Present Continuous - examples of drilling exercises

A drill - a stage of an activity/a game or an independent activity.

Choral repetition

Students have to repeat words or phrases after you. Students are given excellent model pronunciation immediately before they are asked to respond.
To get students focused -change the way you say the sentence and have students change their responses accordingly.

I am listening to music.
(Say it: merrily, sadly, angrily, slowly, loudly, etc.)

Substitution Drill

With each repetition, change one of the words in the sentence, e.g. pronouns. Students then say the sentence with a given pronoun.

Teacher: „I am making pancakes.“ You?
Students: „You are making pancakes.
Teacher: „I am swimming in the lake.“ She?
Students: „She is swimming in the lake.“
Teacher: “ I am cleaning the room”. They?
Students: ”They are cleaning the room”.

Then you may point out at a particular student, e.g. a girl named Kasia and say:

“What is she/ Kasia doing?” or Kasia?
Students: “She/ Kasia is cleaning the room”.

“What is Tomek doing?” or Tomek?
Students: ”He/ Tomek is cleaning the room”.

Transformation Drill

For example, students may be asked to turn a statement into a question or affirmative into negative.

Teacher : "Sandra is drawing a horse."
Students : "Is Sandra drawing a horse?"
“Sandra isn’t drawing a horse”.

Teacher : "The girls are dancing waltz."
Students : "Are the girls dancing waltz?"
“ The girls aren’t dancing waltz”.

Teacher : "I am doing sports."
Students : "Am I doing sports?"
“ I’m not doing sports”.

Communication Drill

A communicative drill - the type of response is controlled but the student provides his/ her own content or information. Students may have answers on the board or on flashcards.


Teacher: What are you doing?(make the bed)
Students:I am making the bed.

Teacher: What is Tina doing ? (ride a bike)
Students: Tina is riding a bike.

Teacher: What is Adam doing? (have lunch)
Students: Adam is having lunch.

Reverse drill / Back chaining

•Say the last word of a sentence. Students repeat.
•Add the word before the last word. Students repeat.
•Continue until the sentence is complete.

For example:

Teacher Students

moment moment
at the moment at the moment
English at the moment English at the moment
learning English at the moment learning English at the moment
She's learning English at the moment.
She's learning English at the moment.

Based on:
www.busyteacher.org
http://www.onestopenglish.com
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
http://www.english-time.eu