Alan Granada is an ALT in Kanagawa, teaching English across elementary, junior, and senior high schools. He helps students build communicative confidence by starting from what they can already do and using Adrian Leis’ Task 1-Present-Practice-Task 2 framework, or TPPT. For Part 1, click here.
After teaching the first lesson, one question stayed with me. Students had successfully worked towards using a single target structure, but real communication rarely offers just one way to express an idea. We choose our language according to who we’re speaking to, what we’re trying to say, and the relationship we have with the person in front of us.
That led me to a new question. Rather than asking students to discover one grammatical pattern, what would happen if they had to choose between several expressions that carried different meanings, levels of politeness, or degrees of strength?
In other words, the focus shifted from recognizing a form to thinking about its function. The lesson was no longer simply about what students could say, but why they might choose one expression over another.
As in the previous lesson, the TPPT sequence also continued to shape how my JTE and I worked together. The roles themselves changed very little, but once again the structure gave each stage of the lesson its own purpose, allowing us to move naturally between leading, supporting, observing, and responding as students worked through the activities.
Task 1: Corner Roles (ALT-led Activation)
I wanted students to begin thinking about language in terms of purpose rather than grammar, so we started with a simple movement activity. The classroom was divided into four corners, each representing a different role: parent, teacher, friend, or coach. Students chose a corner before knowing exactly what they would be asked to do. Once they had committed, I gave each group the same neutral sentence:
Study harder.
Their task was to reshape that sentence suitable for the role they had been given. The responses quickly began to reflect different relationships and different levels of authority:
You must study harder.
Shall we study together?
Go to your desk. Study harder.
I want you to study harder.
Rather than deciding which answer was “correct”, we explored the differences between them. Which sounded strongest? Which felt more supportive? Which would you expect to hear from a parent, a teacher, or a friend?
As the groups rotated through different roles and situations, students gradually began to notice that choosing an expression depended not only on grammar, but also on context, relationship, and intention. The explanation came later. At this stage, the goal was to make those differences visible.
Presentation: Listening & Function Awareness (ALT + JTE)
For the presentation stage, my JTE and I followed a similar rhythm to the previous lesson. Together, we modelled a series of short dialogues that demonstrated different ways of influencing or directing another person. Rather than focusing on a single expression, the conversations introduced a wider range of language, including polite requests, advice, requirements, and instructions.
Students listened to the dialogues while reading. As in the previous lesson, I encouraged them to look for patterns by asking questions such as What new expressions do you notice? Who are the speakers? Which examples sound polite? Which sound stronger?
The JTE then continued the discussion in Japanese, helping students talk through the differences they had noticed. Rather than simply translating individual phrases, the discussion focused on why one expression might suit a given situation better than another. By the end of the activity, students weren’t simply identifying new grammar. They were beginning to connect expressions with different communicative purposes.
Practice: Accuracy Before Fluency (JTE-led)
During the practice stage, my JTE took the lead while students used the new expressions in a more structured way. We began with a simple matching activity, in which students connected expressions such as I want you to…, I need you to…, I would like you to…, and I advise you to… with different situations in Japanese. This encouraged them to think about tone as well as meaning before producing the language themselves.
Students then returned to the neutral situations from the opening activity and rewrote them to match different roles and relationships. They worked individually first, discussed their ideas in pairs, and finally shared their responses with the class.
Writing before speaking once again proved valuable. It gave students time to think through both the language and the situation before expressing their ideas aloud. Although the activity was carefully structured, the discussions themselves were anything but mechanical. Students often justified their choices, questioned one another’s reasoning, and explored why one expression felt more appropriate than another.
Task 2: Culture Festival Simulation (ALT-led Integration)
For the final task, students worked in groups of four to plan a culture festival booth. They could choose almost any idea they liked, from a food stall or haunted house to a game corner or something entirely of their own. The challenge wasn’t simply to plan the activity. Each student also had to take on a different communicative role by using a different expression. One student might make a polite request using I would like you to…, another expressed a requirement with I need you to…, while others offered advice or gave instructions using the remaining target expressions.
Although the language was carefully structured, the conversations themselves were much more open. Students explained their ideas, negotiated with one another, and often added additional reasons or details without prompting. The different expressions stopped feeling like isolated grammar points, taking on a practical purpose within the discussion.
As students worked, my JTE and I moved around the room listening to the conversations as they developed. Sometimes we clarified meaning, sometimes we refined grammar through brief prompts or recasts, and sometimes we stood back and let the discussion continue. The framework gave the lesson its structure, but the students determined where each conversation would go.
Looking Back
One part of the lesson never quite happened as I had planned. The worksheet included a short reflection question:
What was the most useful expression you used today? Why?
Time ran away from us, so we never reached it. Looking back, I think that was a missed opportunity. A brief reflection at the end of the lesson would have encouraged students to think about why they had chosen particular expressions rather than simply whether they had used them correctly. It’s a small change, and it’s one I’ll make next time.
My Reflection
Like any lesson, this one wasn’t without its challenges. One thing I noticed was how much time some groups spent deciding what kind of culture festival booth they wanted to create. Giving students that freedom encouraged ownership, but it also reduced the time available for using English. I’m still deciding whether it’s better to keep that open choice or provide a few options from the beginning so that more time can be spent on the language itself.
I also noticed that many students relied on Japanese while negotiating their ideas. Given their proficiency level, that wasn’t especially surprising. Choosing between several similar expressions while planning a task places a heavy cognitive load on learners. At the same time, some of the most encouraging moments came from those discussions. Students helped one another with vocabulary, corrected verb forms, and worked together to refine their ideas before sharing them in English.
That’s one of the reasons I enjoy communicative activities like this. They reveal much more than whether students can produce the target language. They show how students solve problems together, negotiate meaning, and gradually build confidence through interaction. Finding the right balance between freedom and structure, or between L1 and L2, is something I’ll probably keep refining every time I teach the lesson.
Closing Thoughts
Teaching the lesson for a second time reminded me that the biggest improvements don’t always come from changing the content. Sometimes they come from changing the order in which students encounter it.
What I appreciate most about TPPT isn’t that it offers a new set of classroom activities. It’s that it encourages me to pay closer attention to how students think, how they make choices, and how my JTE and I respond to those moments together. The framework provides a sequence, but the learning still comes from listening, adapting, and reflecting on what happens in the classroom.
After two lessons, I feel less interested in whether TPPT is “better” than other approaches and more interested in the questions it continues to raise. Each lesson has suggested small adjustments, new possibilities, and ideas worth exploring further.
The next lesson built on those questions again, this time by asking what happens when students move beyond choosing expressions and begin using them to solve more authentic communicative problems.