PPP Framework: Presentation, Practice and Production

The PPP Teaching Framework is a model to describe the typical stages of language teaching lesson.

The PPP Teaching framework consist of four main stages: Warm-up, Presentation, Practice and Production and is used to teach speaking and writing lessons.

There is a variation when we use this framework to teach Listening and Reading skills.

The framework that we use to teach passive skills is the PDP framework which stands for Pre, While and Post

Let’s check all that you need to know to use the PPP Framework correctly



PPP Framework: Criticism

This framework for teaching language classes is often criticized because:

  1. It forces students to use certain grammar structures and vocabulary.
  2. Since it forces students to use a target structure and vocabulary, this reduces the learner opportunities to use the language in spontaneous ways.

Stages of the PPP Framework

These are the stages of the PPP Framework:

Warm-up

  • It’s an activity at the start of the class to warm up the learners. They tend to be short, dynamic activities.
  • It is recommended that the warm- up is related to the topic studied during that class. 
  • In my opinion, the most important thing about a dynamic warm-up is that you continue with dynamic activities  during the presentation, practice and production stage.

Presentation

In the presentation stage, teacher introduces:

  1. Vocabulary
  2. Grammar

You can introduce the vocabulary and grammar in two different ways.

  1. Deductively: This involves the learners being given a general rule, which is then applied to specific language examples
  2. Inductively:  This approach starts with examples and asks learners to find rules

Important things to take into account:

  1. Choose the vocabulary and grammar structures necessary for your students to succeed.
  2. Don’t introduce vocabulary and grammar that won’t be used during the lesson.
  3. Try not to introduce lots of words. Keep new words to a maximum of 20 per lesson.
  4. Get students involved in the presentation of the vocabulary and grammar so you can reduce teacher talking time and encourage learner-centered instruction

Practice

The practice stage aims to provide opportunities for learners to use the target structure and vocabulary used during class.

This stage is also controlled practiced since the tasks prepared by the teacher have  controlled results.

Teacher should try to use the vocabulary and structures during the presentation stage for obvious reasons:

  1. What’s the point of introducing vocabulary and grammar you aren’t going to use?
  2. How can you expect students to succeed if you use different vocabulary and grammar to the one you taught in the presentation stage?

Production

All meaningful activities which give students the opportunity to practise the language more freely.

Important Considerations When Planning Lessons

It  is impossible to be wrong if:

  1. Your activities encourage peer to peer interaction.
  2. Students are taught grammar inductively.
  3.  Your lesson is made up of task that maximize student talking time.
  4. Students stand up and talk to others.
  5. There are games and activities that are fun and meaningful.
  6. Your scaffolding is good because students can do what you want them to do.

Considerations when Teaching Listening and Reading

The Presentation, Practice and Production is usually used to teach speaking, writing or grammar.

If you want to focus on listening and reading, you have to take into account the PDP Framework

This framework is an approach to teaching reading and listening skills lessons.   

PDP means Pre- During (while) and Post

ListeningReading
Pre-ListeningPre-Reading
While-ListeningWhile-Reading
Post-ListeningPost- Reading

The basic idea is:

  1. Try to help students to know a little about what they’re going to read or listen before they read or hear it
  2. Give them a reason to read or listen by setting questions or other reading listening tasks
  3. Ask them to do something with the information they get from the reading or listening. 

How to teach Listening

The Framework for teaching listening is called Pre, While and Post.

Check out these resources to understand more about this framework

  1. 12 Types of Pre-Listening Activities
  2. 12 Examples of While-Listening Activities
  3. 10 Types of Post-Listening Activities for the ESL Classroom.

How to Teach Reading 

The Framework for teaching reading is called Pre, While and Post

Check out these resources to understand more about this framework

  1. Stages for Teaching Reading
  2. 15 Examples of Pre-Reading Activities
  3. 10 Examples of While-Reading Activities
  4. 10 Examples of Post-Reading Activities
  5. Making Reading Communicative

Questions to Ask Yourself when Creating PPP or PDP Lessons

These are some important questions that you should ask yourself when creating a PPP or PDP Lesson.

  • Are the activities of the PPP lesson plan linked to each other?
  • Are the activities of the PDP lesson plan linked to each other?
  • Do the activities belong to the right stage of the lesson? For example, is the pre-reading activity an actual pre-reading activity?
  • Is the lesson plan based on reality and not on impossible and unrealistic expectations
  • Is the evaluation strategy measuring what you need to measure?
  • Are activities engaging to the learner?

Short Quiz: How Much Did you Learn?

These are some statements that you should analyze and assign to a category of the PPP Framework

The categories being: Presentation (A), Practice (B) and Production (C)

  1. Teacher directs the activities during this stage ( )
  2. Teacher provides feedback to students ( )
  3. Activities include drills and multiple choice exercises ( )
  4. Students produce oral and written texts ( )
  5. Teacher uses visual aids to demonstrate a situation ( )
  6. Teacher describes grammar rules ( )
  7. Activities include oral presentations by the students ( )
  8. The teacher doesn’t necessarily intervene in this stage ( )
  9. Language is presented in context ( )
  10. Exercises in this stage can be productive or receptive ( )

More on English Language Teaching

I hope that you found everything that you were looking for about the PPP Framework

These are some posts with more ideas and information to teach English

  1. 5 Challenges English Language Learners Face
  2. 10 Characteristics of Teacher-Centered Instruction
  3. The Most Effective Classroom Seating Arrangements
  4. 15 Awesome ESL Games and Activities
  5. ESL Classroom Activities: Dictogloss
  6. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching
Manuel Campos, English Professor

Manuel Campos

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English