English Teaching Methodology

How to Teach English as a Foreign Language

I can’t possibly teach you everything about teaching English as a foreign language in one post, so the goal here is just to introduce you to some of the basic ideas about the methods commonly used in the EFL classroom and I will give you links for several good resources.

One of the best resources around for good solid basics is: Basic Teacher Training for EFL Teachers. Some of the material here on TEFL Teacher Training is drawn and expanded upon from TEFL Boot Camp

There are two most commonly followed methods taught by TEFL Certification schools. They are PPP and ESA. Advocates of each often think that the method they know is the holy grail – but they are both quite similar (though some authors think not!).

If you take a relatively flexible approach to how you teach, as that is what your students really need, you will see there are benefits of both methods and you can use a bit of both in every lesson.

These methods and my explanations here are primarily for teaching speaking skills, though the methods can be adapted to teaching reading, writing and listening skills as well. But we will address how to teach those skills individually in future posts.

We will start with PPP.

“PPP” – means Presentation, Practice, and Production

“Presentation” is where the target language, the language to be taught to the students, is “presented” to the students.

This is generally done through eliciting language from and cueing the students to see if they know it or how much of it they might know (often someone in the class knows some or all of it). The teacher provides the language if no one knows it. Usually a good portion of the target language can be obtained from the students.

The purpose of the elicitation and cueing is to get the students involved in the class and to increase the relevancy of the lesson – which in turn increases student motivation (the topic for another post).

The target language is usually put on the marker board either in structure, grammar-type, charts or in dialogs. The presentation stage of a lesson features more “teacher talk” than the other stages of the lesson – generally as much as 65-90% of the time. The presentation portion of the lesson may take as much as 20-40% of the total lesson time.

Less teacher talk in any part of the lesson, is better. Our goal is to have the students talk, not the teacher. You already have plenty of practice speaking and they don’t. So don’t hog the lesson – it is the classic symptom of a poor language teacher.

Next comes “Practice” stage of the lesson where the students practice the target language in one to three activities that progress from very structured, where students are given activities that provide little possibility for error, to less-structured as they master the material.

These activities should include as much “student talk” as possible and not focus on written activities, although written activities can sometimes provide a structure for the verbal practices.

Practice activities should have the “student talk time” range from 60-80 percent of the time – with teacher talk time being as little as possible. This portion of the total lesson can take from 30-50% of the total lesson time.

“Production” is the stage of the lesson where the students take the target language and use it in conversations that they create and structure (ideally) and use it to talk about themselves or their daily lives or situations.

The production stage of the lesson should involve “student talk” as much as 90% of the time – and this component of the lesson can/should take as much as 20-30% of the total lesson time.

As you can see, the general structure of a PPP lesson is flexible. An important feature is the movement from controlled and structured speech to less-controlled and more freely used and created speech.

Another important feature of PPP, and other methods, is the rapid reduction of teacher talk time and the increase in student talk time as you move through the lesson.

As mentioned earlier, one of the most common errors untrained teachers make is that they talk too much. EFL students get very little chance to actually use the language they learn and the EFL classroom must be structured to create that opportunity.

“ESA” – means Engage, Study, and Activate

The stages of ESA are roughly equivalent to PPP, though ESA is slightly different in that it is designed to and allows movement back and forth between the stages. However, each stage is similar to the PPP stages in the same order.

Proponents of the ESA method stress its flexibility compared to PPP. The ESA method as defined by Jeremy Harmer, its primary advocate, uses more elicitation and stresses more “Engagement” of students in the early stages of the lesson.

Both elicitation (drawing out the language from the students by use of questions, prompts and cueing) and Engagement are important in raising student motivation, but both tactics can just as easily, and should, be used in the Presentation stage of PPP.

ESA is superior method to PPP when both are looked at from a rigid point of view.

But, EFL is not rigid and you should not adhere to any one viewpoint or method. PPP is often an easier method for teacher-trainees to get a handle on.

TED’s Tips™ #1: Study and learn one method well – branch out to other methods as you increase your experience and skill level.

TED’s Tips™ #2: Don’t get hung up on terminology or too married to any one method. There are many ways to approach language instruction and PPP and ESA are used primarily as they are easy to teach in the relatively short four-week TEFL Certification or CELTA courses.

PS: I have developed the GRO method – just like but different from PPP and ESA – for helping my students improve. The GRO Method is more student focused, even in its description. “G” is for Growing student knowledge by Getting new information and Grasping the function of the target language of the lesson. “R” is the portion of the lesson for student Reaction to and Rehearsal or practice with the target language. And the “O” is for the students to Optimize their use of the language by making it more personal and relevant.

I know my method is effective and no other method is nearly as flexible. So there! Please allow my “tongue in cheek” approach.

And now a super special offer:

Free TEFL eBooks – Guides to Success Abroad

TEFL eBooks is offering a free download of their new publication Seven Secrets of Success Abroad - and along with it comes a bi-weekly installment and revision of their eBook called How to Teach English Overseas.

Great reviews for the Secrets of Success eBook – in spite of the hokey name – and the How to Teach English eBook is being updated and rewritten and sent out in installments as it is ready.

Here they are – click on the eBooks to get your FREE copies! Great information and the price is right, from our friends at TEFLeBooks.

Please let me know what you think of the ebooks – use the comments section below.

I confess both eBooks are written by yours truly – hoping to inspire others to head overseas and live life BIG out in the real world. I would value your feedback!