“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 generally through eliciting and cueing of the students (to see if they know it – generally someone knows some or all of it) and then providing the language if no one does.
The target language is usually put on the marker board either in structure (grammar-type) charts or in dialogs. Presentation features more “teacher talk” than the other stages of the lesson – generally as much as 65-90% of the time. This portion of the total lesson can take as much as 20-40% of the lesson time.
Next comes “Practice” where the students practice the target language in one to three activities that progress from very structured (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 – though written activities can provide a structure for the verbal practices. Practice should have the “student talk time” range from 60-80 percent of the time – with teacher talk time being the balance of that time. This portion of the total lesson can take from 30-50% of the lesson time.
“Production” is the stage of the lesson where the students take the target language and use it in conversations that they structure (ideally) and use it to talk about themselves or their daily lives or situations. Practice should involve student talk at as much as 90% of the time – and this component of the lesson can/should take as much as 20-30% of the lesson time.
