Challenges There are some challenges with problem-based learning. One challenge is that students who share a common first language may use that language rather than English when working in groups on the assigned problem. This difficulty can be addressed by placing students of different language backgrounds in the same group. A second concern is that problem-based learning may not be appropriate for beginning- or literacy-level students whose English oral and reading skills are minimal. One way to address this concern is to place students with stronger and weaker language skills in the same group, thus allowing those with weaker skills to hear the language and observe the learning strategies of the stronger students, while giving more proficient students opportunities to engage in interactions and negotiate meaning with their peers. Another way is to preteach challenging vocabulary through reading and discussion. Teachers must carefully consider the problems and activities that students are involved in to ensure that the students with limited language and literacy understand and find solutions to the problems. Teachers may face a different kind of challenge when they allow students to negotiate meaning and solve the problem among themselves, without teacher intervention. Research at the Lab School in Portland, Oregon, on pair work in ESL classes suggests that when teachers approach students working in pairs, the nature of the students’ interaction changes (summarized in Smith, Harris, & Reder, 2005). Students may stop negotiating, ask the teacher to solve their problem, or start interacting with the teacher about unrelated topics. This change in interaction may keep students from trying out linguistic strategies to solve the problem on their own. Discussing as a class why problem-solving activities are
useful for students to carry out without the teacher’s input may help to keep both students and teachers on track.