This fall, my high school ESOL classes have been particularly challenging. My newcomer students are struggling to adapt to their new cultural and language environment, and my advanced students are struggling to master new curriculum materials that align with Common Core.

That leaves me in the middle, stressed about how to deliver the best instruction, given the enormous time constraints imposed by my school schedule. The bell rings every 50 minutes, and I've got a new class coming in. This year the classes are larger than ever.

How can I cover the curriculum and allow sufficient time to practice a skill?

An old method of instruction can be useful in these circumstances. While I would never employ it in isolation, the audio-lingual method can be successful when incorporated into a program of study that focuses on developing literacy and critical thinking skills. I learned two foreign languages through audio-lingual drills, and I taught with this method when I lived in West Africa.

"Listen and repeat," substitution drills, memorized dialogues and dictation all have their place in a modern classroom. Here are a few of these "old fashioned" drills that I use to support my students.

Listen and repeat

This method is excellent for newcomer students. I write the words or sentences on the board and tap out the syllables as I speak. I use "backwards buildup," starting with the last word of the sentence, and have students repeat chunks or phrases together until they can repeat the entire sentence chorally.

I focus on chunking prepositional phrases so that they can learn natural pronunciation. I teach "oral punctuation" explicitly, moving my hand up or down to indicate correct intonation at commas and periods. I insist that students keep their eyes on the text so that they learn to match words to sound.

This exercise will help lay the foundation for listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Substitution/transformation drills

I use substitution and transformation drills with all levels of English language learners. It is particularly useful for intermediate students who need specific grammar practice.

For example, after introducing the simple past tense, I will initiate a drill like the one below. There are many resources available that have excellent exercises like this. One of the best is "Understanding and Using English Grammar," by Betty Schrampfer Azar.

Students follow the patterns and substitute words or transform the sentence as prompted. These drills allow students to practice specific language forms when there's little time. Drills are great as a warmup or activator exercises.

Student A: I go to school every day.

Teacher: Yesterday

Student B: I went to school yesterday.

Teacher: Two days ago

Student A: I went to school two days ago.

Teacher: Did not

Student B: I did not go to school two days ago.

Teacher: Where

Student A: Where did you go?

Memorized speech

This has fallen out of favor in recent years, but there is a place for memorization in today's test-obsessed classroom. In fact, if there's limited time, memorization can provide a shortcut to improved language control that otherwise would take much longer to learn.

I have asked students to recite textbook dialogues, poetry and scenes from literature. By memorizing authentic texts, students can begin to internalize language structures. They start with a specific, then later generalize.

I can still remember entire dialogues that I memorized at age 12. I still recite the lyrics to a song that helps me remember the rule for transitive and intransitive verbs. Memorization can be a fun, low-threshold way to aid a student's language acquisition.

Dictation

Most people think of dictation as a verbatim transcription of what the teacher says. While this is usually the case, it doesn't have to be dull.

With my advanced students, I will do targeted dictations. One of my favorites is a fun second- or third-word dictation, where students only write the second or third word they hear. It's an opportunity for them to connect spoken language elisions, like "gonna" and "wanna" to formal written language (click here for examples).

Learning another language takes time, something that high school students and teachers have in limited quantity. Audio-lingual drills are an effective way to enhance English language learning when used in combination with other methods that promote the skills that teens will need for college and career success.