English is a difficult language to learn. Even native speakers can have trouble with its many grammar rules and exceptions. Choosing a teaching methodology will make the process of teaching English as a second language (ESL) easier and more rewarding for you and your students, and increase the likelihood of success.

Presentation, Practice and Production
Presentation, Practice and Production, or PPP as it is called, is one of the most common teaching methodologies for ESL. Presentation is presenting the current language lesson to the student. Depending on the curriculum chosen, this could be such subjects as sounds, parts of speech, vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar. Generally between 65 and 90 percent of class time is spent on the Presentation component. Next the students will Practice what they are learning through activities that require them to speak English. Practice exercises should progress toward mastery of the concepts presented. The final component is Production, which is an advanced form of Practice that requires students to think on their own rather than completing the more closely targeted Practice exercises. The steps are generally sequential, progressing from little student involvement to maximum student involvement. Beginning teachers often have success using the PPP methodology.

Engage, Study and Activate
ESA, or Engage, Study and Activate, is different from PPP in that students move more freely among the three stages in this methodology. Noted teacher and teacher-trainer Jeremy Harmer, certified by The International House and author of the classic ESL treatise "The Practice of English Language Teaching," stresses the Engagement phase particularly during early lessons. He notes that students do not always come to the classroom motivated to learn; some students need their teachers to engage them and create in them a desire for language mastery.

Developing Fluency
The goal of any language program is to develop fluency. The student must make an investment of both time and energy to develop fluency. The PPP methodology can help produce fluency because it builds from least student involvement to most student involvement, giving students a chance to learn and demonstrate their increasing abilities. The risks they take are progressively larger, which adds to their self-confidence.