IELTS Speaking Advice: my view on the 'PPF' idea

In this lesson I asked for your views on a technique that some students and teachers are using: they use three verb tenses (past, present, future - PPF) to organise their speaking part 2 answers. In other words, they begin by answering in the past tense, then they move to the present and into the future.

Here's my view on this:

I'm not a fan of this PPF technique because it encourages you to go into the speaking test with a 'grammar mindset'. Your brain is focusing on verb tenses instead of more important things: the task, the bullet points, your ideas, and the vocabulary that you're going to use to express those ideas.

If there's one thing that I stand against as an English / IELTS teacher, it's the 'grammar mindset' and the idea that you can impress the examiner with 'complex structures'.

I'm a 'vocabulary mindset' teacher. I want my students to focus on the 'true content' of their answers, rather than grammar tricks.

Comments

[DisagreeWithSimonCorp.]

How about an answering containing both good vocabulary that you recommend and a variety of tenses? Of course, we can speak naturally.

[Simon]

If the tenses come naturally as part of your answer, then great!

I’m just saying that tenses shouldn’t be your main concern or your main technique.

[July]

What if I am not good at grammar? I mean I use the simple same sentence structure for the most content in speaking part 2, like’ noun+verb ‘ . Does it matter?

[shokhrukh]

July

I think Simon is not trying to say that grammar does not matter; of course it does. It's just that those who have a large vocabulary repertoire and know, and can use, a lot of phrases and collocations usually also have a good control of grammar: they can naturally and usually unconsciously produce complex, error-free sentences.

Also, this lesson is mainly about the MINDSET (not about grammar or vocabulary), that best helps you succeed in the speaking test and which, as it turns out, according to Simon, is the vocabulary mindset.

One last thing, you wouldn't think of using complex grammar structures while speaking in your native tongue, would you?

[Robert Adenio]

Is the PPF technique grammar-based? I always assumed it was used so that examiners can answer have a kind of frame or anchor. By thinking about an experience in the past and relating it to the current situation and then what might happen next going forward, it helps with coherence and and efficiency as you don’t have to ‘think’ more than you should. If the question is about the best museum you’ve ever visited, for example, the answer should take care of the past and the current situation, and then if you run out of ideas you could talk about a museum you’d like to visit in the future. I could he wrong but I remember the technique to be used this way, to put a sort of frame. My teacher used to say think about a past experience, and then relate it to the current situation and then if you still have time fill it on by relating it to the future. It wasn’t a focus on the tenses as they should come naturally.