What is PDP?

PDP is a framework that can be used to teach the receptive skills – listening and reading.
In regards to reading, it helps in building learners’ reading skills as well as their reading
comprehension.

The first “P” in PDP refers to the “PRE” reading/listening stage in a lesson. This is the
stage of the lesson before (i.e.: “PRE”) the learners read or listen to the text. Activities in
this stage include such things as: activating schema, assessing students’ background
knowledge, pre-learning the new and necessary vocabulary to understand the text, and
generating students’ interest in the topic. The purpose of doing these kinds of pre-
reading/listening activities is to help set the learners up for a successful reading/listening.

The “D” in PDP stands for the “DURING” reading/listening stage in a lesson. This is the
stage of the lesson that happens while (i.e.: “DURING”) the learners actually interact with
(read/listen) the text. In this stage, learners are provided with several activities that allow
them to have multiple exposures to the text. The activities are given to the learners before
they read/listen. These activities should incorporate different reading/listening techniques.
The purpose of providing learners with many chances to read/listen to the text with a
variety of different activities is to improve their reading/listening skills and help them to
comprehend the text (as this is the main purpose/objective of reading/listening). Activities in
this stage are sequenced and scaffolded in such a manner that learners are provided with
the support they need to fully understand a given text. Activities and tasks should be
staged in a step-by-step manner from general to specific, easy to difficult, and concrete
to abstract. By the end of this stage, students should be able to fully comprehend the text.
Therefore, the last activity of this stage should be one in which students show a
comprehensive understanding of the text.

The second “P” in PDP relates to the “POST” reading/listening stage in a lesson. This
stage happens after (i.e.: “POST”) the learners have read/listened to the text and have
shown comprehension of it. The POST stage is not a necessary stage in a receptive skill
lesson, i.e., the student learning objective is achieved at the end of the DURING. Thus, it
is an extra stage – the “icing on the cake” so to speak. Activities in this stage focus on
building/integrating other skills by using and expanding on the content/theme/topic of the
text. POST stage activities also help the learners make sense of what they have learned.
POST activities usually encourage learners to connect/apply the content/theme/topic to
their lives and to personalize the content/theme/topic by allowing the learners to creatively
use what they know and/or have learned.

The illustration on the following page depicts the PDP framework in the shape of a diamond.
This shape represents the amount of time that should be used for each stage. The PRE
and POST stages are the shortest and the DURING stage is the longest. This means that
the DURING stage in the most important because it is the stage in which learners use the
skill (i.e., reading/listening) which is the focus of the lesson. .

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 PDP Framework

PRE
_____________________

DURING

POST

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 PDP Analysis
Questions to think about after teaching a listening/reading lesson:
What in the lesson contributed to the success/failure of the achievement of the student
learning objective (SLO)?

State if the SLO was met or not and why you think so—what evidence do you have? Then
state what in each of the lesson parts—Pre and During stages in a PDP--led to the SLO
being met or not met in the last task in the During.

Pre
How does the Pre set students up
During for success in the During? Does
How are the it generate interest, access
Reading/Listening tasks students’ background knowledge,
sequenced? Are they activate Ss schema, teach
general to specific, easy to needed vocab?
difficult, concrete to
abstract? Are the tasks
given before the
reading/listening? For Pre
reading how do the tasks
provide opportunities for
_________________
students interact with the
text? What is the last
activity and is it a
comprehensive During
assessment activity?

The Post is extra “icing on the cake.

It moves beyond the text and
connects the theme to Ss lives. Skills
used are other than the skill being
Post taught— e.g. using speaking, and is
closely tied thematically to the
During content. A Post for a
listening lesson on a weather report
might have the students make their
own weather reports and perform
them for the class. A reading on the
history of blue jeans might result in a
Post that has the Ss creating an ad.
So the Post is a creative use of
language and it uses other skills.

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 TEACHING LISTENING
WHY LISTEN?
 to engage in social rituals
 to exchange information
 to exert control
 to share feelings
 to enjoy yourself

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON LISTENING SITUATIONS?

 listening to live conversations
 listening to announcements (at airports, railway stations, bus stations, etc)
 listening to/watching the news, the weather forecast on the radio/TV
 listening to the radio/watching TV for entertainment watching a play/movie
 listening to records (songs, etc)
 following a lesson (at school)
 attending a lecture
 listening on the telephone
 following instructions
 listening to someone giving a speech/a public address

WHAT SHOULD TEACHER’S OBJECTIVES INCLUDE?

 exposing students to a range of listening experiences
 making listening purposeful for the students
 helping students understand what listening entails and how they might approach it
 building up students’ confidence in their own listening ability

HOW DOES ONE SUCCEED WITH LISTENING WORK?

1) Make sure instructions are clear; students have to understand very clearly
what they are expected to do.
2) Make sure that each time a listening text is heard, even for the second or
third time, the students have a specific purpose for listening; give them a
task.
3) Do plenty of pre-listening work.
4) Encourage students not to worry if they don’t understand every word;; a task
can be completed even when they miss some of the words.
5) Never use a recorded listening text without having listened to it yourself.
6) Test equipment beforehand.

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 Listening Guidelines
Skill: LISTENING

Definition: Listening is actively making meaning from verbal input.

What listening involves:

 getting clues from the environment: facial expressions, gestures, background noise,
the setting, the people
 using one’s background knowledge about the setting, topic and language
(pronunciation and grammar) to make inferences and predictions
 distinguishing which words and groups of words are important and carry the
meaning
 understanding and interpreting the meaning of those words and groups of words
(which includes pronunciation, colloquial vocabulary, ungrammatical utterances,
redundancy)
 usually, some kind of response

A good listening lesson:

1) Has pre-listening activities.
These should help students use their background knowledge about the setting, topic
and language associated with them so that they can anticipate and predict what they
will hear.

2) Allows students to know the kind of text and purpose for listening in advance.

3) Gives students a purpose for listening, which can include one or more of the following:
 to get general information (e.g. how many movies are playing)
 to get specific information (e.g. what time the movies are playing)
 to accomplish a task (e.g. to decide which movie to go to)

4) Requires some kind of response from the listener such as taking notes, answering
questions, making a group decision.

5) Uses appropriate material:

 the topic is of interest or value to the students
 it is at the right level
 it offers environmental clues, when possible
 the is visible, when possible
 it is authentic, when possible

6) Gives students more than one chance to listen, each time with a different purpose.

7) Has follow up activities which include the other skills.

Typical materials:

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Authentic: radio broadcasts, recordings (e.g. of movie times, airport announcements),
videos of TV shows or movies, lectures, phone conversations
Semi-authentic: unrehearsed tapes; role plays with native speakers who speak at normal
speed
Prepared: commercially prepared tapes and videos

Typical Pre activities:

pictures to activate background knowledge; TPR (Total Physical Response); brainstorming
what students know about the topic with a word map; showing realia related to the topic
such as a menu or a movie schedule

Typical listening tasks/During activities:

identify specific words; figure out relationship by listening to tone of voice; listen for specific
intonation (statement question); raise hand when hearing certain words; listen to
background noise to establish setting and topic; doing a task such as filling out a form,
following a map or taking an order; making a decision based on the information; cloze
passages; detecting mistakes; guessing; note-taking from a lecture

Typical Post activities:

Interviewing native speakers; calling for information (e.g. travel agency, movie theatre, car
rental agency, restaurant); reading and/or writing about the topic; discussing the topic;
listening to another example

Recommended resources:
Ur, Penny (1984). Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Dunkel, P (1982/1985). Advanced and Intermediate Listening Comprehension. (2 books)
Newbury House.

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 Pre-During-Post Framework
For Receptive Skills Lessons
PRE
Goals
- prepare student for listening/reading by contextualizing and/or personalizing to both make
it more accessible and more realistic as it is less common to find oneself listening/reading
to something totally our of context
- involve students in specific topic
- activate prior knowledge
- provide purpose for listening

Activity Types
 discussion of what they see in the visual or the task
 prediction questions to discuss what they can expect to hear
 questions to activate prior/background/own knowledge of topic
 introduce or elicit general topic through key vocabulary introduction/activation
 matching
 categorizing
 rating
 listing
 adding own known related vocabulary
 discussing own relationship with vocabulary items
 finding items in a visual or graphic organizer (for example the K & W sections of a
K/W/L Chart
 fill-in-the-blanks with vocabulary words
 answering questions using vocabulary
 matching questions and responses (e.g. formulaic language, such as greetings,
telephone language, talking about opinions, etc.)
 ordering, ranking or sequencing
 write sentences about visual or own information or using given vocabulary words
 finding or producing antonyms/synonyms
 making inferences/deductions from picture to sue vocabulary
 interact personally with the new/activated vocabulary
 completing a chart or table
 “Talk About Yourself” using given phrases and/or vocabulary at a lower level
 rating something
 choosing what applies to you from a list and then discussing it
 listing/brainstorming words that apply to given categories
 discussion questions
 create a picture dictionary
 vocabulary games like charades, taboo, pictionary

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DURING
Goals
To comprehend the text through multiple exposures; from general to specific information,
easy to difficult tasks and concrete to abstract concepts in order to:

- complete a task
- get new information
- learn something about themselves
- further develop language skills (especially lexis, but also pronunciation and grammar
awareness)
- develop strategies for listening/reading more effectively

Examples of tasks for multiple listening and reading

First Listening/Reading (Usually in terms of main ideas, theme and/or topic)

Listening/Reading for: Example activities:
- gist - ordering/numbering items of main
- purpose: to persuade, to apologize to ideas
invite, ask permission - making a list of main or significant
- main idea events
- attitudes/emotions: positive, negative, - reading or listening for the mood,
warm, angry feeling or tone of the text or passage
- key words - fill in the blanks for main ideas such
- acceptance or refusal of an id3ea or as in an outline where the details are
invitation provided but not the main ideas
- permission granted or refused - ranking the importance of the main
opinions: good/bad, useful/worthless, ideas or significant events
lovely/dirty, convenient - select the correct response such as
- time references: past, present, future, what’s the best title for this passage
completed, incomplete, - multiple choice
- preferences - label pictures, graph, or graphic
- agreement and disagreement with organizer
own previously stated ideas - matching picture with description
- agreement and disagreement - matching two general pieces of
between speakers information
- general time: season, period of the - checking off relevant information from
day (evening or morning) a text or picture
- context or setting (outside, move - writing summary statements
theater, restaurant, home, office, - (possible but rare) true/false of
school) significant plot events or main ideas
- likes and dislikes
- identify speech act: greeting, toast,
introduction
- interest level of speaker/listener for
topic
listening for tense/aspect/time

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Listening/Reading for Specific Information
Listening/Reading for more Example activities:
- detail - filling in cloze
- reasons - ordering/numbering items
- affect - fill in the blanks
- tone - ranking
- implications - true/false
- inference - select the correct response
- examples - multiple choice
- determine meaning of vocabulary, - fill in graph, or graphic organizer
phrases from context label pictures or parts of pictures
- identify intonation or stress - matching two pieces of information
- determine meaning from intonation or checking off relevant information from a
stress text or picture
distinguish between yes/no and - listening for specific words
information questions - writing short answers
- identify specific parts of speech: - using context to define new words
prepositions, verb tense, adjective - short answer
forms, negative prefixes, tag questions - matching
- determine meaning of specific parts of - acting out what is happening in the
speech text
- recognize spelling or numbers - labeling
- identify specifics: names, body parts, - write out (words, numbers, phrases)
cities, foods, colors, clothing items, - check off what you hear or read
times, jobs, etc. - list
order events - mark stress or intonation
- decipher rapid or reduced speech - apply punctuation to tape script
- correct errors
- changing easy vocabulary words to
more difficult vocabulary words that
mean the same thing

A list of Comprehensive Assessment Activities: Appropriate for achievement of SLO

• Summary and/or Retelling

• Sequencing sentences to complete a summary
• Sequencing pictures
• Using pictures to retell the text
• Synthesis such as making inferences, drawing conclusion or reading/listening
between the lines
• Application of new knowledge; e.g. using what they have learned to identify the
technique being used
• Detailed Questions  Detailed questions cover the “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,”
“why” and “how” of the story or text.
• Discussion and/or Debate

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POST Listening/Reading
Goals
- to personalize the TL/Topic/Theme; to expand on the content of the listening or reading
text through practical use
- to develop language by integrating listening/reading with other skills

Activity Types
- discussion or writing on the topic or the ideas (e.g. agreeing or disagreeing, comparing,
reacting)
- perform a role-play (e.g. the author of the text and talk show host, a character or person in
the text and student in the class, made up characters related to the topic but not found in
the text
- writing with attention to form and function (e.g. copy the genre of the reading using
another topic, revise the text with a different point-of-view, create a different ending or write
an expansion of the text, write a letter related to the text, create a move/book or product
related to the text.
- listening to a song or watching a video clip that relate to the text and making comparisons
in speaking or writing.
- making a poster
- doing any of the above with attention on the lexis and grammar introduced in the text, and
with attention to pronunciation if speaking.

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Pre-During-Post Checklist
Use this form to check your lesson plans

Clear Learning objectives

Definition: Receptive lessons are ones in which the main learning objective involves the
students demonstrating that they have understood a text which would normally be
challenging for them because of its language, style, or organization.
 uses observable verbs describing student behavior
 uses the following pattern in writing the SWBAT:
by the end of the lesson, student will be able to (SWBAT) … (complete receptive
task X) while working with text Y (using …) so that they can then do post text activity
Z (speaking or writing).

PRE stage – Students become familiar with the topic, the language and essential
vocabulary they will use during the lesson.
 Activates schema through use of visuals, topic-related discussion, prediction in a
learner-centered way.
 Provides background and situation related to the text in an interactive and in a learner-
centered way.
 Pre-teaches or introduces key vocabulary and language structures related to the text in
a learner-centered way.

DURING stage – Students interact directly with the text a number of times, each time with
a specific purpose that leads the students to gradually gain a more detailed understanding
of the text.
 Provides multiple opportunities for student to hear/read the text.
 Each listening/reading has an interactive task requiring some kind of response from the
students and students check with peers before responding to the teacher.
 Tasks move from general to specific understanding. From getting the gist/main idea to
looking for specific, discrete pieces of information/individual words.
 Allows time for students to check comprehension, as questions, clarify vocabulary and
move toward deeper understanding of the text.

POST Stage – Students’ understanding of the text is reinforced through expanding on the
text or personalizing the topic using other language skill areas (speaking or writing).
 Requires students to be creative and to expand on the text or personalize the topic using
other skills in a learner-centered way.
 Allows students to reinforce the new vocabulary words/language structures using other
skills in a learner-centered way.

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