EFL
Teaching Methods
TEFL Methodology:
Methods for Teaching English in an EFL Classroom
Basic Concepts:
TEFL
Methodology taught in training programs is generally
either "PPP" or "ESA"
"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.
As
you can see the general structure of a PPP lesson is
flexible - but 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 too) is the rapid
reduction of teacher talk time and the increase in
student talk time.
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
Roughly equivalent to PPP, 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 this method stress its flexibility compared to PPP -
and the method as defined by Jeremy Harmer (its major
advocate) uses more elicitation and and stresses the
"Engagement" of students in the early stages of the
lesson.
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.
Expanded
Concepts:
Read the following - they will download as Word
documents:
PPP Basics
PPP Awareness Session
PPP Alternative - "ESA"
Communicative Teaching
An
excellent set of pages for reading about and
understanding the major methodologies in TEFL are here:
English Teaching Methodologies
When you have finished the readings you will be ready
for the unit on
Lesson Planning.
