PPP is an effective way to teach, the planning is easy and it is not necessary to have experienced teacher. However, it is possible to say that is not the best method to learn. The PPP method is characterized to teaching in a process of 3 stages.
The first stage is the presentation of an aspect of language in a context that students are familiar with, it could be presented as the same way that a swimming instructor would demonstrate a stroke outside the pool to beginners.
The second stage is practice, where you give your students an activity that gives them the opportunities to practice the new aspect of language and become familiar with and teachers give them limited assistance. To continue with the analogy, the swimming instructor allowing the children to rehearse the stroke in the pool but he is always close to support and encourage them.
The final stage is production where the students will use the language in context, in an activity set up by the teacher who will be just watching them and giving them less assistance, like the swimming instructor allowing his swimmers to take their first few tentative strokes on their own.
Presentation – Part 1 of PPP
We have to be careful about the language we use and how clearly we present the new language that we wish for our students to acquire.
Let’s look at 4 key things that should be occurring in an effective second language classroom presentation:
1 – Attention in the Classroom
Learners are alert, they are completely focused on the new language and they are expecting the next surprise, make it interesting to your students.
The language will be of more interest to the students if it is put into some type of context that the students are familiar with, because it is easiest to relate.
2 – Perception of Language
We want to ensure that the learners both see and hear the target language easily. So if you are using a board, try to organize it with different colors, shapes and ideas to catch your students’ perception.
Language should be appropriate for the level of their students and the commands should be supported by clear body language.
3 – Target Language Understanding
The learners must be able to understand the meaning of the material.
We also need to have a way of checking if the learners understand the material presented without asking the question: Do you understand? We, as teachers, need to be a little more imaginative when we check if our students understood the material presented. We should be checking the learners’ understanding in context.
4 – Short-term Memory in the Classroom
The learners will have to retain the information from the presentation and use it when we give them an opportunity to produce it on their own.
We need to consider that different learners will remember the material in different ways. Some by the way the material is seen, others by the way it is heard, and others if it is associated with a physical movement. We need to make sure our presentation has something for all these types of learners.
Practice – Part 2 of PPP
Practice can be defined as the rehearsal of certain behaviors with the objective of consolidating learning and improving performance. Below are some of the characteristics of an effective language practice:
1 – Practice Validity
The practice activity must have learners put into action all the topics they say.
2 – Pre-learning
Before we ask our learners to practice new language, we must have ensured that they have understood it. We can do this during the presentation stage.
3 – Volume (Amount) of Practice
Here, we are referring to the number of opportunities every student in the class has to practice the new language and not the level of sound. The more opportunities each student has to practice the target language, the more effective this stage of the lesson is.
4 – Success Orientation
The students should have an opportunity to practice the new language and in order to do it, you have to give them activities to complete their practice.
5 – Issuing Activity Instructions and Managing the Activity
It is important to select an appropriate activity, it is also important to give clear instructions for the activity itself so all of your students are clear as to what is expected of them. Use of clear visuals to support any language we have to use and strong demonstrations of what is expected.
Managing the activity should consist of the teacher being mobile during the activity, offering a hand to show relevant information.
Production – Part 3 of PPP
The students now have the target language presented to them clearly and have had an opportunity to practice it in a controlled environment. If we return to the swimming instructor analogy, it is now time to let them take their first few tentative strokes in the pool on their own with supervision and encouragement from the instructor.
As with the practice stage, we have to initiate an activity that allows them opportunities to use the target language in the classroom. In fact, the characteristics of a production stage activity are quite similar to the practice stage with one key difference and that is, student autonomy.
Here are some of the key aspects of a production stage:
1 – Volume (Amount) of Production
We want to create as many opportunities for our students to produce the target language Instead for spoken activities, we look to get the students speaking in pairs, speaking to each other as much as possible, we as the teachers go around the classroom offering a little assistance but lots of positive reinforcement.
2 – Production Validity
Again, we should initiate an activity that allows the students to produce the target language that we presented to them and not a variation on it.
3 – Production Contextualization
The activity should simulate a real–life situation where the students may use the target language.
4 – Student Autonomy
Students will be speaking, using the target language, with little or no support from the teacher.
They shouldn’t be looking things on the whiteboard or any materials they have on their desk, so a teacher may choose to erase information from the whiteboard for this stage and the teacher might also choose to get students to clear their desks.
5 – Issuing Instructions for an Activity
It is important to select an appropriate activity, it is equally important to give clear instructions for the activity itself so all of our students are clear as to what is expected of them.
6 – Correcting Errors during the Activity
It is important that the students get as many opportunities to speak using the new language.
The appropriate use of body language by the teacher will let students to be discrete in correcting errors and will allow them to offer much needed encouragement to students as well.
We have to be careful about the language we use and how clearly we present the new language that we wish for our students to acquire.
Let’s look at 4 key things that should be occurring in an effective second language classroom presentation:
1 – Attention in the Classroom
Learners are alert, they are completely focused on the new language and they are expecting the next surprise, make it interesting to your students.
The language will be of more interest to the students if it is put into some type of context that the students are familiar with, because it is easiest to relate.
2 – Perception of Language
We want to ensure that the learners both see and hear the target language easily. So if you are using a board, try to organize it with different colors, shapes and ideas to catch your students’ perception.
Language should be appropriate for the level of their students and the commands should be supported by clear body language.
3 – Target Language Understanding
The learners must be able to understand the meaning of the material.
We also need to have a way of checking if the learners understand the material presented without asking the question: Do you understand? We, as teachers, need to be a little more imaginative when we check if our students understood the material presented. We should be checking the learners’ understanding in context.
4 – Short-term Memory in the Classroom
The learners will have to retain the information from the presentation and use it when we give them an opportunity to produce it on their own.
We need to consider that different learners will remember the material in different ways. Some by the way the material is seen, others by the way it is heard, and others if it is associated with a physical movement. We need to make sure our presentation has something for all these types of learners.
Practice – Part 2 of PPP
Practice can be defined as the rehearsal of certain behaviors with the objective of consolidating learning and improving performance. Below are some of the characteristics of an effective language practice:
1 – Practice Validity
The practice activity must have learners put into action all the topics they say.
2 – Pre-learning
Before we ask our learners to practice new language, we must have ensured that they have understood it. We can do this during the presentation stage.
3 – Volume (Amount) of Practice
Here, we are referring to the number of opportunities every student in the class has to practice the new language and not the level of sound. The more opportunities each student has to practice the target language, the more effective this stage of the lesson is.
4 – Success Orientation
The students should have an opportunity to practice the new language and in order to do it, you have to give them activities to complete their practice.
5 – Issuing Activity Instructions and Managing the Activity
It is important to select an appropriate activity, it is also important to give clear instructions for the activity itself so all of your students are clear as to what is expected of them. Use of clear visuals to support any language we have to use and strong demonstrations of what is expected.
Managing the activity should consist of the teacher being mobile during the activity, offering a hand to show relevant information.
Production – Part 3 of PPP
The students now have the target language presented to them clearly and have had an opportunity to practice it in a controlled environment. If we return to the swimming instructor analogy, it is now time to let them take their first few tentative strokes in the pool on their own with supervision and encouragement from the instructor.
As with the practice stage, we have to initiate an activity that allows them opportunities to use the target language in the classroom. In fact, the characteristics of a production stage activity are quite similar to the practice stage with one key difference and that is, student autonomy.
Here are some of the key aspects of a production stage:
1 – Volume (Amount) of Production
We want to create as many opportunities for our students to produce the target language Instead for spoken activities, we look to get the students speaking in pairs, speaking to each other as much as possible, we as the teachers go around the classroom offering a little assistance but lots of positive reinforcement.
2 – Production Validity
Again, we should initiate an activity that allows the students to produce the target language that we presented to them and not a variation on it.
3 – Production Contextualization
The activity should simulate a real–life situation where the students may use the target language.
4 – Student Autonomy
Students will be speaking, using the target language, with little or no support from the teacher.
They shouldn’t be looking things on the whiteboard or any materials they have on their desk, so a teacher may choose to erase information from the whiteboard for this stage and the teacher might also choose to get students to clear their desks.
5 – Issuing Instructions for an Activity
It is important to select an appropriate activity, it is equally important to give clear instructions for the activity itself so all of our students are clear as to what is expected of them.
6 – Correcting Errors during the Activity
It is important that the students get as many opportunities to speak using the new language.
The appropriate use of body language by the teacher will let students to be discrete in correcting errors and will allow them to offer much needed encouragement to students as well.
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According to Jeremy Harmer (2009), the PPP is a method that is used in teaching simple language at lower levels, but you can also teach pronunciation and some points of grammar to intermediates. It is useful for small classes where you can control your students in a better way.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE PRESENTATION PHASE?
A presentation phase is controlled by the teacher. The teacher might use a text, an audio tape or visual aids to demonstrate a situation. From this, she will extract the required language forms.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE PRACTICE PHASE?
During the (controlled) practice phase, learners practice saying or writing the language structure correctly. Typical practice activities include drills, multiple-choice exercises, gap-and-cue exercises, transformations etc. In this phase, the teacher’s role is to direct the activities, to provide positive feedback to students, correct mistakes and model the correct forms.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE PRODUCTION PHASE?
When the learners have completely mastered the form and have learnt how to produce it without mistakes in controlled exercises, they can move on to the (free) production phase. In this phase, they use the newly learnt language structure to produce oral or written texts. Typical production activities include dialogues, oral presentations, and the production of sentences, paragraphs or longer texts. The teacher does not generally intervene or correct in this phase: after all, the students should not make mistakes by now. If mistakes are made, they are pointed out after the exercise has finished.
A presentation phase is controlled by the teacher. The teacher might use a text, an audio tape or visual aids to demonstrate a situation. From this, she will extract the required language forms.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE PRACTICE PHASE?
During the (controlled) practice phase, learners practice saying or writing the language structure correctly. Typical practice activities include drills, multiple-choice exercises, gap-and-cue exercises, transformations etc. In this phase, the teacher’s role is to direct the activities, to provide positive feedback to students, correct mistakes and model the correct forms.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE PRODUCTION PHASE?
When the learners have completely mastered the form and have learnt how to produce it without mistakes in controlled exercises, they can move on to the (free) production phase. In this phase, they use the newly learnt language structure to produce oral or written texts. Typical production activities include dialogues, oral presentations, and the production of sentences, paragraphs or longer texts. The teacher does not generally intervene or correct in this phase: after all, the students should not make mistakes by now. If mistakes are made, they are pointed out after the exercise has finished.
VIDEO TO SHOW THE PRESENTATION PHASE
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VIDEO TO SHOW THE PRACTICE PHASE |
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VIDEO TO SHOW THE PRODUCTION PHASE
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Example of Activity:
WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAY’
Objective: to teach Past Progressive.
Process:
Objective: to teach Past Progressive.
Process:
- PRESENTATION: Show them a picture with different scenarios of holiday. Ask the students what do they like to do with their family during your summer holiday
- Show the students a chart with pronouns, space for writing verbs and the words “yesterday, last week, last night, last weekend” and tell them things you were doing during your summer holiday last year
- Show them a story about the last vacation of our friend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wrsIByTQXE and ask them to repeat the actions
- PRACTICE: Ask them to complete five sentences about holiday actions. They have to complete with Was/were and the verb in brackets using ING
- PRODUCTION: Ask them the question “what were you doing on your last summer holiday?” make pairs and they have to create a dialog to share what they were doing, they have to write at least 10 sentences.
- Computer and Projector
- Video with the story and pictures
- Worksheet with questions