What is ‘Engage, Study, Activate’?
And how can you use it 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) or CAPE (Context, Analysis, Practice, Evaluation). 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 and 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 predictions about the material and lesson.
The focus of this stage is building engagement.
2. Study
This is the equivalent to both the ‘Practice’ and ‘Production’ stages of a PPP lesson. Learners should look at the target language, notice how it looks or sounds, and ensure they can reproduce it accurately.
While the methods can include the kind of teacher-led activities you might find in a PPP lesson (such as drilling or explicit grammar instruction), they can also include discovery activities. These are more like the tasks you might find in a task-based lesson and are more about leading students to find their own answers.
The focus here is on the accuracy of the target language.
3. Activate
This is the equivalent of the ‘Production’ stage of a PPP lesson.
Learners should be able to do activities that promote communication that everyone can get involved in. This could include writing activities as well as spoken.
Unlike a strict PPP class, students can use any language that they feel necessary to complete the activity. All of these activities would fulfil the criteria for an ‘activate’ stage:
Role-plays
Dialogue creation
Email exchanges
Designing an advert
Debates
The focus of this stage is on communication and fluency.
Engage, Study, Activate — Lesson Stages
As I said, the ESA structure is like Lego — you can assemble them in various orders and repeat stages to make a different sequence.
Teachers use three common sequences with ESA, and Harmer calls these: straight arrows, boomerang, and patchwork.
Straight Arrows
This one is simple — the stages go in order, ‘Engage’ to ‘Study’ to ‘Activate’. Here’s an example of a low-level class to practice ‘can/can’t:
Engage — watch a short video to set the context and raise the learners’ interest.
Study — show a photo of a character from the video. Can and can’t are used to describe her. The teacher makes sure the students can use the language correctly.
Activate — group work to design and describe a character whom they present to the class.
Boomerang
An example would be E — A — S — A.
Here the students would be engaged, then do a task, focus on form, and then do another task with (hopefully) improved accuracy.
This is reminiscent of a Test-Teach-Test structure.
Patchwork
An example would be E — A — S — A — S — E.
This one looks like it’s gone crazy, but it’s about responding to learners and their tasks.
If you think students need help with accuracy, put in a ‘Study’ stage. If they’re becoming bored? Put in an ‘Engage’ stage.
Overall, it’s a flexible model that can be used with any lesson.
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The Engage, Study, Activate (ESA) method, developed by Jeremy Harmer, offers a practical and adaptable approach to lesson planning that keeps students motivated and engaged. It begins with the Engage phase, where teachers use enjoyable or meaningful activities—such as games, images, or short stories—to spark students’ interest and encourage them to start thinking in English. This is followed by the Study phase, where learners focus on the mechanics of the language—like grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation—through targeted exercises. Finally, the Activate phase allows students to use the language creatively and fluently in realistic scenarios such as role-plays, discussions, or writing tasks. What sets ESA apart is its flexibility; teachers can follow the sequence or adjust the order based on the flow of the lesson, making it more responsive to students’ immediate learning needs.
ESA Method – A Clear and Practical Teaching Approach
The Engage, Study, Activate (ESA) method, created by Jeremy Harmer, is a flexible and effective way to plan English lessons that keep students interested and involved. It consists of three main stages:
1. Engage Stage:
This phase is about getting students emotionally involved and interested. Teachers use fun or meaningful materials—like stories, songs, games, or pictures—to grab attention and create a relaxed, positive learning environment. The aim is to get students ready and motivated to learn.
2. Study Stage:
In this stage, students focus on the structure of the language. They learn grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation through focused activities like exercises, drills, or short tasks. The teacher guides them in understanding and practicing the correct use of language.
3. Activate Stage:
Here, students are encouraged to use English freely and creatively in real-life tasks. Activities might include role-plays, discussions, storytelling, or creative writing. This stage builds fluency and helps learners apply what they’ve studied in natural ways.
What makes ESA special is its flexibility—teachers can follow the stages in order or adjust them based on the class’s needs. This makes lessons feel more natural, engaging, and responsive to students in the moment.