#ELT

Planning lessons

Planning lessons
Most authors (Byrne, 1976; Harmer, 2007) refer to PPP (presentation, practice and production) as working
categories rather than discrete divisions. They trace a parallel between these terms and the needs of the
students:
- to understand what they are learning,
- to use it with some degree of guidance, and
- to use it within the framework of self-directed activities.
The Presentation Stage
The presentation of the new language must be economical, memorable and effective. Students absorb a
limited amount of material in one lesson and the number of new items may be restricted to this fact. The
teacher should start from simple uses and go to more difficult ones later. In this way the learning of the
language progresses in a kind of spiral (rather than in a straight line) and these key items, selected for their
communicative value, taught intensively and then repeated in subsequent lessons in new and varied
contexts, form the basis of the learners gradually expanding competence in the language (Byrne, 1976, p.
20).
Byrne believes that dialogs, as instruments for teaching oral English, are of unquestionable value, since they
present the language directly in the contexts in which it is most commonly used and learners can practice it
in the same way. There is, thus, a firm link between the language and the situation in which it appears,
what may actually prove to be motivating. He considers that the prose passage does not share these
characteristics with dialogs, and they should only be used for the sake of variation. Byrne gives some advice
to teachers for evaluating (or constructing) dialogs. He suggests the following criteria to be taken into
account:
- Relevant language. The key items in the dialog should be those students need for communication.
- Appropriate language. Only forms which are typical of the spoken language should be included.
- Realistic and relevant situations. They should portrait real people behaving in real world.
- Limited structural items. Byrne suggests to present one or at the most two new items.
- Restricted lexical items. It is not necessary to teach a great mass of vocabulary in a single dialog.
- Short. If it is too long, it will have to be split up into smaller sections. Byrne believes that the ideal
number of utterances is 8 or 10.
- Interesting. It is motivating if it includes humor, excitement or suspense. It should involve students as
well, e.g. through dramatization.
It is not always easy for the teacher to be sure whether students understand the language being presented,
Byrne defines some approaches to this problem.
-

T sets the scene first, what could actually be done in the mother tongue, always trying to illustrate each
utterance or exchange. T contextualizes the dialog.
T isolates new items and teaches them in context, by means of visual aids if possible. Some miming and
gesture is useful at this stage.
T selects some items that would help to understand and explains them beforehand.
T translates items, if necessary. T may feel it necessary to give equivalents in the Ss mother tongue.
T interrupts the dialog if he or she feels a necessity to explain, translate or demonstrate meaning. This
may be done as difficulties appear.

Byrne suggests a course of action for the actual presentation of the dialog. Although he is aware of the fact
that there is no such thing as one correct approach, he mentions 10 steps.
1. T sets the scene. T introduces the characters. Ss mother tongue can be used at this stage.

@CarolaClerici

#ELT
Planning lessons

2. (optional) T deals with any special difficulty if s/he considers it to be essential to the understanding if
the meaning of the dialog.
3. Ss listen to it without looking at the written text. Ss can look at visual sets while listening.
4. Ss follow the text and listen to the dialog simultaneously.
5. Ss are asked to repeat the dialog in chorus, especially meaningful parts of it rather than just isolated
utterances. They refer to the text whenever necessary.
6. Ss repeat the dialog, now after the cues presented. T gives the prompts and, if there is time, Ss answer
individually.
7. T checks Ss understanding by asking some easy co-questions (comprehension questions). If there are
still some items Ss do not understand, T can explain, illustrate or translate them.
8. Ss are asked to repeat the whole dialog by answering to pictorial cues. Rhythm and intonation seem to
be more important than pronunciation.
9. Ss are given practice in reading aloud from the text.
10. Ss are separated into smaller groups to practice the dialog on their own.
Byrne believes that the language of a prose passage is not as relevant for oral communication as the
language found in dialogs. Texts in normal life are meant to be read in silence. In the case of many narrative
and descriptive passages, the teacher can help understanding by means of mimicry and gesture. Byrne
suggests the following steps:
1. T tells Ss the story in an informal way, trying to use some items from the actual passage. Byrne
recommends an appropriate use of the tones of the voice to help understanding.
2. (optional) T deals with any special difficulties, if necessary.
3. Ss listen without following the text. This stage gives good practice in listening comprehension.
4. Ss are given (limited) time to read the text silently. They are encouraged to guess the meaning of words
in context.
5. Ss listen again. Difficulties are dealt with at this stage, if they impede communication. Co-question may
be used to check comprehension. Steps 3 and 4 may be repeated.
6. Students are given the opportunity to read aloud. Byrne suggests that teachers should only give short
sequences to one student since they are not interested in listening to their classmates the whole class.
Practice and Production
According to Byrne, students have the following needs:
- practice: they need to use the new items,
- oral practice: they need to use them without referring to the text,
- guided oral practice: so as to build up confidence, it is necessary that they feel that they have
something to say and can say it without too much hesitation,
- meaningful oral practice: they do not need mechanical drills, it is necessary that we give them practice
in context, and
- extensive oral practice: teacher-talking time must give place to more student-talking time.
Byrne suggests that choral repetition is a good way of having students repeating things at the same time. It
is important that the teacher makes clear when they have to speak, what they have to say and that they
must speak together. The teacher controls the rhythm, pace and beating time of the activity. The teacher
must be careful not to select too long or complicated items for repetition. This technique is good to detect
grosser errors but not individual mistakes. Byrne proposes a solution to this problem, he calls it the ripple
technique: Ss are told that they can be called out anytime to answer questions, read, etc. The teacher could
build the choral repetition gradually, for example by rows.
Drills are all mechanical. They can produce almost effortlessly an endless stream of correct sentences
(Byrne, 1976, p. 33). They are good to avoid students making mistakes, and they help them gain confidence
and fluency in the language, yet there is doubt as whether they really have any learning value.
@CarolaClerici

#ELT
Planning lessons

The question-and-answer technique is one of the commonest and perhaps one of the most overworked
and misused. Byrne warns teachers that it is not the only technique available and that, in real life, we do
not spend most of our time asking and answering questions. They should be as realistic as possible and
there must be an information gap. The answers should not be expected to contain language that is more
complex than the one in text or the students level of production. Byrne suggests that the teacher should
be aware of the fact that there are many different kinds of questions: wh-questions, yes/no-questions, tag
questions and or-questions, which should be used depending on how much we want to help students.
Finally, he believes that the teacher should give students the opportunity to ask the questions themselves.
Byrne believes that there is a transitional period between practice and production. At this stage, students
start working on their own, talking to one another more directly and stop resorting to the teacher when
they want to say (or write) something. The teacher stops supervising and correcting them constantly. He
mentions two elements necessary for the production stage to arise: a change in the organization of the
class and an appropriate use of materials for students to work with.
Work in twos or threes: in this case one student can act as monitor. The teacher supervises the way
students work. There may be noise as a result of this kind of activity, this is because it takes some time for
students to get used to working this way. Byrne also mentions micro-dialogs for the production stage. The
teacher gives some guidance but by no means writes all the words students are supposed to use, this can
be done by reference to lists of items or sets of pictures, information gap is also necessary.
When the objective of the teacher is to organize a moment of guided production, it is necessary to elicit
from students certain linguistic items without actually focusing their attention on them. Take students
mind off the language they are using by involving them in some form of activity (Byrne, 1976, p. 70). The
author mentions micro-dialogs and language games as another way of providing guided production.
Byrne considers that the production stage is very important because it gives students the opportunity to
use the foreign language and see its value for communication, to appreciate language as an instrument to
be used rather than a knowledge to be stored away (Byrne, 1976, p. 78), to accommodate what they know
about the language to the specific situation they are in at that moment (rather than any possible future
situation they may be in at a remote time). This stage is not the best moment to measure their
performance or to correct every mistake, teachers should be patient, tolerant and flexible.
There may arise three problems, in Byrnes view, at the production stage:
1. Linguistic: the student does not handle the language well enough to do the activity. This may result in a
limited outcome and mistakes. It is necessary to avoid frustration and students fixing wrong structures:
the activities should be carefully planned according to the students linguistic competence. Anyhow,
Byrne admits that it is better that errors come out in the classroom so the teacher can use them as
feedback for remedial teaching.
2. Psychological: the student may feel inhibited or afraid of speaking or expressing themselves freely. The
teacher should avoid unnecessary corrections, just lead them to perceive the mistake rather that rub
his nose on it. Students may not be interested in talking about what the teacher asks them to.
3. Cognitive: students should be expected to talk about something that can be understood and
interpreted at their developmental stage.
Byrne finally mentions group work, role play, dramatization, and discussion as examples of freer activity. He
also thinks that games are useful for the same purpose, as well as songs, story-telling, play reading, etc.
*References
Byrne, D. (1976) Teaching Oral English. Longman.
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4ta ed.). Harlow: Longman
@CarolaClerici