How Can PPP, Placement Tests and Present Perfect Improve Your TEFL Lessons? TEFL A-Z P – S06E16

How can we help students put new English into practice instead of falling back on the language they already know? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we’re exploring the letter P, from presentation, practice and production to placement tests, pronunciation and the present perfect.Em shares why she’s partial to PPP, and we discuss what happens when a carefully planned production activity becomes a lovely chat with none of the target language. How much prompting do students need?Then Gav takes the student’s seat for a picture-story placement test. There’s a suspicious shopping trip, some teacher feedback and a reminder of how much pressure learners can feel. We discuss what picture stories reveal about someone’s English, how nerves affect performance and whether students need preparation time.Need a way to explain present perfect simple versus continuous? We compare example sentences about painting, sending emails and working, exploring how context changes the focus. You’ll hear ideas for helping students notice meaning before discussing grammar rules, with extra support for lower-level learners.There’s also a “P or no P” spelling and pronunciation game, plus classroom reflections on peer correction, lesson pacing, paraphrasing, personalisation, pre-teaching and prediction. Expect plenty of Ps, a few questionable jokes and teaching experiences you might recognise from your own lessons.If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodFor more classroom inspiration, https://howtoenglishpod.com is full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.Chapters00:00 Welcome to our letter P episode01:00 PPP: presentation, practice and production03:00 Helping students use the target language05:00 P or no P: spelling and pronunciation game13:00 Placement tests and picture stories15:00 Gav tries a picture-story speaking test17:00 What teachers listen for in a placement test19:00 Student nerves and preparation time21:00 Present perfect simple versus continuous24:00 Quantity, duration and overlapping meanings26:00 Helping students discover grammar through examples28:00 Peer correction and checking accuracy29:00 Lesson pacing and varied activities30:00 Paraphrasing in students’ own words31:00 Personalisation and preparing learners for tasks32:00 Pre-teaching and prediction33:00 A positive attitude to teaching and learning34:00 Putting new language into use35:00 Goodbye and next time: the letter Q