INTEGRATING 21st CENTURY SKILLS INTO TEACHING
RESEARCH PAPERSINTEGRATING 21st CENTURY SKILLS INTO TEACHINGENGLISH: INVESTIGATING ITS EFFECT ON LISTENINGAND SPEAKING SKILLSByHAMID ASHRAF *FATEMEH AHMADI **MANSOOREH HOSSEINNIA **** Assistant Professor, Department of English, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Iran.**-*** Ph.D Scholar, Department of English, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Iran.Date Received: 04/07/2017Date Revised: 15/11/2017Date Accepted: 28/11/2017ABSTRACTstThe present study intended to integrate some 21 century skills teaching into English classroom and investigate theireffect on listening and reading comprehension skills. In so doing, the study used a quantitative, experimental design with55 participants, 25 in the control group and 30 in the experimental group who were students of second high schoolgrade in Birjand with convenience sampling. Final National listening and speaking examination was used as the pretestand posttest. The results of a pretest showed that, the students of the two groups were homogenous with regard to theirproficiency level. Then, they were divided into experimental group who practiced speaking and listening by means of21st century skills, and control group who practiced the same speaking and listening activities with traditional education.After the twelfth session, the participants took a posttest. And, the results of the post-test showed that learning 21st centuryskills have a positive effect on speaking and listening skills.Keywords: 21st Century Skills, Speaking, Listening, Teaching, EFL.INTRODUCTIONdetermined by continual novelty and developmentToday's classrooms are different from the ones the authors(Pearson, 2015). “Teaching and learning in the 21st centuryhave in our memories. The world is being changed. Today'sis filled with challenge and opportunity, especially whenstudents have been changed. They seek some other kindteaching students for whom English is a new language”of relationships with their teacher, classmates, and(ibid, p. 5). Nissim et al. (2016) asserts that the 21st centuryinstruction materials. They learn in different ways. They arelearning setting might be “a process-supporting system”not strange creatures. They belong to their own world andthat establishes a context in which learners learn morethey should be taught for their own age by their owneffective.methods. They are “no longer to be seen as a passiveJacobson-Lundeberg (2016) in his study investigatedreceptacle for knowledge, but instead as an activestudents' perceptions of how intentionally taught 21stparticipant in the construction of knowledge” (Nissim et al.,century skills have transformed their lives. Their findings have2016, p. 29). Students today “will graduate into a worldshown that 21st century skills empowered students for theirwhere the demands of our professional, personal, andfuture job success and also, they increase theirpublic lives grow more complicated every year”confidence, self-efficacy, and credibility. In another study,(“Partnership for 21st century learning”, para. 2). CatorNissim et al. (2016) examined the influence of an(2010, as cited in education week) argues that studentsinnovative technology-supported learning environment ontoday should evolve especial skills for being successful in apre-service student teachers' motivation and 21st centurychanging, interdependent, and complicated universe.skills. Their results revealed a significant effect in the newToday, teaching must satisfy the requirements of a futurelearning environment with 21st century skills.i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Vol. 7 l No. 4 l October - December 201735
RESEARCH PAPERSRegarding the importance of 21st century skills in today'sstthree categories: learning and innovation skills, information,students' lives, this study aims to integrate some 21 centurymedia, and technology skills, as well as life and career skills.skills and investigate their effect on teaching listening and21st centuries skills are one of the most important issuesspeaking in English classrooms.arisen from educators' concern about teaching youth. The1. Research QuestionPartnership for 21st Century Skills has also developed aIn as much as the purposes of the study are to examine theframework for 21st century learning introducing the skills thateffect of 21st century skills on EFL learners' listening andstudents need to thrive in today's global economy. Thespeaking abilities, this study addresses the followingframework developed by P12 is based on a solidquestions:foundation of content knowledge, and supported byQ1: Does the application of 21st century skills have anysignificant effects on the listening skill of Iranian EFLlearners?Q2: Does the application of 21st century skills have anysignificant effects on the speaking skill of Iranian EFLlearners?specific skill, expertise, and literacies necessary for successin personal and professional domains. According toPartnership, every student must be a critical thinker, aproblem solver, an innovator, an effective communicator,a self-directed learner, information and media literate,globally aware and civically engaged, and also financiallyand economically literate.2. Research HypothesesThere are some themes in the instructional activities,The following null hypotheses are proposed:stH01: The application of 21 century skills do not havesignificant effects on the listening skill of Iranian EFL learners.including global awareness, financial, economic business,official literacy, civil literacy, health literacy, andenvironmental literacy (Trilling and Fadel, 2009). Looking atH02: The application of 21 century skills do not havethe Figure 1 below, the “pools” underneath the rainbowsignificant effects on the speaking skill of Iranian EFLconsist of standards and assessments, curriculum andlearners.instruction, professional development, and learningstenvironment.3. Literature ReviewRich (2010, as cited in education week) defines 21stcentury skills as “certain core competencies, such ascollaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, andproblem-solving that advocates believe schools need toAndrade (2016) in his study determined curricularcomponents for learner achievement, just as the flippedclassroom, course redesign, and high impact practices,and links these to self-regulated learning to increase learnerteach to help students thrive in today's world”. 21st-centuryskills are the vital SS 21st-century skills that should beexpanded into instructional organization, such as: 1)“learning and innovation skills”; 2) “information, media, andtechnology skills”; and 3) “life and career skills” (Farisi, 2016).Quieng et al. (2015) argued that the essence of 21st centuryskills is equipping the individuals in future to confront theproblems of real life positions to maintain theadvancement of the world and convert it into an improvedsituation to be alive. They also added that the purpose ofeducating and acquiring in the 21st century is to makestudents competent in “content knowledge, specificabilities, literacy, numeracy, and technology uses” (p. 72).According to Pearson (2013) 21st century skills come into36Figure 1. Partnership for 21st Century (P21)i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Vol. 7 l No. 4 l October - December 2017
RESEARCH PAPERSresponsibility for the achievement of desired higherstcommon real-time listening comprehension problemseducation outcomes as 21 century skills. Farisi (2016)faced by EFL learners and to compare the differencesinvestigated and explained academics evolution toward abetween learners with different listening abilities” (p. 155).commitment and further developments in research; 21st-Their findings showed the reasons of useless low-levelcentury skills map for the SS; and the implications forprocessing and presented awareness to resolve the issuesdeveloping teachers' competences and teachers'of parsing. In addition, their findings showed that expliciteducation curriculum. Suto (2013) in his study has citedinstruction of cognitive and metacognitive strategies issome practical methods of how to develop the 21st centuryrequired if a syllabus aims to assist learners enhance theirskills, including: continue with long-standing methods oflistening comprehension and become more-competentststteaching 21 century skills, develop curricula covering 21at leading their own education. Farhady andcentury skills explicitly, adopt a skills-centered pedagogy inMotallebzadeh (2014) in his study examined the effect ofschools and colleges, nurture 21st century skills through21st century skills on reading comprehension. Their resultsextra-curricular activities, cultivate 21st century skills throughhave shown that 21st century skills have a positive effect onindependent research projects, and develop 21st centuryreading comprehension. Therefore, instead of listeningskills in the workplace (p. 18).and speaking, 21st century skills also have a significantIn another study, Quieng et al. (2015) distinguished theeffect on the reading comprehension. Finally, Ashraf et al.recognized range of “integration of 21st century-based soft(2016) developed and validated a self-reportedskills in the cognitive-laden dentistry curriculum”, andquestionnaire with the aim of evaluating ELT community'sinvestigated the recognized “21 century-based soft skills ofperformance in the 21st century skills. They argued that, “thethe student participants to serve as baseline data for future21st CSQ is then a valid and reliable questionnaire whichresearch”. In their study, they conformed the special resultcan be used for several studies in the area of the new worldstareas of soft skills used in the study of Wilson-Ahlstrom,skills needed to live and work” (p. 15). For us, as EnglishYohalem, DuBois, and Ji (2011), such as “communication,teachers, how can we use 21st century skills in our classroomrelationships and collaboration, critical thinking andand which effect it will have on their language skills? Thisdecision making, and initiative and self-direction”. Theystudy was conducted in order to look into integrating 21stfound that Communication, and relationship andcentury skills into teaching English in Iranian context andcollaboration skills will be vital elements to provoke learners.investigate its effect on speaking and listening skills.Kivunja (2014c) in his article, adapted the work of Kivunja4. Methodology(Kivunja, 2014a and 2014b) and expanded an awareness4.1 Participantsof the new learning paradigm by arguing its Career and LifeSkills (CLS) domain.The participants of this study included 55 female studentsstudying in the second grade of high school at two differentRegarding the effectiveness of other approaches onclasses in Birjand, Khorasan Razavi, Iran. They were dividedteaching speaking and listening, Lino et al. (2016)into control and experimental groups. There were 25examined “the effects of using Video Conferencing (VC) aslearners in the experimental and 30 learners in the controla tool for foreign language instructions in a semester longgroup. The pretest (T1) showed that the two groups wereresearch study”. Their results revealed that “using VC withhomogenous in terms of English language proficiency. Thetasks in a blended manner with classroom instructionfemale teacher of both two groups was alike to eliminatedevelops balanced L2 competence and performance”.all of the probable influence of teacher's character.Also, Jannejad et al. (2012) in an attempt pursued todistinguish the likely “interactions between listeningproficiency and the state of strategic self-awareness”; andto examine “the effects of learned strategies on listeningcomprehension and recall”; and to explain “the most4.2 InstrumentsThe instruments which were utilized in the research are asfollows:Materials used for the treatments – These materialsi-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Vol. 7 l No. 4 l October - December 201737
RESEARCH PAPERSincluded as 21st century skills during teaching speaking andbecause of any problems in interpreting the items, thelistening.teacher provided required explanation. From the secondThe participants in the experimental group were taught bysession on, experimental group was taught by means ofmeans of these instruments while in the classes where the21st century skills. The learners practiced speaking andcontrol group used to attend; there was no trace of theselistening by means of some skills. Thus, the teacher took theskills of any sort at all. The 21 century skills are criticaladvantage of using some kinds of skills in the experimentalthinking and problem solving, communication andgroup. After all, the same teacher taught the control groupcollaboration, interpersonal skills, leadership, andthrough traditional education. They learned the sametechnology literacy. So, these skills were applied duringlistening and speaking exercises without skills. Both groupsstwere required to participate in each session. The teacherspeaking and listening courses.The instruments used for data collection-The instrumentsused for data collection included tests. Final nationallistening and speaking examination conducted as pretests and post-tests. This test is a standardized test designedby national teachers and examiners, drawn from schoolbooks sources (Vision). This is a standardized test that assessconcentrated on teaching critical thinking, collaboration,creativity, and imagination. Some activities wereintegrated into the content supposed to be taught in highschool. Here are some examples of the activities teacherdid in the experiment class:·Criticize your book. Imagine your favorite book. Speakabout it.students' language proficiency of a foreign /secondaryWhat makes you sad and angry at school. Designlanguage and has been implemented as a final exam·once in a year. Its validity and reliability has been checkedsome questions to ask your manager, teachers, andinstitution managers.by top Iranian national examiners. Also, the aim of the visioncourse books is combining effective communicativemethodology to give students the language andconfidence they need to communicate accurately andfluently in English that corresponds closely with the aims ofthe teaching program and with the needs of the learners.·Give solutions to those problems.·Compare your solutions with your friends.·Give group solutions.·Discuss about a social problem. How your classmatessee it? Give solutions.4.3 DesignPre-test, post-test design with control group from theexperimental research design, one of the quantitativeresearch designs was used during the study. This designconsists of two groups – the control group and the·Imagine your future life, imagine your job, husband,home, car, what will you do to receive it? (ask help fromyour friends) .Some of the activities were given to students to think about,experimental group. Each group is subjected to pre-write or speak about it the next session and some wereexperimental and post-experimental measurements. Indone in class. Some of the activities were done as the corethis design, the pre-test and post-test results are used inof one session teaching and some others were done in tenorder to decide on the effectiveness of the independentor 15 minutes at the end of the class.variable.Then in the next stage of the study, in order to investigate the4.4 Procedureprobable influence of treatment on students, final nationalThe study was done in autumn term 2016 for 12 sessions. Toensure that the students of both groups were homogenizedon the part of language proficiency, two groups werelistening and speaking examination were given to studentson the twelfth session.5. Data Analysis and Resultstested by final national listening and speaking examinationQ1: Is there any significant difference between the listeningas pre-test on the first session. Each student had 90 minutesscores of the group instructed with 21st century skillsto answer all of the items. If they required any clarification(experimental group) and the group instructed with38i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, Vol. 7 l No. 4 l October - December 2017
RESEARCH PAPERStraditional way of teaching (control group)?both groups is low. This low standard deviation indicatesH01: There is no significant difference between the listeningthat the data points tend to be close to the mean in bothscores of the experimental group and control group.groups.Firstly, to check the normality of data distribution, theAs it can be seen in Table 3, results of the t-test indicatedKolmogorov-Smirnov test was utilized. Table 1 presents thethat there was a significant difference between the meanresults of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for pre-test and post-scores of the control and experimental groups in post-testtests of the groups. As it can be seen, the obtained sig valuebecause: p-value 0.021 α 0.05. Because meanfor both tests is higher than 0.05. Therefore, it can safely bescore of experimental group is higher than mean score ofconcluded that the data is normally distributed across thecontrol group, it can be said that teaching 21st century skillsvariables.has effect on increasing listening scores.To examine the pre-existing differences between theQ2: Is there any significant difference between thestudents' listening ability level in the two groups, anspeaking scores of the group instructed with 21st centuryindependent sample t-test was performed between theskills (experimental group) and the group instructed withmean scores of control and experimental groups in pre-traditional way of teaching (control group)?test. Simply put, the t-test aimed at looking for anyH02: there is no significant difference between thesignificant difference between the two groups in relation tospeaking scores of the experimental group and controltheir level of listening ability. When the variances of thesegroup.scores in both groups, were equal, the amount of p-valueTable 4 presents the results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov testwas higher than 0.05. It means: For pre-test, p-value for pre-test and post-tests of the groups. As it can be seen in0.441 α 0.05. It shows that with confidence interval ofTable 4, the results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for pre-difference of 95%, there is no significant differencetest and post-tests of speaking score indicated that thebetween the mean scores of the control and experimentalobtained sig value for both tests is higher than 0.05.groups. It means that students of control and experimentalTherefore, it can safely be concluded that the data isgroups are homogenous on the part of their listening ability.normally distributed across the tests.To answer the first research question, after the treatmentTo examine the pre-existing differences between theand at the end of the term, an independent samples t-teststudents' speaking ability level in the two groups, anwas performed between the mean scores of the post-testsindependent sample t-test was performed between theof the two groups. Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics ofmean scores of control and experimental groups in pre-each group in listening post-tests.test. The results of t-test showed that there is no significantAs Table 2 shows, the mean score of the learners of controldifference between the mean scores of the control andgroup (10.70) in post-test is lower than experimental groupexperimental groups in speaking test (P 0.566, t -2.75). It(12.25) in post-test. In addition, their standard deviation inmeans that students of control and experimental groupsKolmogorov-SmirnovaStatisticdfSig.Pre-test listening0.8540.45Post-test listening0.8240.50t-test for Equalityof MeansSig.tdfMeanDifferenceStd. ErrorDifferencelistening Post-test0.021-3.61138-3.8001.005Table 3. Independent Samples t-test for Listening Post-testsTable 1. The Results of K-S TestKolmogorov-SmirnovaMeanStd. DeviationExperimental Group12.252.29Control Group10.701.94Table
21st century skills on reading comprehension. Their results have shown that 21st century skills have a positive effect on reading comprehension. Therefore, instead of listening and speaking, 21st century skills also have a significant effect on the reading comprehension. Finally, Ash
To understand the 21st Century Life and Career Standards To gain knowledge in the Framework for 21st Century Inter-disciplinary themes To develop skills in planning cross-curricular activities related to the 21st Century skills To learn practical strategies in how to infuse 21st Century skills
“21st century skills” and “college and career readiness” have recently become watchwords in education. The Partnership for 21st century skills advocates adoption of local, state, and federal policies that support explicit integration of 21st century skills into instruction for all students (P21, 2009).
concept “21st OR twenty-first century skills”, this has, also, been searched through the terms: “21st OR twenty-first century competencies”, “21st OR twenty-first century literacy”, “21st OR twenty-first century learn*”. The search action returned 116 results. The references sections of these texts were
World Languages and 21st Century Skills. This map provides educators, administrators and policymakers with concrete examples of how 21st Century Skills can be integrated into core subjects. This 21st Century Skills Map is the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation.
with the definition, demand and delivery of 21st Century Skills, with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In looking at definitions of ‘21st Century Skills’, Section 2 of this study finds that there is a broad range of available literature discussing 21st Century Skills, including a number of key synthesis studies.
districts or state departments of education implementing 21st century skills now rely on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ list or some variation of it, though there are exceptions. We also identified one up-and-coming list, the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) initiative, sponsored by Microsoft and Cisco Systems.
have used 21st century skills to evaluate their courses and textbooks. This study looks at the extent to the EFL Palestine textbook (English for Palestine, 12th Grade) incorporate the competencies and meet the 21st century skills. Most educational institutions are moving toward 21st century s
Zrunners-repeaters-strangers-aliens [ (RRSA) (Parnaby, 1988; Aitken et al., 2003). This model segments inputs of demand from customers (in this case, the requests from researchers for data cleared for publication) and uses the different characteristics of those segments to develop optimal operational responses. Using this framework, we contrast how the rules-based and principles-based .
