Techniques in TESOL Nguyen Hoang Tuan, Ph.

The PPP method: The useful way in Language Teaching

at Lam Dong Technical and Economic College

Abstract
PPP is a method that is widely used in teaching simple language at lower levels
(Harmer, 2009). This method focuses directly on both the meaning or use and form of
target language, and gives students an opportunity to practice language in a safe
learning environment where it is difficult to make mistakes. It can therefore be quite a
confidence-building approach for students. For this reason, PPP is a useful way to be
applied in teaching English at Lam Dong Technical and Economic College.
Key words: PPP method, lower levels

Introduction
PPP which is the abbreviation for Presentation, Practice and Production is one
of several successful ways of presenting the language in teaching English. PPP is
widely used all over the world by many English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. Every PPP lesson has a language
purpose, which students should achieve what the teacher has taught at the beginning of
the lesson.  The PPP can be applied to teach grammar items, as well as functions,
vocabulary and even pronunciation. The descriptions taken from Spratt & Pulverness
(2012) will let us understand more about the view of language, the view of language
learning, and the classroom practice as below.
In PPP method, grammatical structures and functions are the most important
aspect of language. Language is learnt by first seeing new language in a context which
shows its meaning, practicing it in controlled and guided conditions, then using it in
freer conditions which give the learners less language support. In the other words, the
syllabus focuses on grammatical structures or functions. The teacher inputs language
(provides examples and gives information about it), and guides students, so they do
not make decisions about what and how to learn. Because the presentation on the new

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grammatical structures or functions is given by the teacher before practicing, learners

should not be allowed to make mistakes during the practice stage. Typical activities
are situational presentations and miming at the presentation stage, drills at the
controlled practice stage, role-plays and information-gap activities at the production
stage. Now each stage will be considered more carefully and in more detail.

What happens during the Presentation stage?

Presentation stage is controlled by the teacher. Firstly, the teacher finds out how
much of the target language (for example, the grammar or vocabulary to be taught) the
students know. Then the teacher will then present the language structure, usually on a
board, by using a text, an audio tape or visual aids to demonstrate a situation. The
students are generally expected to listen during this part of the lesson and their
opportunities to speak are limited.
For example, the teacher may show the class the following picture and model
the following sentences:

 Mrs. Smith is feeding the baby.

 Mrs. Smith is feedING the baby.
Mrs. Smith… is feed…ING the baby.

Then, the teacher may write the sentences on the board and helps students with
any pronunciation problems there might be during this step.

What happens during the Practice stage?

During the (controlled) practice stage, the teacher describes the grammar rule,
the learners then practice saying or writing the language structure correctly, like this:
The present Continuous

S + am/ is/ are + V-ing

E.g. We are learning English at the moment.

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Typical practice activities include drills, multiple choice exercises, gap-and-cue

exercises, transformation, ect. The teacher directs the activities, provides positive
feedback to students, correct mistakes and models the correct form.
E.g. Tom (play)_____________ tennis now.
We (do)_____________ our homework at the moment.
Mary and Peter (watch)_____________ TV at present.

What happens during the Production stage?

Production is the last stage of the lesson. In this stage, the students start to
produce language (oral or written texts) more freely by using the newly learnt
language structure. Typical production activities include dialogues, oral presentations,
and production of sentences, paragraphs or longer texts. The teacher does not generally
intervene or correct mistakes because the students should not make mistakes by now.
If mistakes are made, they are usually pointed out sensitively after the exercises has
finished.

Background
I have been working as a teacher of English for eight consecutive years at the
faculty of English at Lam Dong Technical and Economic College. I base my teaching
on the belief that the teacher is the transmitter of knowledge from himself or herself to
their students. Therefore, my primary goal of my teaching was to convey my
knowledge of English to my students as much as possible, especially to help them to
improve communicative abilities in conversation. To me, that my students who are at
low levels are able to understand and then communicate with each other what they
have learnt may be my biggest success in my teaching career.
Lam Dong Technical and Economic College where I am working is just a small
school which was established four years ago. Before 2009, its full name was Lam
Dong Technical and Economic School, so my students are mainly at the intermediate
stage. In fact, most of them have just finished secondary schools and are usually not
good at English. They don’t learn English well as they should be, and some of them
have never even learnt English before.

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Under this circumstance, the coursebook which was chosen to be used for the
first-year students is New Headway, Elementary (first edition) written by John and Liz
Soars. The book consists of fourteen units which are divided into two semesters. This
coursebook was selected because it is suitable for beginners to start to learn English. It
focuses on four basic skills in the low levels, with moderate quantity of new words or
phrases that can be applied in the real life at the end of each unit, such as asking for
directions, polite requests or making suggestions, ect. The exercises in the workbook
are varied and appropriate for beginners, too. The tapescripts used with this book are
clear and easy enough for the students to follow.

The PPP method: The useful way in Language Teaching at Lam Dong
Technical and Economic College
Teaching English well and expecting the students to apply what they have
learnt in communication not only accurately but also fluently may be the biggest desire
to all the teachers of English. However, Hamouda (2013) stated that EFL learners’
reluctance to speak English in the classroom is a problem commonly found in a
foreign language context. He also pointed out there are many students don’t
participate in class’s activities because they are low English proficiency, or fear of
making mistakes, fear of speaking in front of others, fear of negative teacher
evaluation, feel shy, lack of confidence and preparation. This requires the teacher a lot
of care, patience and attention to encourage students to learn English, to develop their
speaking ability and motivate them to practice speaking English not only accurately
but also fluently in the classroom.
According to Pham (2005), Vietnamese teachers, especially those who have
been abroad, may have learnt interesting about Communicative Language teaching,
whose its principles are “calling for learner involvement, allowing learners choice,
changing teachers’ and students’ role, and breaking down hierarchic barriers in the
classroom”. However, this lecturer also said that there was a conflict between what
teachers want to do and what they actually can do which “is often a less-than-
satisfactory experience”. For example, he added, they [Vietnamese teachers] may have
classes of 60 students, many of whom are more concerned about the immediate goal –

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to pass exam, to get a degree, rather than the long term goal – to develop
communicative competence. It is thus uncommon for teachers to take a binary
approach to teaching: it is to be teaching grammar or teaching communication; one
thing has to be done at the expenses of the other (Pham, 2005).
Good English proficiency is a product of a lot of effort and time. It seems to be
useless if students can not apply what they have learnt in class and/ or their real life. I
strongly believe that the only way to learn English is to practice English every day,
especially in speaking, as much as possible. Hammer (2007) stated that speaking
activities provide opportunities for rehearsal, give both teacher and students feedback
and motivate students because of their engaging qualities. Above all, they help
students to be able to produce language automatically – a crucial stage on the way to
autonomy. Therefore, to improve my students’ speaking ability, I spend quite a lot of
time in class on practicing speaking English for them. The more they practice speaking
English, the better at speaking they will be.
There is, however, a fact that my students are at a low level. They know neither
how to use English grammar or sentence structure nor how to pronounce the new
words accurately; even they are just very simple ones. Besides, they lack of
vocabulary to express their own ideas, and their speaking ability is limited, too.
Although always trying to be humorous and flexible in conveying the content of the
lessons, I usually have to use Vietnamese beside English to explain the new lesson
items in order that they are easier for my students to understand. Therefore, like other
teachers of English in my school, I consider PPP as the suitable and useful way to
teach English because it can provide an opportunity for students to practice language
in a safe learning environment where it is difficult to make mistakes.
PPP method is very popular with our students in our college, because this
method has been applied by many teachers of English for a long time. In the periods
which were attended by other teachers of English each semester a year ago, the one
which had followed the PPP lesson plan exactly was highly appreciated. The PPP
method used on that day will be described step-by-step to find out the reason why it
becomes the favorite way to teach simple language at lower levels at my college.

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In that period, the aim of the lesson was to teach the modal verb CAN (Unit
6,New Head way – elementary, first edition, 2000). The lesson started with a warmer
in which the teacher asked some students what they could do. Then, the students’
answers were written on the board to present the modal verb CAN. The teacher also
helped them to distinguish pronunciation problems: can /k6n/ or /k`n/ in affirmative
sentences, and /kâ:nt/ in short form. After that, the teacher chose some of the students’
answers on blackboard. While the teacher was presenting the new language items, the
students just listen.
After that, the teacher provided opportunities for students to practice the learnt
items in a controlled way. Firstly, students repeated the sentences on the board,
using the modal verb CAN. Then, the teacher explained the grammatical use of the
new language referring the modal verb CAN to its function: the ability that he/ she can
do in present. Next, she asked the students conceptual questions to check whether they
had understood the use of the language or not. Students then carried out another
restricted activity, such as matching the sentences containing the modal verb CAN and
its pictures, doing a written gap-filling by using the modal verb CAN/ CAN’T plus the
verbs in brackets, and finally listening to a short tapescript about what a girl from Italy
called Tina could do, and then complete the chart below.

CAN …? Tina
1. drive a car
2. speak French
3. speak Italian
4. cook
5. play tennis
6. ski
7. swim
8. play the piano
9. use a computer
(Unit 6 – Can you speak English? New Head way – elementary, 1st edn, 2000)

After correcting the exercises above, the teacher moved to the production stage
which focuses on fluency and provided students with an opportunity to personalize the
language learnt by using their own ideas. She gave a copy of a blank for students to

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complete with the ability that his/ her partner can do in present. Students worked in
pairs, then asked about what they can/ can’t do.

CAN …? Tina You Your partner

1. drive a car 
2. speak French 
3. speak Italian 
4. cook 
5. play tennis 
6. ski 
7. swim 
8. play the piano 
9. use a computer 
(Unit 6 – Can you speak English? New Head way – elementary, 1st edn, 2000)

To make this freer practice more interesting and interactive, the students must
try to find out more information about the ability that other classmates can/ can’t do in
present by using the question words When, Where, How or Why. Then students used
what they had learnt to make a short communication by using the modal verb CAN.
E.g. Can you speak English? - Yes, I can.
When did you learn English? - A year ago.
Where do you learn English? -…
The period only lasted forty – five minutes, but it had enough time for students
to understand the lesson and to produce their own conversation which the modal verb
CAN was used. At the end of the lesson, the teacher called three pairs to go to
blackboard to demonstrate their conversations. All of them were able to talk excitedly
about what they could/ could not do in front of class. The other students understood
what they must do, and they could do the communications tasks quite well, too.

What are the weaknesses of the PPP method?

It is reasonable to assume that no method is perfect, so is the PP method. The
first weakness is that the amount of time for the teacher talking is still high compared
to the amount for students, especially in the first part of the lesson. Secondly, the PPP
method makes students sometimes learn language which items they may not be

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interested in or ready to learn, and gives them few opportunities to really use the
language for communication (Spratt et al. 2011:91). Finally, it encourages accuracy
over fluency, and this is not always the desired outcome of a course.

Conclusion
Although there are still some weaknesses, we can say that the PPP method is
really a useful way to be applied in teaching English for students at Lam Dong
Technical and Economic College because this method can give students an
opportunity to practice language in a safe learning environment where it is difficult to
make mistakes. Therefore, they neither fear of making mistakes and being laughed at
or losing face when speaking in front of others in class, nor feel worried that they can't
speak English well any more. The last but not least is the teacher’s role. Besides the
teaching method, if the teacher can create a warm atmosphere to motivate the students
to learn English, prepare more topics which are related to student life so that students
can express their own ideas, and plan some activities to improve the students’
vocabulary, it is believed that all of them will contribute significantly to consolidate
students’ confidence as well as develop their abilities in learning English better and
more effectively.
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REFERENCE

Books
1. Harmer, J (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (fourth edition).
Person Education Limited.
2. Nguyen, Thu Huong, (2013). Background Reading Materials (first edition).

Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers

1. Hamouda, A. (2013). An Exploration of Causes of Saudi Students' Reluctance
to Participate in the English Language Classroom. International Journal of
English Language Education , Vol. 1, No. 1, ISSN 2325-0887, 17 – 34
2. Pham, Hoa Hiep (2005). University English classrooms in Vietnam. ELT
Journal, Vol. 59/4, 336 – 438, doi:10.1093/elt/ccq093
3. Kostoulas, A. (2012). Presentation – Practice - Production. ELT Journal,
Vol.66, doi:10.1093/elt/ccr023
4. Hunter, J. (2012). ‘Small Talk’: developing fluency, accuracy, and complexity
in speaking. ELT Journal, Vol. 66/1, 30 – 40; doi:10.1093/elt/ccq093

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