TESOL: How to Teach English Grammar Using a P-

P-P Lesson Plan

June 23, 2015/0 Comments/in Lesson Planning /by admin
While learning and understanding vocabulary is a vital part of language learning, all of
these words lack any real sense of meaning without grammar; therefore, grammar is an
essential part of language teaching and planning an effective grammar lesson is a
necessary skill. This article will show you how to create a TESOL lesson plan using the P-P-
P format.
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The Simple TESOL Lesson Plan: P-P-P

Format
The teacher presents the target grammar structure. Learners are then given opportunity
to practice the structure in a controlled manner. Finally, learners produce the new
grammar in a freer and more meaningful way that also incorporates other elements of
language. In a typical one hour lesson, each of these three stages would last for about 20
minutes.

1. Presentation
In this first stage you need a meaningful context in which to show how this grammar is
used. You can do this in many different ways; you can draw pictures on the board with
speech bubbles explaining what is happening; you can use a short video clip or
photographs; you can even mime a short scene if you feel confident in your acting ability!

Heres an example of how you might present the second conditional.

On the board draw a stick man with thought bubbles coming out of his head. In
these bubbles stick pictures of money, a sports car, a yacht and a big house.
Introduce the grammar structure with an example sentence: If I won the
lottery, I would buy a big house and a sports car.
Ask questions that focus on the form of the grammar: What verb form comes
after if?
Also ask questions that focus on the meaning of the grammar: Do I have a lot
of money now?
Drill the class with the examples until youre satisfied that they can do it
reasonably well.
Free TESOL training! Read Teaching Grammar: Elicitation Through Concept Questions
2. Practice
There are many ways that you can get learners to practice in a controlled manner; these
include gap fill exercises, substitution drills, sentence transformations, reordering
sentences, or matching a picture to a sentence, for instance.

If I ____ (to win) the lottery, I ____ (to buy) a big house and a sports car.
a big house / If I won /, I would buy / and a sports car / the lottery.

At this stage its quite important that the activity is controlled so that the focus is almost
entirely on the new grammar structure.

A good way to do this is to put learners in groups or pairs to work on the activity while
you monitor and give feedback. After this, do a similar activity on the board so that all of
the class is involved. You could make this into a game or a speaking activity, i.e. make it
more communicative but still very controlled.
 Free TESOL Training! Read Teaching Grammar Using the Communicative Approach
3. Production
In the final stage of the lesson you should give learners the chance to use the new
grammar in a meaningful yet freer way. Good activities for facilitating this include role
plays, pictures cues, find someone who, information gaps and interviews. If using an
interview activity, you might get learners to ask three people what they would do if they
won the lottery, for instance.

Its important at this stage to monitor and note down any errors that occur, so you can
build this into your class feedback and error analysis, which is a great way to round off
such grammar lessons.

When we teach grammar, we give our learners the ability to express themselves
accurately, while also fulfilling their expectations of what it means to learn another
language. This basic plan will help you deliver such lessons effectively.

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