The PPP Approach and Variations on a Theme Part 2

The Early Communicative ApproachPart Two: 

The Early Communicative Approach Part Two Functional materials Functional/Structural Materials The PPP Format and … Variations on a Theme

An aside on information  gap activities…: 

An aside on information gap activities… May be fully or semi-controlled or free. Based on the idea that A has information that B doesn’t (and vice versa) which they have to share to complete the task. Provide a higher degree of communicative challenge than if the same task was done with the Ss seeing all the material – Ss have to listen and react as well as thinking about what they want to say

Examples of info gap activities: 

Examples of info gap activities Find the difference Describe and draw Describe and arrange Find someone who … Jigsaw reading / listening Some roleplays

Other types of communicative activity : 

Other types of communicative activity Opinion gap activities – eg : Ss have an ambiguous picture and decide what the situation is Ss have five (actually unrelated) pictures and are told they are scenes from the same film – they decide the story Ss see ten pictures very quickly and then have to remember what was in them.

PPP : Semi-controlled Practice: 

PPP : Semi-controlled Practice The target language will occur in continuation, but will be interspersed with other language Eg : Headway Pairwork Approaches Ex. 2 and 3

PPP : Production (Free Practice) : 

PPP : Production (Free Practice) The students participate in an activity where the target structure is likely to occur occasionally but could be avoided. In any case “other” language will predominate.

Criticisms of the PPP Approach …: 

Criticisms of the PPP Approach … 1. It could be a waste of time and demotivating On remedial courses, or if Ss had all come from different institutions (eg on courses in Britain) you might be teaching at least half of them what they knew already.

Alternatives to PPP : The Deep End Approach /Test-Teach-Test / PPPP: 

Alternatives to PPP : The Deep End Approach /Test-Teach-Test / PPPP Ss put into situation where they need to use the language (authentic or simulated situation) Language input (T presentation or taped dialogue) extends Ss’ ability to communicate Controlled/ Semi-controlled practice of new language Repetition of initial or similar communicative activity Example : Johnson and Morrow Approaches

Criticisms of the PPP Approach …: 

Criticisms of the PPP Approach … 2. It didn’t work Language is not learnt bit by bit and immediately after it’s first been encountered. Ss would be fine in CP and SCP and then abandon the target structure entirely in FP.

Criticisms of the PPP Approach …: 

Criticisms of the PPP Approach … 3. It didn’t describe what happened in the classroom It couldn’t describe what happened in a skills lesson. As time went on, even language systems lessons used all and only the three PPP stages in order. There might be warm-up stages, presentation and practice of one item might be followed by presentation and practice of another before the were integrated into a final free production stage, items might be allowed to come up (presented) but left at a receptive level and not taken on to free practice etc

Alternatives to PPP : ESA (Harmer): 

Alternatives to PPP : ESA (Harmer) Engage Activities to arouse students’ interest: eg lead ins Study Presentation/controlled practice Activate Receptive or productive use of language : Oral or written production, reading listening,

Alternatives to PPP : ARC (Scrivener): 

Alternatives to PPP : ARC (Scrivener) ‘…(PPP) only describes one kind of lesson; it is inadequate as a general proposal concerning approaches to language in the classroom. It entirely fails to describe the many ways in which teachers can work when, for example, using coursebooks, or when adopting a task- based approach.’ (Scrivener 1996: 79) Authentic use Restricted use Clarification and focus.

Alternatives to PPP : ARC (Scrivener): 

Alternatives to PPP : ARC (Scrivener) 'Authentic use' means exposure to or practice of real language use (Any skill :S,L,R or W) 'Restricted use' means controlled practice of language 'Clarification and focus' means drawing our students' attention to form, meaning and use. These elements of the lesson can appear in any order in the lesson, depending on aims, level and focus. CRA = PPP ? But more flexible.

Product vs Process approaches: 

Product vs Process approaches Mainstream British communicative teaching remained product-oriented – ie the teacher /coursebook decided what language should be learnt and the learner’s task was to learn and produce it US methodology, on the other hand, was process oriented – Krashen, TPR, Community Language Learning etc. There was less focus on the actual language learnt /acquired, and more on language learning processes