Presentation Practice Production Method (PPP)

Presentation Practice Production Method (PPP)

The PPP (presentation, practice and production) method is a common way to teach and comprehensive enough to allow teachers to apply the basic principles of language learning in order to achieve maximum success. In English teaching there are three steps lesson plan that helps the student learn, understand and practice new vocabularies.

The presentation phase usually consists of two steps: an introductory activity such as a warm-up or a lead-in, which is an activity intended to raise students’ interest in the topic; and an introduction of the target language. For example, if the aim of the lesson is to teach the present continuous for arrangements, the lesson could start with a warmer in which the teacher elicits some activities the students enjoy doing at the weekends. Then, the suggested ideas are written on the board and the teacher helps with any pronunciation problems there might be during this step. After that, the teacher could write the students' ideas on the board to present the present continuous. The teacher chooses some of them and talks about his/her own arrangements for the weekend. While the teacher presents the new language items, the students just listen. This way, the present continuous is being presented in a contextualised way, which is very important at the presentation stage of the lesson. 

 

 

In the practice stage, the focus is on form. The teacher provides opportunities for students to practise the learnt items in a controlled way. This is a chance for the students to use what they have learnt without making mistakes, so it is of the utmost importance that at this moment of the lesson, the students are monitored and all mistakes are corrected. A common controlled activity is a choral drill, in which students repeat the sentences on the board, using the present continuous. Then, the teacher explains the grammatical use of the new language referring the present continuous to its function: making future arrangements. After that, he/she asks the students conceptual questions, that is, questions to check whether they have understood the use of the language. 

The production stage focuses on fluency and provides students with an opportunity to personalise the language learnt by doing less controlled tasks, that is, by using their own ideas. A good production exercise for the described lesson is: the teacher gives a copy of a blank weekly schedule for students to complete with some arrangements and activities of their own. Then, students work in pairs, asking about what they are doing at specific days and times of the week and which arrangements they have. To make this freer practice more interesting and interactive, the students could try to find out each other's free time in their timetables and make arrangements between themselves.