1. On the last page, Willis writes, “It is unlikely that you will agree with everything you have read here.”  What areas do we disagree on?
2. What do we expect students to do in the final free-production stage of at P-P-P lesson?  Does this conflict with Willis’s views on how language is acquired?
3. Is it realistic to replace P-P-P with Willis’s system of Improvisation, Recognition, Rehearsal, System Building, Exploration, Consolidation, Spontaneous Use
4. Does Willis’s system rely on the assumption that students are getting a lot more exposure to English than 4 hours a week? (ie reading and studying on their own outside of class).  If so, how realistic is this of our own students?
5. Is the grammar of spoken English different than written English?  Do we force our students to speak in an unnatural way when we insist on the grammar of written English?
6. Is there anything in this book that is relevant to young learners, or is this only for adult students?

Below are several of Willis’s proposals.  For each one, discuss

        A). Do you agree or disagree with their pedagogical value?

B). How practical are they to implement in our current teaching context?

• the texts we use in the classroom should be natural texts rather than texts specifically designed to illustrate a particular grammar point (p.224)
• learners will be exposed to a range or grammar forms long before any attempt is made to recognise and systematise all of these forms (p.224)
• learners should have ample exposure to spoken and written texts to provide opportunities for learners to explore language for themselves (p.215)
• If teachers attempt to control what is learnt, they will certainly fail.  If they take the elimination of learner error as their overwhelming priority, they will certainly fail.  (p.212)
• There is a strong case for introducing the study of language as part of the subject matter of the classroom, and a principled comparison between L1 and L2 should be part of this discussion (p.210)
• Learners should be exposed to recordings of natural spontaneous spoken English (p.199)
• The whole process of learning must be kick-started by the acquisition of lexis.  As lexis is acquired, so it is possible to expose learners to more and more texts, and provide more and more opportunities for exploration. (185)
• Lexis, rather than grammar, should be the basis of the syllabus (p.184)
• Learners need to be pushed to improvise beyond their current level of language.  This will make them aware that there are are gaps in their language, which in turn will make them more sensitive to noticing these forms in the input (p.21-22)
• Learning should take place in a task based framework, so that learners will improvise and discover new meanings in a communicative atmosphere (p.222)