The drill session is a valuable opportunity to enter the world of the new language. Using English with the tutor or with other students undermines the very purpose of the session.
If you find that your tutor is speaking too fast for you, do not ask him or her to slow down. Your comprehension skills are developed through the audio component, and you can stop your audio machine and listen to an utterance, said exactly the same way, over and over until you understand it. If you do have problems understanding your tutor, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Am I spending a great deal of time studying the material visually rather than using the audio?
2. Am I using the audio with my book open, so that my eyes are really doing the comprehension, rather than my ears?
3. Am I concentrating on learning single words, rather than on conversational utterances?
You will constantly be corrected during drill sessions. The tutor will not be embarrassed in correcting you, and you should not be embarrassed in being corrected. Develop a positive attitude about correction. It will be one of the tutor’s key functions and it is certainly in your best interest as a potential language user.
Close your book during the drill session. In studying a language, many of us are better in the visual mode than in the oral/aural mode. The idea is not to avoid or forego visual work, but rather to use it as a preparatory step for oral/aural work. Please do not use the visual crutch in audio work and in drill sessions, since your goal is to speak and comprehend the language in face-to-face communication.
Most of the drill session time will be devoted to pattern drills and exercises. There will be virtually no “free conversations,” since this assumes full control of the very basics that you will be learning. Drill and language-use exercises are part of a learning design to insure that at some point you will be able to carry on a free conversation.
You might feel limited at first because of the vocabulary. Textbooks purposely restrict vocabulary —the easiest thing to master a foreign language—so that you can concentrate on the most difficult components of learning: pronunciation, sentence structure and fluency. A massive vocabulary is of no purpose if you cannot use the words in a grammatical sentence with accurate pronunciation and smooth delivery. Additional vocabulary can be easily learned after you are over the major hurdles.
You will be asked to memorize, or "over-learn" certain dialogues for the following reasons:
1. To promote fluency and international accuracy.
2. To allow you to internalize examples of patterns for later expansion through drills and exercises.
3.To demonstrate how words are actually used in sentences and contexts.
4. To introduce formulaic and idiomatic expressions and to show the appropriate usage of such expressions in communication situations.
