INTERACTION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN INVESTIGATION INTO MCCARTHY’S ‘THREE IS’ PEDAGOGICAL MODELLING PAOLA BOCALE Introduction In the field of language teaching popular with coursebooks writers, teachers and learners is the so called ‘Three Ps’ approach, a methodology that organises the teaching of a linguistic item in three distinct stages: Presentation of the item, Practice of the item, and finally Production of the item (Tomlison, 1998). The popularity of this approach can be explained by its simplicity and straightforwardness, by the logical sequence of clearly defined steps that seem to lead successfully to language acquisition. However, many researchers have pointed out at its limits and deficiencies, claiming that this model does not account for the complexity of the process of language learning. Contemporary research shows that the acquisition of linguistic structures and functions “takes much longer than this approach suggests and that far more experience of the item in communication is needed for any lasting learning to take place” (Tomlison, 1998, p. xii). Researchers have proposed alternative methodologies more in line with current studies in the field of Applied Linguistics. This article will examine the methodological proposal of McCarthy (1998), the ‘Three Is’, and will evaluate it by considering research studies in the area of language acquisition. In the first section a presentation of