Video transcript - Mastering Test Teach Test (TTT)
Let me ask you something. When you plan a language lesson, what do you instinctively do first?
Explain the language? Write a timeline? Prepare your beautifully colour-coded grammar table?
That’s PPP thinking. Presentation. Practice. Production. It’s neat, it feels logical and it puts you in control.
You present the language. They practise it with a gap fill or something similar and then they produce it.
Great
But what if they already know that language quite well? There’s only a certain number of grammar rules to learn and at intermediate level and above, they’ve probably covered most of them before, even if they can’t use them accurately yet.
So spending 15 minutes explaining something again is a bit of a waste of class time.
That’s where we need a different framework and where Test Teach Test comes in.
“Wait… I’m testing them before I teach them?”
Yes. You are. And although this might seem a bit counterintuitive at first, It’s just built on a different assumption.
PPP assumes learners don’t know the language. TTT assumes they might.
So what actually happens in a TTT lesson?
The first Test: You start with a task that requires the target language.
No pre-teaching.
No mini lecture.
No “Today we’re going to look at…”
Just the task.
Let’s say you’re not quite sure how solid they are on present perfect versus past simple.
Instead of launching into an explanation, you give them a short activity. Maybe a discussion about life experiences. Maybe they complete a text with missing verb tenses. Maybe they correct sentences.
And while this is happening, you do something very difficult.
You keep quiet. You watch. You listen. You take notes.
This first stage is diagnostic. You are gathering evidence.
If they get it wrong, that’s useful to know.
If they get it right, that’s useful to know.
If half the class get it and half don’t, that’s extremely useful.
Because now you’re teaching based on reality and you’re starting where the learners are.
The next step is the Teach and here’s where TTT often goes wrong.
You do NOT teach everything you carefully analysed the night before. You do need to analyse everything the night before, just in case, but you teach what actually came up.
Maybe they’re:
• overusing the past simple
• avoiding present perfect completely
• mixing up form
• or maybe it’s pronunciation issues
So you respond to that.
You clarify meaning where there was confusion.
You tidy up form where it was messy.
You drill pronunciation if they need it.
Not a full grammar lecture just because you prepared one. If you’re on a CELTA course, this is the moment where a tutor can see you’re really listening to learners.
Stage 3 is the final Test. And this isn’t just “more practice because there are ten minutes left. This is your proof they’ve learnt something.
You set up another task, ideally something a bit more communicative. And you watch again.
Did the teaching make a difference?
Are they more accurate? More confident? Are they Self-correcting?
If yes, brilliant.
If not, you adjust. You recycle. You clarify again. So it’s a loop and it’s responsive to the learners’ needs. Or at least that’s the idea.
So why does TTT sometimes flop?
There are Two main reasons.
First: the “throw them in the deep end” problem.
If the first task is too hard, or badly staged, or linguistically overwhelming, learners don’t reveal what they know.
And then you haven’t diagnosed anything at all.
Second:- and more commonly in my experience- the Teach stage turns into a 15-minute grammar monologue.
At that point, you’ve basically done PPP… just backwards.
TTT requires a bit of bravery, you have to let go of the script slightly and you have to be responsive to your learners. This is much more difficult than it sounds.
TTT works beautifully when:
• learners have partial knowledge
• you’re revising language
• you want to avoid over-teaching
It gives your learners more agency and you’ll see it in most coursebooks at all but very low levels so look out for it and remember… that first stage is really important.
So should you use PPP or TTT? Neither is better. They solve different problems. So the skill is in deciding what your learners need and responding to that.
I hope you found this useful. If you did, you’ll find lots more on my website and if you’re preparing for CELTA, check out my CELTA Preparation materials. They’ll help you hit the ground running, take some of the stress out of the course and give you the chance to get the best result for you. See you there.
