Session 3

The 3 Ps Approach (PPP)

King Saud University
MA TESOL 2009
CI 582 Prof. Y. Alshumaimeri

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Overview
 PPP is the traditional approach to language teaching.
 PPP: presentation, practice and production.
 This methodological framework has dominated the
language teaching profession for a long time.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Framework
 Presentation Stage: The
teacher presents the form and Presentation
use of a grammatical item.
 Practice Stage: The students
practise this grammatical
item using a variety of
controlled and less controlled
activities. Practice
 Production Stage: The
teacher sets up an activity
which encourages students to
use language (freely) and
where they will produce the
grammar previously studied Production
and practised.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Framework
A focused presentation stage is followed by practice
activities. These practice activities are designed to
enable learners to produce rapidly and easily the
material which has been presented. In the production
stage opportunities are provided to use language freely
and flexibly in the expectation that this will
consolidate what is being learned and extend its range
of applicability.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Advantages
1- It is very comforting for the teacher.
The teacher is in charge of proceedings, and has a clear
professional role which, in general, it is relatively easy
to organize, since it requires the teacher to take the
‘structure of the day’ and do whatever is necessary to
ensure that the structure is learned.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Advantages
2- The approach lends itself to accountability, since
there will be clear and tangible lesson goals, which can
then be evaluated.
There is a belief that learners will learn what is taught in
the order in which is taught.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

3 Ps Advantages
3- There is the possibility of clear connection to the
underlying theory. Learning is focused on rules which
are the automatised as a set of habits.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

Critics of the 3 Ps
 Skehan (1996, p.18) indicated to major reasons for
discarding PPP:
1- the evidence in support of such an approach is
unimpressive as levels of attainment in conventional
foreign language learning are poor, and students
commonly leave school with very little in the way of usable
language.
2- the underlying theory for a PPP approach has now been
discredited. The belief that a precise focus on a particular
form leads to learning and automatization no longer
carries much credibility in linguistics or psychology.

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009

Next Session
Task-Based Learning
Readings:
Taking Communication to task (Klapper, J. 2003)
Tasks in SLA and language pedagogy (Ellis, R. 2003)
The TBL framework (Willis, J. 1996)

A lecture by Prof. Y Alshumaimeri 2009