4.1 Skills Sequences: Pre, While & Post

Why skills sequences are a Module 2 planning topic

TKT Module 2 is titled Lesson planning and use of resources for language teaching. One of its recurring jobs is to decide whether a set of activities is in a logical order for a stated main aim. The official syllabus lists common sequences, and skills is one of those sequences. That is a planning question.

It is not a second copy of Module 1. Module 1 asked you to name subskills: skimming, scanning, listening for gist, listening for specific information, inferring attitude. Module 2 assumes those labels. It then asks: if the aim is to practise listening for specific information in a recorded announcement, which stage comes first, which activity belongs in the while-stage, and which task is actually a grammar exercise wearing a recording as decoration.

OpenExamPrep teaches this as independent Module 2 planning material. When you sit matching or multiple-choice items, you are often given a jumble of stage names and classroom actions. Your job is to restore an order that serves a skills aim. If you sequence like a systems lesson (clarify a tense, gap-fill the tense, personalise the tense), you will mis-place a listening or reading plan even if every activity looks busy.

This section trains four skills plans: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Receptive skills (reading and listening) share a pre → while → post skeleton. Productive skills (speaking and writing) share a prepare → perform → improve skeleton, but the named stages differ because a conversation and a written genre do not fail in the same places.

Receptive skills: the pre → while → post skeleton

A receptive-skills lesson has a printed or recorded text as the main vehicle. Learners process that text for meaning, then use it. The sequence exists to stop three collapses: drowning in unknown words before there is a reason to read; hunting for tiny details before anyone knows what the text is about; and finishing a worksheet without ever using the ideas or the language.

Write the main aim first, in skills language: Learners will practise reading for gist in a festival notice or Learners will practise listening for specific information in a customer-service call. Then test every activity against that sentence. If the activity does not train that skill at that moment, move it, cut it, or change the aim.

Pre-stage (before learners read or listen)

The pre-stage has three jobs, and they are not equal.

1. Activate schema. Schema is the knowledge learners already have about a topic or text type. A two-minute lead-in (predict from a photo, list what they know about train delays, talk about the last time they complained in a shop) warms the topic and shows you what the class can already say.
2. Pre-teach only essential blockers. A blocker is a word or phrase without which the gist task is impossible. If the recording is a weather warning and learners cannot survive without flood, teach flood. Do not teach twenty topic words. A long vocabulary list in the pre-stage turns the lesson into a lexis presentation. The text never gets a fair chance to teach the rest of the words in context.
3. Set the gist task before the text starts. Learners need a reason for the first listen or read: Is this a complaint or a compliment? How many speakers? Which picture matches? Setting the task after the first play is too late. They have already listened without a purpose.

Interaction in the pre-stage is often open class for the lead-in, then pairwork to predict, then open class to set the gist question. Keep it short. If the pre-stage lasts fifteen minutes, the while-stage will be starved, and the skills aim will not be practised.

Do not confuse a lively pre-stage with a good one. A debate about food miles can be excellent if the text is about a market, and a waste of time if it eats the first listen. Time-box the pre-stage on the plan (often 5–8 minutes in a 45-minute lesson) so the text remains the main event.

While-stage (as learners read or listen)

The while-stage is where the skills aim is actually practised. Order matters.

• Gist first. A gist task asks for global meaning: topic, purpose, overall mood, matching a heading. It is done with a first, fairly fluent pass. For listening, that is usually the first play. For reading, a short time limit stops word-by-word decoding.
• Specific information next, as a separate stage. After gist, set a new task: times, prices, names, which speaker mentions a refund. Do not combine gist and detail on one worksheet that learners see before the first listen. If they see the detail questions first, they never practise gist. They scan or listen only for the numbers.
• Detail or inference as a later pass. Detail is close comprehension (why the caller is angry; what it refers to). Inference is meaning that is not stated (the speaker is sarcastic; the writer disagrees with the policy). These are harder and belong after learners already know what the text is about.

Each while-task needs its own instruction and, for listening, usually its own play. Checking can be pair check then open class, so learners get a second chance to notice what they missed. Resist the urge to “save time” by issuing every question at once. That single sheet is not efficient. It is a different lesson: scanning practice pretending to be a full listening sequence.

If the main aim is specific information, gist is still first — but it can be very light (one question, 30 seconds). You do not skip gist because the aim is detail. You keep gist short so the aim has time to be practised properly.

Post-stage (after the text has been understood)

The post-stage is not “if there is time.” It is how a skills lesson becomes both a language lesson and a communicative lesson.

• Language focus drawn from the text. Pick a useful pattern that actually appeared: I'd like to speak to the manager; contrastive stress; a set of complaint adjectives. This is language from the listening, not a grammar McNugget glued on at the end.
• Personalisation. Have you ever made a complaint like this? What would you do? Learners connect the text to their lives, which is why the content was worth processing.
• Productive follow-up. A short speaking or writing task that uses the ideas or the language: role-play the phone call; write a three-line email of complaint. The follow-up should be shorter than the while-stage. It is a payoff, not a new main aim, unless you planned a skills-integrated lesson on purpose and wrote that on the plan.

A post-stage that is only “check the answers and pack up” leaves the skills work unfinished. Learners understood a text, then did nothing with it. Module 2 will treat a missing post-stage as a sequencing gap when the plan claims a full receptive lesson.

Productive skills: speaking and writing sequences

A productive-skills lesson does not start with a long text as the main vehicle. It starts with a reason to speak or write, the language needed to do it, time to prepare if the task is demanding, then performance, then feedback that is about the task — not only about a grammar point you wished you had taught.

Speaking sequence

A workable speaking sequence is:

1. Lead-in — create a reason to talk (a dilemma, a photo, a ranking task).
2. Useful language — a short, need-driven input: five functional exponents, a pronunciation focus on a polite intonation pattern, a quick look at a model dialogue. This is not a full Presentation–Practice–Production (PPP) grammar lesson unless the main aim is a system.
3. Task — the communicative goal, stated so learners know what success looks like (agree on a weekend plan; convince a classmate to change a booking).
4. Planning or rehearsal if needed — for presentations, debates, or exam-style long turns. Everyday fluency tasks may skip a long planning stage. High-stakes accuracy tasks should not.
5. Performance — pairs or groups do the task, with the teacher monitoring for the lesson’s criteria.
6. Feedback — content first (Did they agree? Who had the strongest reason?), then language (upgrade a phrase, repair a breakdown, praise a successful exponent).

If you skip useful language and then “correct everything” at the end, you punished learners for a gap you never planned to fill. If you spend twenty minutes on a grammar gap-fill and two minutes speaking, you did not teach a speaking lesson. Label the aim honestly, or cut the gap-fill.

Monitoring during performance is part of the sequence, not an afterthought. You cannot give useful feedback if you spent the speaking stage marking homework at the desk. Note two content points and two language points while you listen.

Writing sequence

Writing fails in public when learners are told “write a review” with no model and no reader.

1. Generate ideas — brainstorm, discuss, note useful content. Writers who have nothing to say produce empty accuracy practice.
2. Model and analyse the genre — a short model email, review, or story. Learners notice layout, purpose, register, and typical moves (greeting → reason for writing → request → closing).
3. Language — exponents, linking, tense choices that the genre needs.
4. Draft — writing happens here, not during the analysis.
5. Review — peer or teacher feedback against a short checklist (purpose, organisation, language you taught).
6. Rewrite — a second draft is part of the sequence, not a luxury. Without it, feedback is a lecture.

A lesson that says “Write an email. Use the present perfect. You have fifteen minutes.” has no genre, no reader, and no sequence. On Module 2, that plan is easy to attack: the activities do not build toward a writing aim even if the word write appears at the end.

Stage map: typical aim and interaction

Classroom scenarios you can plan from

Scenario A — listening, B1 adults, complaints. Main aim: Learners will practise listening for specific information in a customer-service call. Pre: photo of a broken kettle, “What would you say?”, pre-teach refund and faulty only, gist question Is the customer polite or angry? While 1: gist. While 2: complete a form (item, date of purchase, what the customer wants). Post: underline useful phrases, then a two-minute pair role-play. A present-perfect gap-fill does not belong in the while-stage. If you want that grammar, either make it a systems lesson or park a short language focus in the post-stage after meaning is secure.

Scenario B — reading, A2 teens, a festival notice. Split the passes. Gist: Which day is cheapest? must not appear on the same sheet as How much is a family ticket if booked online? Pre-teaching twenty festival words is a trap; teach venue if the gist depends on it. After the notice is understood, personalise (Would you go?) and write a two-line text to a friend. That is a reading sequence with a short productive payoff, not a vocabulary dump.

Scenario C — speaking, B2, agreeing a trip. Lead-in with three destination cards. Useful language: I'd rather… / What if we… / That's a fair point. One minute to note three reasons, then the task. Feedback starts with “Which pair actually agreed?” before you upgrade I prefer go to I'd rather go. The sequence serves a speaking aim because the performance is the centre of gravity, not a two-minute add-on.

Scenario D — writing, B1, a short email of request. Learners read a model of 80 words, label greeting / reason / request / closing, collect I was wondering if…, draft, swap for a checklist review, rewrite. Compare that with “Write 120 words about your holiday”: no reader, no model, no rewrite. Module 2 will treat the second plan as an incomplete writing sequence even if the topic is attractive.

Planning traps that cost Module 2 marks

• Detail before gist. If the first task is “What time does the train leave?”, you never tested gist. On a matching item, that worksheet belongs later in the sequence.
• Pre-teaching twenty words. That is a lexis lesson. Pre-teach blockers; let the text carry the rest.
• Calling a grammar gap-fill a listening lesson. If the recording exists only to fill have/has, the main aim is a system. Label it honestly, or redesign the while-tasks so meaning comes first.
• Writing with no model or no purpose. Add a reader, a model, and a rewrite.
• One giant while-worksheet. Gist, specific information, and inference on the same page, issued before the first listen, collapse the sequence into scanning practice.
• Post-stage as optional homework only. Then the lesson never personalises or upgrades language in class, where you can support it.

When you plan, write the main aim first, then ask of every stage: Does this activity train that skill at this moment? If not, it is in the wrong sequence — or it belongs in a different lesson type, which Chapter 4.3 takes up inside a single lesson.