A Critical Examination of Presentation-Practice-Production and the Task-Based Methods of Teaching English as a Second Language in Large Secondary School Classes

Abstract

This article focuses on identifying methods in existing literature which could ameliorate the problems of large classes and students’ failure in English Language Examinations at the Senior Secondary school level, in Nigeria especially. A possible contributory factor to this problem is large and overcrowded classrooms, which force most teachers to utilise teacher-centred methods. This article therefore examines the characteristics of the most commonly used teacher-centred method, Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP), alongside the Task-Based Learning (TBL) method, which is student-centred, as a possible alternative in Nigerian ESL classrooms that could ameliorate the problem of large classes and stem the failure rates in examinations. After examining both methods, this study concludes that the Task-Based Learning approach, which is fairly new in the ESL classroom, has advantages for the improvement of language teaching and learning in large ESL classes. It recommends that both teachers in ESL classrooms and researchers in language teaching methodology should test it for effectiveness, with a view to adopting it for teaching ESL in Nigeria and other places where large classes are characteristic.