Language Drill

Everyday at 5:20 PM, I head over to a classroom in Kemeny Hall to attend my Spanish drill session. Drill is an essential and unique component of language classes in Dartmouth. It is basically a 40-minute session outside of classroom time in which the focus is entirely on fluent oral communication. The drill instructors are fellow Dartmouth students who are fluent in the language, and they prod you with questions in Spanish or make you repeat variations of phrases. While they do this, they snap their fingers to keep the pace smooth and flowing. Drill groups are much smaller than the normal class size, and it allows you to get more individual attention and practice.

You’ll often hear students complain of having drill early in the morning – most languages departments offer morning and afternoon drill (at 7:45 AM and 5:20 PM, respectively). I chose afternoon drill because I am anything but a morning person. However, I can really see how drill is helping my Spanish. In drill, you practice the phrases that you learned in class that morning, so it is great review. You are forced to use the grammar and vocabulary you learned in class, reinforcing the concepts. Also, you learn to speak the foreign language as it is, instead of translating every sentence from English inside your head. I think it is especially great for languages like Spanish with verb conjugations, since it trains you to naturally use the correct tense. I took Spanish in high school, but I can really see my improvement – for one thing, I don’t go “uhhhh” for three minutes while frantically searching for the right conjugation.

Language classes have mandatory drill for only the first two or three terms. Japanese and Chinese require drill until Japanese 3 or Chinese 3, whereas Spanish and French have drill only until the second level class. Even though I can’t wait until I am in the drill-less upper level courses, I know that these daily drill sessions are really helping me advance my language skills. And it will definitely help me get ready for the LSA (Language Study Abroad) in Barcelona!