The Value and Reasonable Limits of Behaviorist Drills in Modern Communicative Language Classes

Abstract

Although behaviorist drills have been less used in language teaching since the emergence of Communicative Language Teaching in the 1980s, this paper suggests that they still have important educational value when applied under appropriate limits. It is believed that the main advantage of behaviorist drills is to improve the automaticity of language processing, thus freeing up the limited working memory of the learners for more important communicative activities. To facilitate the proper use of drills in modern English classes, three limit rules are put forward: drills should start from mechanical to meaningful, move from de-contextualized to contextualized, and adopt different kinds to prevent monotony. Finally, the paper indicates that in the post-method era, language teachers should regard drills as a means to achieve communication rather than the final goal of learning.