PPP, TTT and ESA: lesson structures explained

PPP: Presentation, Practice, Production

PPP moves from the teacher's control to the students' freedom. In Presentation you show the new language in a clear context — a picture story, a short dialogue, a situation on the board — and make the meaning, form and pronunciation clear. In Practice students use it in tightly controlled tasks where mistakes are easy to spot: repetition, matching, gap-fills, question-and-answer drills. In Production they use it more freely in a task where they choose what to say: a role play, a survey, a short description.

It works best for beginners, young learners and any lesson with one clear, new target — a tense, a set of words, a functional phrase like "Can I have…?". Its weak spot: the teacher can talk for too long in the first stage, and the Production stage gets squeezed out when time runs short. Guard the last third of the lesson for Production.

• Sample PPP outline, A1 adults, "there is / there are" (60 min): warm-up, what's in your bag (5) → presentation with a picture of a messy room, elicit and board the pattern (12) → controlled practice: true/false sentences, then a gap-fill (15) → semi-controlled: spot-the-difference in pairs (13) → production: describe your own kitchen, partner draws it (12) → feedback on errors you heard (3).

TTT: Test, Teach, Test

TTT starts where PPP ends. First, students try a task that needs the target language — without any teaching. You listen and note what they already manage and where they stumble. Then you teach only the gap you saw. Finally, they do a similar task again, and both of you can hear the difference.

It suits students from A2 upwards who have met the language before but use it unreliably — the classic case is an intermediate adult who "knows" the present perfect from school. It saves you from explaining what the class already knows. It is a poor fit for true beginners: a first test with nothing to draw on just tells a learner they can't do it.

• Sample TTT outline, B1 teens, talking about experiences (45 min): Test 1 — "Find someone who…" survey with prompts like "ever / try sushi" (10) → you note errors; quick board work on have/has + past participle and ever/never vs. a finished past time (12) → controlled practice: correct six sentences taken from what you heard, anonymously (8) → Test 2 — the same survey with new prompts the students write themselves (12) → three-sentence exit note: "What I fixed today" (3).

ESA: Engage, Study, Activate

ESA was described by Jeremy Harmer as a more flexible alternative to PPP. Engage means getting students interested and emotionally involved — a picture, a story, a question that matters to them. Study is any focus on how the language works: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling. Activate is any task where students use English as freely as they can, for communication rather than for accuracy practice.

The point of ESA is that the three stages can be ordered in different ways. A "straight arrow" lesson goes E → S → A and looks a lot like PPP. A "boomerang" lesson goes E → A → S → A: students try a task first, you study what they needed, and they try again — close to TTT. A "patchwork" lesson mixes short Engage, Study and Activate phases in whatever order the class needs, which is how many lessons with children actually run.

• Sample patchwork outline, 8-year-olds, food (45 min): Engage — a mystery bag with plastic fruit, children guess by touch (5) → Study — six words with flashcards and a chant (8) → Activate — "Shopkeeper" role play with the fruit (7) → Engage — a two-minute picture story about a greedy caterpillar-style character you invent (4) → Study — "I like / I don't like" with thumbs up and down (8) → Activate — class survey and a bar chart on the board (10) → goodbye routine (3).

Which one should I use?

A simple rule of thumb for a new teacher: if the language is brand new to the student, start with PPP. If they have seen it before but get it wrong, try TTT. If you teach children, or you feel your lessons have become predictable, think in ESA blocks and vary the order.

There are other shapes too. Task-based learning (TBL), for example, builds the whole lesson around one real task and looks at language mostly after it. You don't need to master everything at once; three reliable shapes already let you plan most lessons.

• PPP — new language, beginners, children, clear single target.
• TTT — known-but-shaky language, A2 and above, mixed-ability groups.
• ESA — any age; the flexible frame when you need variety.

Mistakes new teachers make with all three

• Explaining instead of eliciting. Ask "What's happening in the picture?" before you tell. Students remember what they helped to build.
• Skipping the freer stage. Controlled practice feels productive, but the lesson's real test is whether students can use the language when they choose the words.
• Giving instructions without checking them. Demonstrate the task with one student, then ask a quick check question: "Do you write or speak first?"
• Ending without looking back. Two minutes of "What can you do now that you couldn't at the start?" turns an activity list into a lesson.