This document provides an outline for an ESP course presentation on solving or avoiding problems in the classroom. It includes an overview section outlining common problems such as absenteeism, low motivation, mixed level/status classes, and lack of expertise. It then details activities to address these problems, including role-plays and logic puzzles. It concludes with a sample "mini-lesson" on an unusual border between Netherlands and Belgium.

1. IBN ZOHR UNIVERSITY
M.A TEFL & ICT
ESP COURSE
Prof JENIFER JUNE EVANS
YOUSSEF TAMER

3. SOLVING OR AVOIDING PROBLEMS
Omar Taky-Eddine
Mustapha AboulaHassan
Med Ait Madani youssef
Brahim Elomari
Ahmed dakhissi

4. PRESENTATION OUTLINE:
 OVERVIEW
 ACTIVITY ONE
 ACTIVITY TWO
 Activity Three
 Mini Lesson

5. OVERVIEW OUTLINE:
1.Absenteeism and Lateness
2. Low motivation
3. Mixed status class
4. Mixed Level class
5. Unexpected students and Unplanned
changes
6. Bad Feedback
7. Lack of expertise

6. 1. ABSENTEEISM AND LATENESS

7.  Course progress slows down
 Lesson plans need to be adjusted
 Affect badly punctual students

8. A. FORMAL SYSTEM
 Only when SS are present, the
teacher can motivate them and
enhance their autonomy
 Makes unpunctual SS reprioritize
the importance of the course
 There should be norms for
monitoring attendance, any student
who exceeds the limited number of
approved absences can no longer
attend the course

9. B. INFORMAL APPROACH
 Remind the whole class of the course
objectives and highlight how every
particular lesson fits into the overall
program
 Make a good joke about it, when SS come
in late or after class
 Ask regular SS to update the absentee /
latecomer
 Refer the absentee/latecomer to the work
completed by regular SS

10. 2. LOW MOTIVATION

11. LOW MOTIVATION AFFECTS BADLY THE
COURSE
 disruptive attendance
 poor results
 difficult teaching / learning
program failure

12.  present yourself professionally
 be systematic in dealing with
irregular attendance
 tune into your SS
 make good use of time
 vary teaching materials and
approaches

13. 3. MIXED STATUS CLASS
 involve low status SS by eliciting more
responses from them and being supportive
towards them (high status SS can assert
themselves)
 assign “ridiculous” roles for high class status
SS
 accommodate SS’ different needs: assign
different self-study books for homework to
each status
 encourage discussion between different
status SS
 make tasks open-ended

14. 4. MIXED LEVEL CLASS
 get SS with extensive work
experience to explain real-life lge
problems to other SS
 get SS to share their skills by
changing the groups
 get SS to edit each other’s work
without highlighting the authorship

15. 5. UNEXPECTED SS AND UNPLANNED CHANGES

16. COPE WITH THE SITUATION AND CONTINUE TO
APPEAR PROFESSIONAL:
Prepare contingency plans
Have some teaching ideas up
your sleeve which require no
preparation or material
Keep necessary tools within your
reach

17. 6. BAD FEEDBACK

18.  don’t get demoralized, take
feedback professionally
regard the feedback as helpful
 feedback shows what your SS
dis/like
 re-examine priorities

19. 7. LACK OF EXPERTISE

20. Business SS know a lot about
their specialty before coming to
class. For teachers, lack of
expertise may affect their
strategies for dealing with
specific situations.

21.  Geta student who raised a subject to
expand, and invite other SS to do the
same
 ask SS if they can find out relevant
information before next class
 keep up to-date (book fairs,
conferences, TV news,
newspapers….)

22. ACTIVITY ONE

23. DIRECTIONS:
Students are to form 3
groups . Each group
represents a company.

24. THE FIRST STEP:
 Students invent a name
for the company and its
specialty. Then elect a
president and a spokesman
for the company.

25. THE SECOND STEP:
 Your company is helding a meeting to
discuss the possibility of setting up a new
branch in another location:
 The spokesman introduces the company.
 The president opens the discussion
about the new project.
 The staff provide their suggestions
discussing the following points:
• The appropriate locations.
• The advantages and potential
obstacles.

26. Activity two

27. PROBLEM 1
 A man who works on the 20th
floor goes up to the 18th floor
in the elevator almost every
morning, then walks the last
two floors. And when he
wants to descend he uses the
elevator.

28. SOLUTION
He’s rather short so he can’t
reach the button for the 20th
floor in the elevator. When
someone tall gets into the lift
the man asks him or her to
press the button for the 20th
floor

29. PROBLEM 2
A boss of a company invited a manager of
another company to attend dinner. The
manager informed the boss that he would
come with his daughter. The boss invited
also another manager who informed him
that he would come with his wife. The
boss provided the guests with four dishes.
When they finished eating, the boss
discovered that one dish was not touched.
Why it was not touched?

30. SOLUTION
The daughter of the first
manager is the wife of the
second manager. In other
words, they are three; two
men and one woman.

31. PROBLEM 3
A farmer is standing on one side of the river and
with him are a wolf, a goat and a box with
cabbages. In the river there is a small boat. The
farmer wants to cross the river with all the
three items who are with him. There are no
bridges and in the boat there is only room for
the farmer and one item. But if he leaves the
goat with the cabbages alone on one side of the
river the goat will eat the cabbages. If he leaves
the wolf and the goat on one side the wolf will
eat the goat. Only the farmer can seperate the
wolf from the goat and the goat from the
cabbage.
What can he do to cross the river without
losing any of his properties ?

32. SOLUTION
 Firstthe farmer takes the goat across
the river. He goes back to pick up the
wolf. When he is across he leaves the
wolf and takes back the goat. Back on
the other side he leaves the goat and
takes the cabbages with him. Then he
picks up the goat and all three items
are on the other side.

33. PROBLEM 4
 You are lost in a forest. The forest is
between two villages. In village A
live only liars, they always lie. In
village B people always tell the truth.
You want to go to village B. Then you
see a man from village A or B. You
can ask him only one question.
Which question will you ask him to
know for sure where village B is ?

34. SOLUTION
Ask the man which city he
lives in. He will always point
to village B.

35. PROBLEM 5
 Everything Mr Red owns is red, he
lives in a red bungalow and his
chairs are red, his tables are red. His
ceiling, walls and floor are all red. All
of his clothes are red, his shoes are
red, even his carpet, television and
phone are red. What colour are his
stairs?

36. SOLUTION
Hedoesn't have any stairs
because he lives in a
bungalow!

37. PROBLEM 6
These sentences are a little strange. Why?
Women understand men; few men
understand women.
Bores are people that say that
people are bores.

38. SOLUTION
They are all WORD-UNIT
PALINDOMES. Word-unit
palindromes relate to whole
words, which form the same
sentence when read in reverse
as forwards.

39. ACTIVITY THREE

41. Mini Lesson

43. This is an amazing unusual border line runs
between Netherlands and Belgium in a
small town called Baarle-Nassau. And this
restaurant is in both countries and as per
Dutch laws restaurant has to close earlier
than Belgium. Hence after the closing time
in Netherlands, the people eating the
restaurant have to move to the Belgian
side and continue. Though I am not sure if
the kitchen is also built in both the
countries. Sounds interesting! Doesn’t
it? Order Dutch Coffee with Gouda cheese
from Netherlands and have it with
Belgium chocolate!

44. Do you agree or disagree with
the following statements? if
yes/no, why?
All international borders should
be destroyed because they only
create barriers to trading and
international understanding.

46. The retirement age
should be lowered so
as to cut down
unemployement.

47. Thank
you