The tense-based PPP syllabus (the Murphy / Headway / English File template) rests on ‘an outdated model of both language learning and language itself’. Grammar lives in co-text and recurring discourse patterns, and acquisition is slow and non-linear.
Claim
PPP mini-dialogues built round one structure misrepresent usage: “acquisition simply doesn’t work like this”. Teach the small set of things people actually say with a structure, and the discourse patterns it sits in.
Examples
- “Where are you from?” → “Whereabouts?” (a natural pairing, not a drill).
- so… that for cause and result; not… until for lateness.
- Future perfect through the few things people really say: “I’ll have finished by tomorrow.”
- Ask “What would you actually say here?” before presenting a form.
Later nuance (“Rethinking grammar”, 2013, comments)
“None of what I’m saying explicitly refutes sometimes looking at forms and meanings in the traditional way.” Keep rules brief, already in the book, and follow them with more input and noticing of the structure in action rather than more drills.
Limits
Polemical; claims like “no longer has any theoretical validity” are uncited. Grammar-translation and PPP still produce test gains in short-term studies. The issue is durable use. (Claude)
Apply in my context (Claude)
- Prepare 2e is a structural syllabus. You can’t drop it, but every grammar page can get a “what people actually say” corpus check: 3–5 high-frequency exponents taught as chunks, recycled in later units.
Connections
The Lexical Approach - grammaticalised lexis, read critically · Colligation and bottom-up grammar · Sentence builders and patterns-first lexicogrammar · Grammar emerges from usage (emergentism)