Hi CMF,

My understanding is that Harmer introduced ESA more as labelling system used to either contrast different lesson schemas or to help teachers balance what learners need overall, rather than as a recommended procedure. Scrivener's ARC is similar in that it is also intended as a labelling system.

PPP, by contrast, does reflect a specific order for a lesson schema.  Lewis suggests OHE , which is more similar to PPP in that it is a recommendation of a specific order for a lesson schema.  I personally believe TBLT should be grouped here too, as I see TBLT as suggesting a specific sequence of: task preparation -> task -> report on task -> (optional) listening to effective speakers completing the same task -> language focus -> controlled practice

As such, I think we can compare strengths and weaknesses of ESA and ARC as labelling systems; and we can compare strengths and weaknesses of PPP, OHE, and TBLT as lesson scheme sequences. 

Out of interest, I'd like to compare ESA and ARC when describing/labelling the latter three schemas.

Analysing one PPP variant - Situation Based Presentation  |  ARC labelling  | ESA labelling

1. Present:  Establish the situation using visuals & elicitation..  |  R or C?   |  E
2.    "  "    :  Clarify the meaning, form and pronunciation ......  |  C           |  S
3. Practice:  Controlled practice.............................................  |  R           |  S or A?
4. Produce:  Freer practice....................................................  |  A           |  A

ARC isn't very useful for labelling context setting steps - is it 'restricted language use' because the Ss respond in short but genuine answers to teacher elicitation, or is it 'clarification' as it is a teacher managed step building up towards clarificaiton of meaning?  ARC does make it easy to label the three main steps in PPP, though, as the language presentation step is clearly about clarifying meaning/pron/form, the controlled practice is clearly a restricted use of the language, and the freer practice is (intended to be) authentic language use.

ESA isn't very useful for labelling controlled or restricted practice steps - is it 'study' because it's closely related to repetition drills for memorisation and internalisation, or is it 'activate' because it requires meaningful production of the language?  ESA does make it easy to label the context setting steps, the clarification step, and the freer practice steps.

Analysing a different PPP variant (or an OHE variant?) - Text-Based Presentation 

1.    ?   ?    :  Activate Ss background knowledge of the context..  |  R or C?   |  E
2. Observe/Present: Gist reading/listening................................  |  A           |   ?
3. Observe/Present: Detailed reading/listening........................... |  A           |   ?
4. Hypothesies/Present:  Clarify meaning/pron/form ................. |  C           |   S
5. Experiment/Practice:  Controlled practice............................... |  R           |  S or A ?
6. Experiment/Produce:  Freer practice...................................... |  A           |  A

ARC is as useful as before, struggling to label a contextualisation step but labelling everything else well (and demonstrating that this PPP variant at least begins with authentic language use, albeit only with receptive skills).

ESA is less useful, with a lot of vague areas popping up - it seems unlikely that the reading/listening steps would be 'activate' steps, as production seems more likely to activate language; they're not really 'study' steps as the language point isn't in focus yet; so are they just extended engage steps?  That seems unlikely, as the purpose isn't as much to engage as it is to provide a model for observation.

Overall, I think both ARC and ESA are very limited.  It would be convenient if good lessons only needed 3 key steps, but I think good lessons need a lot more.  I prefer the EDUCARE? mnemonic used in general education, but very true for language learning:

• Explanation  (= clarification of language or skills by the teacher, through reading, through discovery tasks, etc)
• Demonstration (= in ELT, listening to or reading examples of English in use)
• Use                (= the more controlled/restricted practice steps, including drills)
• Check/correct  (= self/peer/teacher correction; tasks to check understanding; CCQs, etc)
• Aide-memoire  (= getting handouts, writing summaries of the lesson, etc)
• Review/recycle (= seeing and using the language again, and again, and again)
• Evaluate          (= free/realistic/authentic use and consideration of the effectiveness of that use)
• ?                    (= a chance to ask questions)

Check out Geoff Petty's "Teaching Today" (Nelson Thornes) for a more accurate overview, but the aim is to ensure that over a period of every few classes, with a good degree of flexibility in the exact order, learners should be provided with all of the above.

The abbreviations:

• ESA = Engage, Study, Activate
• ARC = Authentic, Restricted, Clarification
• PPP = Presentation -> Practice -> Production
• OHE = Observe -> Hypothesise -> Experiment (but seen as a cycle)
• TBLT = Task-Based Learning Teaching

Hello

I have got a question

which way is more useful for teaching grammar for a two hour lesson? PPP OR ESA?