Event Report, Ibaraki Chapter June 2017

IBARAKI: June—Educate for the future: Fostering 21st Century Skills in the English Language Classroom
by Roxana Sandu. In this presentation, Sandu introduced us to so-called 21st century skills, which consist of communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and critical thinking, and shared her experience of implementing them in her language classrooms. She asserted that these four skills as well as cultural awareness are crucial for students who are entering into this increasingly globalizing world. She showed us a number of activities in which her students were asked not just to comprehend cultural texts but also to analyze and critically engage with them. Because those activities involved much discussion and cooperation with their classmates, her students’ reactions were somewhat mixed. She thinks that creating a friendlier environment and explicitly communicating the importance of these skills may lead to more active participation of students who have various personalities and backgrounds. Throughout her presentation, she invited us to reflect on our own classroom practices and tackle her class activities, inspiring us to consider ways in which we can also incorporate the 21st century skills in our language teaching.
Reported by Naomi Takagi