know how to work.

There were times when I made the mistake of forgetting the students level of
English and whether I used a more complex language for them or the activities had a
higher level as well, so when I got to make those mistakes, I had to take a little more
time to explain, simplify the instructions or help them with the activities.

During the practice, I could realize the importance of group management and the
rules from the first moments you start working with them, and I could observe it because
from the beginning they were explained how they would work and the rules that would
be where everyone should have respect with their peers, not make jokes of the
mistakes and help each other.

Thanks to this, the way of working with the students, the environment that was
created during the classes and the activities carried out, from games or activities
outside the classroom as well as inside it, were possible to achieve them.

Following the main objective of the drills, and the results of the work that the
students did, it is possible to observe that they are really effective. They help students to
memorize sentence structures in order to create conversations that can be used in a
real context. In addition, it minimizes errors, increases confidence and helps with the
pronunciation of English words.

In my opinion it is an effective and new strategy for the students, it really helps
them in several aspects and more if they are students who do not yet have much
contact with the language.
 Aranza Gallegos Roque

However, as a section of the document mentioned that there are three types of
drills that are Mechanical, Meaningful and Communicative, this document only focused
on Mechanical drills, and it is true that the activities that are carried out are more
directed, so that the student still does not get to communicate their ideas freely without
some specific guidance.

For this reason, I believe that once the student is able to carry out activities
correctly thanks to the Mechanical drills, when they already memorize the sentence
structures, it would be good to work with the other types of drills, until arriving at the
Communicative drill, where the student will have reached a certain level of use of the
language and will be able to carry out sentences and conversations in a freer way.

Although during talks it has been commented that memorization is not a strategy
that favors learning much, I think the same thing, it is not good to simply memorize, but
it can be a great help for those who are learning and are afraid to make mistakes. In this
way I came to learn English until I reached a point where I could communicate naturally.

I support this type of strategy, as long as its use is not exceeded; that other types
of activities can be carried out to expand vocabulary and thus expand the
communication of students in the classroom using the second language.

As a teacher in practice, despite having done this study on these techniques, in

order to implement them all I still need to work more. Investigate what kinds of different
activities I could use to enhance language use and English learning and how I can
minimize mistakes and build confidence in students, without the activities being
memorization and leaving the safety zone.

Due to the fact that it is an evolutionary work, in which one always has to update
oneself with activities, courses, strategies, always trying to renew the way of teaching in
order to obtain better results, new questions arose that in the future I hope to be able to
answer as:

How do I know that students are ready to work with other drilling activities to
communicate?
 Aranza Gallegos Roque

What other strategy could be worked with drillings to further expand the English
language in the classroom?

Is it possible to work with Communicative and Meaningful drills with students who
are just having class contact with the English language?

A question that also arose during the preparation of this document was whether
this activity could work only because of the needs and profile of the group.

Since they commented that they could and liked to learn better this way, listening
and repeating, this type of strategy was really suitable for them, so I can think what
would be the answers and results with students who did not have that preference but
even so would have worked with the drills...