surveying and comparing drill-based technique with textbook-based method in teaching persian language to non-persian learners

In iran, mostly textbooks themselves serve as the basis for much of the language instruction learners receive and the language practice that occurs in the classroom. using substitution drill technique in second language teaching has a history of decades. although many critics have connected this technique to rote learning and advised teachers to use other communicative techniques, it seems that the effects of drilling on memorization and helping learners to build a faster and more organized structure of second language in their minds is underestimated and ignored to some extent. the present paper, aims at comparing drill-based technique in persian language teaching to non-persian learners with textbook-based method and having a deeper investigation on the effects of using substitution drill technique to facilitate teaching of persian vocabulary and grammar. to do so, 84 adult learners of persian as a foreign language (42 males and 42 females) in intermediate level, were requested to attend an 18-session persian course for learning persian words and another 18-session persian class for learning intermediate persian grammar. the learners of both experimental and control groups passed pre-tests and post-tests and the results were analyzed by running t-test and ancova using spss software. the results of the present study showed a 34 percent of higher effectiveness in learning vocabulary and 16 percent of higher effectiveness in learning grammar for the experimental group. since other possible factors were fully controlled, this increase might encourage some teachers to maintain this technique as a useful tool along with other modern teaching methods.