Based on to the decree of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, one of the main goals of the modern education system is to bring up an individual who is fluent in a foreign language, globally competitive, and has interpersonal skills. To be globally competitive, students must constantly improve their soft skills. Because hard skills contribute to only 15 % of one's success while the remaining 85 % is made by soft skills. The Communicative Approach is based on the idea that learning a language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. Thus, this study aims to identify teachers’ attitudes towards using a communicative approach in improving students’ soft skills in English classes. This research study used a mixed-method qualitative and quantitative. To explore data, questionnaires were conducted with university teachers. The respondents were 30 university tutors. They were asked about their attitudes towards using the communicative approach in the English classroom and its benefits and about soft skills that they focus on in CLT. The study results revealed that activities of communicative approach such as debate, role-play and problem-solving tasks significantly increase the students' communication skills and critical thinking.
Keywords: English language, soft skills, communicative approach, university teachers, communication skills, critical thinking.
На основании постановления Министерства образования и науки Республики Казахстан одной из основных целей современной системы образования является воспитание личности, свободно владеющей иностранным языком, конкурентоспособной на мировом уровне и обладающей навыками межличностного общения. Чтобы быть конкурентоспособными на глобальном уровне, студенты должны постоянно улучшать свои социальные навыки. Потому что жесткие навыки составляют только 15 % успеха, а остальные 85 % составляют гибкие навыки. Коммуникативный подход основан на идее о том, что успешное изучение языка достигается путем коммуникации. Таким образом, основной целью данного исследования является выявление отношения учителей к использованию коммуникативного подхода в улучшении гибких навыков учащихся на уроках английского языка. В данном исследовании использовался смешанный метод, как качественный, так и количественный. Для изучения данных были проведены опросы преподавателей вузов. Респондентами выступили 30 преподавателей вузов. Их спросили об их отношении к использованию коммуникативного подхода на уроках английского языка и его преимуществах, а также о гибких навыках, на которых они сосредоточены в CLT. Результаты исследования показали, что методы коммуникативного подхода, такие как дебаты, ролевые игры и задачи по решению проблем, значительно повышают коммуникативные навыки и критическое мышление студентов.
Ключевые слова: английский язык, гибкие навыки, коммуникативный подход, преподаватели университета, коммуникативные навыки, критическое мышление.
Introduction
What are the soft skills?
Soft skills refer to the broad set of skills, competencies, attitudes, and personality traits that enable people to communicate with others, perform well, and achieve their goals [1]. Soft skills sometimes referred to as transferable or interpersonal skills. These skills are broadly applicable.
Why are they important?
Almost any interaction with other people requires a certain level of interpersonal skills. In a company, you may conclude a new contract, share your idea with other students in the class, and organize your time to meet deadlines. We use social skills every day, so improving them will increase your chances of success, no matter what you do. What's more, business leaders and academic research show that social skills now play a critical role in helping you stand out from the crowd and advance your career. Many universities set up as a goal to develop their students' social skills and this program become as an integral part of their curriculum.
The second chapter of the decree of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated October 31, 2018 № 604 «On approval of state compulsory education standards for all levels of education» emphasizes the importance of developing soft skills in students. In particular, the development of communicative, cognitive, creative, teamwork and critical thinking skills, as well as the formation of spiritual and moral skills based on human values in the «Spiritual Revival» program [2]. In other words, one of the main objective of the modern education system is to bring up an individual who is fluent in a foreign language, globally competitive and has interpersonal skills. To be globally competitive, students must constantly improve their soft skills.
The purpose of this study is to identify teacher’s attitude the effectiveness of the communicative approach used to develop soft skills in teaching English.
This research paper tries to find answers to the following questions:
- What are the attitudes of university teachers using communicative method in English classes?
- What soft skills do university tutors focus on in teaching process?
- How does using communicative approach in English classes affect the process of fostering soft skills?
Literature review
1.2 Soft skills
Over the past ten years, the phrase «soft skills» has been thrown into public discussion in the media, educational organizations and various forums. Evidence of this is the number of articles published on the Google Scholar platform within this topic. To date, about 3600 articles have been published there [3]. Jaap Scheerens and Greetje van der Werf stated that soft skills also called as “social and emotional skills” [4]. But, Boyce and Berrie presented soft skills as generic or pervasive skills, which could be developed independently from a specific field of study because they are not subject specific [5]. Weber defined soft skills as the interpersonal, human, people or behavioural skills needed to apply technical skills and knowledge in the workplace [6]. The list of some soft skills that employers are looking for include communication (writing and public speaking), listening, time management, collaboration and team work, leadership, etiquette, and problem solving [7]. Based on Google definition, soft skills refer to the cluster of personality traits, social graces, and facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that mark people to varying degrees. Soft skills complement hard skills, which are the technical requirements of a job. And there is also noted the most important soft skills as communication skills, critical and structured thinking, problem solving skills, creativity, teamwork capability, self-management, time management, conflict management, cultural awareness, responsibility, sociability, work ethic, project management and business management [8].
Hard skills contribute to only 15 % of ones success while remaining 85 % is made by soft skill [9,13]. This theory is the result of an experiment made 100 years ago. In 1918 Charles Riborg Mann conducted a survey with 1500 engineers. This survey conducted with college graduates from several large manufacturing companies. In his survey Mann tried to find the answer to the question “What is more important at work? Soft skills or fundamental knowledge?”. And the results of the study showed, that interpersonal skills such as principles, resourcefulness, initiative, tact, thoroughness, accuracy, efficiency are crucial for the success. As a proof, while questionnaire, respondents mentioned seven times their social skills rather than their engineering knowledge as their success at work. Then a second questionnaire with the result of the first survey was sent to thirty thousand members of four major engineering societies. Each participant was asked to rank six groups of qualities—character, judgment, efficiency, understanding people, knowledge, and technique in order of importance in assessing the causes of engineering success. More than seven thousand engineers responded from thirty thousand and their votes placed “character” at the top of the list with a 94.5 % majority, while “tech” was at the bottom of the list with a similarly decisive majority. Mann concludes that the best engineering education curriculum cannot focus solely on the mind or on research in the natural sciences. It should include extensive training in soft skills that are associated with engineering success [9].
1.2 Communicative approach
The Communicative Language Teaching or Communicative Approach was introduced into Taiwan in the late 1970s. Fostering the communicative competence is its central goal. “Communicative Language Teaching stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use English for communicative purposes and attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching” [10]. According to this approach, teaching and learning are for communication. Learning in order to communicate is now commonplace [11]. Activities of CLT practices are games, role-play and problem-solving tasks which stresses much on production of the target language. The main elements of Communicative Approach usually appear as three steps in classroom teaching: 1) presentation 2) practices 3) production. One of the effective practice is role-play, which emphasizes much on the comprehensively performance of the target language. According to Feng Liu & Yun Ding research, using these three steps of CLT, identified 70 % of students applied the new vocabulary freely during the procedure. And it gave enough flexibility for students to use language in different life situations [14]. It means, this activity of communicative approach improves students’ usage of L2 in different real situations, as its aim of CLT.
Methodology
3.1 Participants
Achieving the main aim of this study, an invitation to participate in the study was sent to 40 teachers of International Kazakh-Turkish University. From this amount 30 teachers were engaged to be the participants of the current research. 61,5 % of respondents were master teachers, 38,5 % were phd doctors.
3.2 Materials
The participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire that focused on identifying their attitudes towards using communicative approaches in improving soft skills in English classes and its benefits. The survey was built on Google form and link sent via WhatsApp with consent letter.
3.3 Data analysis
The survey was confidential and it divided into two sections. The first section described information leaflet about survey and academic degree of teachers. In the second section participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire that focused on soft skills of students and identifying their attitudes towards using communicative approaches in improving soft skills of students in English classes.
The target of the questionnaire was:
— recognize teachers’ attitudes toward using communicative approaches in English classes
— identify the soft skills that university teachers focus on in teaching process
— determine the effects of communicative approaches that teachers use in English classes in the process of fostering soft skills of students.
The research was made as a descriptive research. It has two variables. An independent variable was the use of communicative approaches in improving soft skills, a dependent variable was the attitudes of university teachers. The present research aimed to identify the attitudes of university teachers towards using communicative approaches in improving soft skills of students in English classes. There were not conducted any experiments, so, there are no pre- and post-tests. To conduct this research were used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. There were used questionnaires as a part of both qualitative and quantitative data. The researcher used qualitative data collection: to gather information about the usage of communicative approach in English classes, to identify functions of communicative approaches; and quantitative data collection: to identify teachers attitudes towards using communicative approaches and effects of using this approach to the process of improving soft skills of students in English classes.
Results and discussion
The first section of questionnaire described the academic degree of participants. So, 61,5 % of respondents were master teachers, 38,5 % were phd doctors. The first question of the second questionnaire section was statement question: “If students will not train soft skills at the University, it will take them later long years and life experience to learn these skills in practice. Do you agree?” and also in this chart shown their opinions to this idea. 10 of respondents “disagree” with this statement, most of them noted that it depends on students’ creativity, personal qualities and easily be trained in work experience. 7 university teachers chose “partially agree” section, from their point of view, it will be, if learners are not accustomed to reading. It is known that reading is one of means of developing critical thinking, which is the main important skill of the soft skills. 12 of respondents answered that they “agree” with this statement, without any comment. Just 1 teacher answered that he “strongly agree” with this approval, and in his answer he mentioned: “Yes, I strongly agree with this, as the time students spend at university should be meaningful and beneficial. Because, most of the soft skills can be learnt there, so every student should use that time effectively. For example, team working, time management, critical and creative thinking, all of them can be acquired by a lot of practice, through active learning. So, it will definitely be troublesome for students, if they don't thoroughly get practiced these skills.”
The next question of convey about teachers’ focus on improving soft skills of students in English classes. The questionnaire diagram shows that 100 % of teachers who participated in convey focused on improving soft skills of their students in English classes. In question 3 teachers were asked to choose the most important soft skills that they focus on enhancing in their classes. It was a multiple-choice question. And their answers are shown in the Figure 1.
Fig. 1. Soft skills which teachers focus on enhancing in their classes
As Figure1 demonstrates most teachers chose Communication skills (93 %) and Critical thinking (77 %) as the top soft skills and in their classes they try to enhance these skills in students. Teamwork (40 %) and Problem-solving skills (37 %) replaced to the second place as soft skills that teachers focus on in their teaching process. Respondents didn’t find time-management and effective planning (30 %), also information perception and analysis (23 %) as important as communication skills.
According to Google’s study about most important qualities of its top employees in 2013, seven top characteristics of Google employer’s success are identified: being a good coach, communicating, being a good critical thinker and problem solver, having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues and being able to make connections across complex ideas. This study of Google concur with survey of 260 employers which conducted by national Association of Colleges And Employers, that included companies like Chevron and IBM, also ranks communication skills in the top three qualities. Moreover, according to study, which organized by Turiba University from Latvia, University of Genoa from Italy, Mykolas Romeris University from Lithuania, University of Graz from Austria, Jagiellonian University from Poland and Netherlands Business Academy in March 2020, “Survey about soft skills of the students”, where 340 students from 6 countries took part, students mentioned Communication (23 %) and Critical thinking (19 %) as most important soft skills. By analyzing these several related researches to author’s study, we can define that communication skill and critical thinking are the most important skills which students should improve [12].
Next question of questionnaire was about using communicative approach in teaching process, and based on convey response, 100 % of respondents used CLT. In question 4 teachers were asked about materials and activities that they use in CLT. In this chart respondents give different answers. Based on this question, such as answers were found: “role play, debate, eliciting, problem solving tasks activities and task-based learning, problem based learning methods”; “dialogue, teamwork, role plays”; “materials which help to develop professional, communicative, creative competence”; “authentic materials and all activities for enhancing speaking skill” and “All the speaking activities are considered to be the communicative approach. So, first of all, we need to improve students' speaking skills first. Of course, there are many other ways to improve communication skills, but the most straightforward way is the activities we use to improve speaking skills. To do so, we have to pay more attention to each student, that is, each student has their own weak and strong sides, so by closely observing them we can choose the right techniques to implement during the class. Second of all, we have to lessen students' hesitation and help them build up their self-confidence, so that they can be more confident and fluent while speaking. Useful activities can be group discussions, team working, debates, role play, games etc.” too.
As we know, the central goal of Communicative approach or Communicative Language Teaching is to give a chance to the students to communicate in the target language. And activities which are used in CLT approaches such as debate, project-works, problem-solving tasks, role plays, and games make learning enjoyable. The last question of the researcher's survey, which has aim to find out teachers’ attitude towards using this approach in the development of students' soft skills, is also based on this theory. In this question teachers chose the activities of communicative approach which they use to develop communication skills of students. As Figure 2 demonstrates, debate is chosen by 28 teachers (93,3 %), role-plays by 23 teachers (76,7 %) and problem-solving tasks by 21 respondents (70 %).
According to the International Debate Education Association, “Debate is, above all, a way for those who hold opposing views to discuss controversial issues without descending to insult, emotional appeals or personal bias. And role-play is an effective technique to animate the teaching and learning atmosphere, arouse the interests of learners, and make the language acquisition impressive. Problem-solving skills are necessary for all areas of life, and classroom problem-solving activities can be a great way to get students prepped and ready to solve real problems in real-life scenarios. Whether in school, work, or in their social relationships, the ability to critically analyze a problem, map out all its elements, and then prepare a workable solution is one of the most valuable skills one can acquire in life. From teachers point of view who took part in convey, debate, role-play and problem-solving tasks are the best activities of communicative approach for improving communication skills of students.
Fig. 2. Activities of CLT which teachers use to develop communication skills of student
Conclusion
Hymes proposes that language should be taught in communicative situations in order for learners to achieve communicative competence. Learners should not only be equipped with language knowledge, but also be capable of appropriately using the foreign language in various situations [11].
This research paper was focused on attitudes of university teachers towards using communicative approach in enhacing soft skills in English classess and it's benefits. Based on the results and discussions of the study it is shown that all teachers who took part in convey had support the idea to use it and have a positive view. Moreover, the research is aimed to identify the effectiveness of CLT by teachers' experience by years in improving soft skills of students. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of this study, it can be concluded that, methods of CLT such as debate, role-plays, problem-solving tasks improve students' communication skills and critical thinking. By using these methods of communicative approach students will be more flexible using L2 and making a right decisions in different life situations. Communication skills and critical thinking are the top soft skills in today’s society. These skills helps to students be more successful in study, moreover at workplace.
According to this study, findings are unique for each tutor's style of teaching and methods that they use. However, in this research participated just 30 teachers from one university, for that reason, further studies should take into account to expand the number of participants and include more and various universities, in order to give to the research data from different perspectives.
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