The second group of drill exercises includes:

(a) exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' auditory memory:

-- Listen to the following words and try to memorize them. (The teacher pronounces a number of words pointing to the object each denotes: a carrot, a potato, a cucumber, a tomato. Afterwards pupils are told to point to the object the teacher names.)

-- Listen to the phrases and repeat them. The teacher says: on the table,, in the box, near the blackboard.

-- Listen to the sentences and repeat them. (The teacher says: I like tea. Ann doesn't like tea. She likes milk.)

-- Listen to the sentences and repeat them in the same sequence. (The teacher says: In the evening we have tea. I like it very much. The teacher may increase the number of sentences for pupils to memorize.)

(b) exercises which are designed for developing pupils' attention:

-- Listen to the following text: I have a sister. Her name is Ann. Mike has no sister. He has a brother.

Now say what is the name of Mike's sister.

-- Listen to the text. (The text follows.) Now say which sentence was omitted (added) when you listened to it a second time.

(c) exercises which develop pupils' visual imagination:

-- Listen to the following definition and give it a name: We write with it on the blackboard. We take it when it rains.

-- Listen and say which season it is: It is cold. It often snows. Children can skate and ski.

(d) exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' logical thinking:

-- Listen to the sentences and say whether they are logically arranged: Her name is Mary. This is a girl.

Drill exercises are quite indispensable to developing pupils' skills in listening comprehension.

Speech exercises are designed for developing pupils' skills in auding. Several groups of exercises may be suggested:

1. Exercises which teach pupils to understand texts different in content, form, and type. Pupils are asked to listen to a description or a narration; the text may be a dialogue, it may deal with the life of people whose language the pupils study, or with the pupils' environment.

-- Listen to the story. Your task is to define its main idea. You should choose one among those suggested by the teacher.

-- Listen to the story. Your task is to grasp as much information as you can. While auding try to put down key words and sentences; they will help you to convey the context of the story.

2. Exercises which develop pupils' skills to understand a text under different conditions. Sound producing aids should be extensively used for developing pupils' auding, as pupils are supposed to understand not only their teacher's speech, but other people speaking the target language, including native speakers. Besides, sound producing aids allow the teacher to supply pupils with recorded speech different in speed and voice.

Before pupils are invited to listen to the text the teacher should ensure that all the words and grammar are familiar to the pupils otherwise language difficulties will prevent them from understanding the story. Thus, if there are some unfamiliar words, the teacher introduces them beforehand; he either puts them down on the blackboard with the mother tongue equivalents in the sequence they appear in the text, or he asks pupils to pronounce the words written on the blackboard if he plans a talk on the text afterwards, and pupils are to use these words in their speech.[5]

Then the teacher should direct his pupils' attention to what they are going to listen to. This is of great importance for experiments prove that if your aim is that your pupils should keep on talking on the text they have heard it stimulates their thinking and facilitates their comprehension of the text.

The following tasks may be suggested to draw pupils' attention to what they are auding:

-- Listen and try to grasp the main idea of the story. You will be asked questions later on.

-- Listen and try to grasp the details. You will have to name them.

-- Listen and make a plan of the story.

-- Listen to the story and try to finish it (think of the end of the story).

-- Listen to the story. You will ask questions on it afterwards.

-- Listen to the text. You will retell it afterwards.

-- Listen to the story. We shall have a discussion on it. Etc.

When pupils are ready to listen, the text can be read to them. If it is the teacher who reads or tells the story, he can help pupils to comprehend the text with gestures. If the text is recorded, a picture or pictures can facilitate comprehension. The pupils listen to the text once as is usually the case in real communication. Then the teacher checks their comprehension. If they have not understood it, they are told to listen to the text again. The teacher can use a dialogue to help pupils to understand the text after they have listened to the story for the first time, i. e., he may ask questions, make statements on the text for pupils to agree or reject them.

Checking pupils' comprehension may be done in many ways depending on the stage of instruction, pupils' progress in the language, and other factors. In any case, however, it is necessary to proceed in order of complexity from mere recognition to reproduction. The procedure may be:

Skills in hearing must be built up gradually. The teacher begins with a story containing 3--4 sentences. He uses pictures, gestures to help pupils to understand it. Gradually he can take longer sections and faster speeds with less visual help and in more difficult language. The teacher must bear in mind that careful grading in all these ways is of the utmost importance. Texts, stories to be read or recorded should be interesting and fairly easy.

2.3 Techniques the teacher uses for teaching speaking

There are two forms of speaking: monologue and dialogue. Since each form has its peculiarities we should speak of teaching monologue and teaching dialogue separately.

In teaching monologue we can easily distinguish three stages according to the levels which constitute the ability to speak: (1) the statement level; (2) the utterance level; (3) the discourse level.

1. No speech is possible until pupils learn how to make up sentences in the foreign language and how to make statements. To develop pupils' skills in making statements the following procedure may be suggested:

Pupils are given sentence patterns to assimilate in connection with situations.

The sentence pattern is filled with different words. Thus pupils can express various thoughts. For example:

I can see a ... .

P u p i l 1: I can see a blackboard.

P u p i 1 2: I can see a picture.

P u p i l 3: I can see a map, etc.

I am fond of ...

P u p i l 1: I am fond of music.

P u p i 1 2: I am fond of classical music.

P u p i 1 3: I am fond of pop music, etc.

We are proud of ...

P u p i l 1: We are proud of our country.

P u p i 1 2: We are proud of our sportsmen.

P u p i 1 3: We are proud of our school, etc.

Pupils are invited to perform various drill exercises within the sentence patterns given:

-- substitution: I have a book (a pen);

-- extention: I have an interesting book,

I have an interesting book at home;

-- transformation: He has a book,

He has no book;

-- completion: If I have time I'll ... .

Pattern practice, of course, makes no pretence of being communication. However, pattern practice for communication is what playing scales and arpeggios is to a musician. Each pattern will have to be repeated many times with a great variety of changes in its contents until the pattern becomes a habit.

Pupils make statements of their own in connection with the situations suggested by the teacher.

Give it a name.

Teacher: We write with it.

Pupil: It is a pencil (pen).

Make statements on the picture.

Teacher (silently points to the picture of a cat)

P u p i l 1: This is a cat.

P u p i l 2: This is a black cat.

Say the opposite.

Teacher: I live in Gorky Street.

Pupil: I do not live in Gorky Street,

Teacher (pointing to the boy): He likes to play hockey.

Pupil: I don't like to play hockey.

When pupils are able to make statements in the foreign language within grammar and vocabulary they have assimilated their speech may be more complicated. They should learn to combine statements of various sentence patterns in a logical sequence.

2. Pupils are taught how to use different sentence patterns in an utterance about an object, a subject offered. First they are to follow a model, and then they do it without any help.

Teacher: Say a few words about it. (He points to an object.)

Pupil: This is a pencil.

The pencil is green.

It is on the table. I like the pencil.

Or Teacher points to a boy.

Pupil: This is a boy. His name is Sasha. He lives in Gagarin Street.

Get information and sum up what you have learnt from your classmates.

Teacher: She cut her finger.

Pupil: Who cut her finger?

Class: Ann.

-- When did she cut it?

-- Yesterday.

-- What did she cut it with?

-- With a knife.

-- Why did she cut her finger?

-- Because the knife was sharp.

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