Pacing in the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) is considered. It is suggested that the problem of pacing is almost entirely a matter of teachers covering material so rapidly that the student frequently does not have the opportunity to integrate it. Since the recognition of sounds, symbols, and sentences is not mastery of them, it is important that students master the simpler structures on which the more complex English structures are based. Pacing begins in the goals the teacher sets for students and is enhanced through classroom drilling. The repetition drill per se is largely a matter of listen and repeat. By adding systems of visual cues, the exercise can also be used to teach reading skills, intonation patterns, and correct versus incorrect variations in sentence patterns. The teacher can drill oral and written questions and answers and at the same time provide intonation practice to a highly literate student (i.e., capable of structural substitutions). For a student who is semiliterate (particularly one who is unfamiliar with the spatial order of English), the teacher must combine oral drill with visual cues that encourage left-to-right movement across the page. Finally, for a barely literate student, the teacher must combine oral skills with those that develop discrimination of sentence, word, and letter boundaries, in that order. An instructional approach involving slot substitution for parts of sentences is illustrated. (SW)