What is ‘Engage-Study-Activate’?

And how can you use to structure your next lesson?

Engage, Study, Activate (ESA) is a method of sequencing activities in your lessons, and was first proposed by Jeremy Harmer in his book, ‘How to Teach English’.

At first glance, ESA appears to be the same as PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production). Like PPP, there are three stages. Each stage of ESA roughly corresponds to PPP, but with ESA the stages can be moved around or used more than once.

These stages can be used like Lego bricks, fitting together in multiple combinations. This can keep things interesting for students as they can get bored with the same structure every lesson.

Let’s look at each stage in turn, and then how they can fit together.

1. Engage

This is the stage where you get the learners interest. If it’s at the beginning of the lesson, it’s also where you’ll set the context.

You could engage learners using things like:

• Dramatic stories or anecdotes
• Music
• Discussions
• Exciting pictures or video clips

It’s also about personalisation — encouraging learners to relate the material to themselves, or making…