What's the Point of Language Study?

Abstract

In a classroom, somewhere in the world, at this very moment, a teacher is drilling students. Perhaps he or she is getting them to repeat a sentence which uses the present continuous. They might be doing this in chorus or individually. Or the teacher might be giving students cues (like 'running' or 'newspaper') to get individual students to say sentences like 'He's running', 'she's reading a newspaper'. Ever since the advent of the Direct approach, but especially since behaviourist psychology made its way into teaching procedures, such controlled practice has been a common feature in much teaching.