Practice and Production in a PPP Lesson

Helping students to practice new words

In order to help students to get practice using their new vocabulary, teachers need to come up with ideas for activities during which students get opportunity to use their new words alongside their existing knowledge. These activities could include:

	devising written and spoken role-plays
	writing letters
	taking part in question and answer session with a partner
	playing games
	group questions

Using Games in the classroom

Practice is a vital part of learning new elements of a language. Teachers need to have enjoyable games ready to help students practise their newly acquired language. Learning through playing games can help to consolidate a student’s knowledge. The memory is stimulated in a fun way and the words become embedded in the student mind much more easily than if words are listed and simply repeated by drilling.

Techniques for practicing new vocabulary in games:

	Memory games.
	Crosswords.
	Affixation: Using prefixes and suffixes to make new words.
	Matching pictures to words.
	Giving antonyms.
	Anagrams.
	Word searches.
	Hangman.
	Shopping lists

Other activities for more organised practice:

	Obeying instructions, e.g. drawing shapes and pictures
	Ticking off items or words they hear
	Answering true/false questions or statements
	Detecting mistakes
	Filling in the gaps in a pre-prepared text
	Guessing definitions
	Filling in a timetable or chart
	Answering comprehension questions
	Summarising - reducing the information to the important points

Encouraging students to produce new vocabulary

The production stage of the lesson allows for the proper assessment of student development, where the teacher can discover just how much the students have learned. Ideas for activities for the production stage of a lesson:

	Dialogues, dramas and role plays, for example, students play the parts of a hotel receptionist and a guest, acting out a problem.
	Giving map directions – students have to give and follow directions on a map to see where they end up.

	Question and answer - in groups/pairs, students write comprehension questions for the other students to answer
	Surveys and questionnaires - students prepare questions on various topics and then conduct surveys by interviewing each other.
	Discussions and debates, centred around a set topic or interest of the group.
	Continue the story: the class have to finish a story the teacher begins, either written or spoken.
	Summarising a story
	Correct mistakes in the text
	Write an article, letter or diary entry

	Crosswords.
	Affixation: Using prefixes and suffixes to make new words.
	Gap fill exercises: Selecting appropriate words to insert in sentences.
	Matching the beginnings and the ends of words together.
	Matching pictures to words.
	Using antonyms.

Other activities for production (for writing exercises in particular):

	Descriptions (home, family members, friends, jobs, a favourite place)
	Short biography of self, family member or famous person
	Letters to a pen-friend
	Diary or journal entry
	Letters requesting information, giving information or giving thanks
	Magazine problem pages

Explore ideas for methods of presentation and comprehension checks by clicking on the buttons below:

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Practice and Production in a PPP Lesson

Helping students to practice new words

Using Games in the classroom

Encouraging students to produce new vocabulary

Other activities for production (for writing exercises in particular):