The Basics
- Present the language or process
- Practice the language or process
- Give opportunities to produce/do the language and process
Let’s hear from Scott Thornbury.
Know your PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge).
- PCK – Teacher Centered – Telling the students what to do.
- PCK – Bag of Tricks – What approach and process work for the activity
- PCK – Student Centered – What’s happening during the interactions (t-s, s-t, s-s)
Step 1: Present
Present / Produce – Teachers present and hook students through continuous input based on awareness of the context, interest and point of need.
- Get students’ attention (ears, eyes)
- Bring students attention to a specific word, pattern or structure (grammar)
- Hook the students to the theme, context, activity, or task.
- Elicit prior knowledge.
- Adjust language based on interactionsÂ
- Set expectations.
Step 2: Practice
Practice / Produce – Students and teachers invest into co-creating an enjoyable experience of repetitive receptive processing and focused practice of exercises, activities and tasks through communicative interactions that build stronger representations to the content.
- Choose a specific task or activity that let’s language emerge meaningfully
- Adjust complexity to allow for more optimal levels of English language usage
- Master the methods and techniques that the activity require
- Model the process by engaging in step-by-step interactions
- Provide contextualized feedback
- Help students build up procedural language to perform the tasks
- Reinforce expectations
- Use tools to aid in monitoring students- timers, point systems, progress tracking
- Frequently interleave the process that promotes the practice
- Mix L1 and L2 through bilingual strategies if required
- Build routines and processes
Step 3: Produce:
Produce / Present – Students present output based on awareness of communicative needs and willingness to communicate.
- Choose a specific task or activity that let’s language emerge meaningfully
- Provide students with a bar to aim for
- Reward the how
- Use effective monitoring, praise, and tracking to hold students accountable
- Measure metrics that help teachers and students reflect on their production skills
Step 4: Personalize:
Personalize -Teachers notice and adjust the zone of proximal development to provide a scaffolded experience to meet the needs of students through varying degrees of support and comprehension checks.
- Listen to what your students say
- Watch how they interactÂ
- Adjust your interaction to meet the student’s needs
Helpful Links
- PPP (British Council)
- Planning a Grammar Lesson ( British Councill)
- Presenting Grammar – Jo Gokunga  (ELT TRAINING VIDEO)
- How To Answer Learners’ Grammar Questions – Scott Thornbury (IATEFL 2019)
- Three Types of PPP – Steve Smith
- My misconceptions of the PPP Approach – Rhett Burton
- WHY PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT SENSE By Jason Anderson
- What’ is Fisher’s Skill Theory? By Robert Murphy
Moving Forward
- PPP in curriculum
- PPP in word Networks
- PPP in skills
- PPP in content
- PPP in grammar
- PPP in your approach
- PPP in assessments
These are example of how I want to start applying a PPP into the core aspects of the Burton School Expereince.
Check the box.
1 | To Do: Define how PPP works in my curriculum. | |
2 | To Do: Define how PPP works in my Word Network. | |
3 | To Do: Define how PPP works the skills required for each level. | |
4 | To Do: Define how PPP within the content. | |
5 | To Do: Define how PPP helps your approach evolve for different levels. | |
6 | To Do: Define how PPP leads to better assessment practices. |
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Focus on TeachingÂ

Rhett's Observations, Reflections and Research at Burton's School
General Practices
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