Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
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of ELT Journal
Jason Anderson
Introduction For many English language teachers and teacher educators, the PPP model
needs little introduction. Standing for Presentation, Practice, Production,1
it is used in ELT as a prescriptive framework for the structuring of new
language lessons (especially grammar and functional language, but also
lexis), and is well known from its use both on short initial teacher training
courses such as the Cambridge CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL, and in
more extensive pre-service teacher education programmes worldwide. Still
popular over 40 years after it first emerged (Harris 2015), it has proven to
be remarkably durable. In the light of recent literature in support of PPP,
both methodological (Arnold, Dörnyei, and Pugliese 2015) and empirical
(Spada and Tomita 2010), this article traces the origins of PPP and its
fortunes over these four decades, and investigates potential influences on
its longevity. Drawing inspiration from Hunter and Smith (66/4: 430–9,
2012),2 both statistical data and qualitative evidence from ELT Journal are
drawn upon to chart and analyse changes in attitudes in articles referring
to PPP since its emergence. Theoretical arguments and research evidence
supporting and opposing its use are also discussed in order to tell the
story of the history of the PPP model in communicative language teaching
(CLT).
The origins of PPP Contrary to the assertions of some, PPP does not originate in
‘audiolingual’ (for example Kumaravadivelu 2006: 61) or even
PPP’s popularity in As the demand for English language teachers grew in the late 1970s
the 1980s and early 1980s, Teaching Oral English (Byrne op.cit.) became one
of the most popular handbooks on initial teacher training courses,
and PPP gained popularity (see Figure 1). Similar models could be
found in other influential works of the era (for example Harmer’s
(1983: 55–7) first edition of The Practice of English Language Teaching),
characterizing what Howatt (op.cit.: 279) called the ‘“weak” version’
of the communicative approach. However, it was PPP that was to
remain dominant during this period. First reference to it in ELT Journal
appears in 1983, in a review by Rossner (37/1: 99–101, 1983) of an early
book by Jane Willis. He notes:
figure1
References to four planning
frameworks in ELT Journal
(1976–2015).3
Note: OHE stands for Observe, Hypothesise, Experiment; ARC stands for
Authentic (practice), Restricted (practice), Clarification; and ESA stands for
Engage, Study, Activate
The rejection of PPP As if in the spirit of a fin de siècle reaction to the dominant paradigm,
in the 1990s during the 1990s, a large number of critiques of PPP appeared in
ELT literature (see Figure 2), most notable in Challenge and Change in
Language Teaching (Willis and Willis 1996), which includes no fewer than
seven papers denouncing it. Common criticisms included the following
related arguments:
figure2
Orientation of articles,
reviews, and other pieces
towards PPP in ELT Journal
(1981–2015)4
PPP’s compatibility It may be (and often is) argued that one potential explanation for
with ELT PPP’s durability in our profession, and to some extent for its frequency
coursebooks of mention in ELT Journal, derives from its compatibility with the
grammatical syllabi often used to structure ELT coursebooks and
grammar practice books. Fortune’s (op.cit.) negative appraisal of PPP
in the latter has already been mentioned, for example. In three separate
analyses of coursebooks (Tomlinson, Dat, Masuhara, and Rubdy 55/1:
80–101, 2001; Masuhara, Hann, Yi, and Tomlinson 62/3: 294–312, 2008;
Tomlinson and Masuhara 67/2: 233–49, 2013), Tomlinson, Masuhara,
and colleagues have attempted to evaluate the efficacy of mainstream ELT
A more recent While early SLA research (as referred to by Tomlinson et al. op.cit. above)
change in fortune supported the inclusion of consciousness-raising, noticing, inductive
for PPP discovery learning, and integrated form-focused instruction, yet did not
support more explicit, practice-oriented instruction such as PPP, since the
turn of the century, two extensive, robust meta-analyses conducted into
the effectiveness of explicit and implicit approaches have both reached
a rather different conclusion, presenting findings strongly in favour of
explicit instruction (Norris and Ortega 2000; Spada and Tomita op.cit.)
and finding focus on forms-type instruction such as PPP no less effective
than alternatives. Spada and Tomita (op.cit.: 287), somewhat understatedly
given the significant effect sizes they found (d = .88 and d = .73, for
The future of PPP? As well as the above-cited evidence from ELT Journal indicating a recent
thawing of negative opinion towards PPP, clues for its future fate may
Conclusion With the help of ELT Journal, this brief foray into the origins and history
of PPP has documented its very ‘un-audiolingual’ genesis. Not only did
PPP originate at the dawn of CLT, but it became a core component in
the realization of the weak version of CLT, the version that has proven to