Incorporating 21st Century Skills into Business English Instruction

Abstract

This study evaluates the efficacy of incorporating six 21st century skills (i.e._x000D_ leadership, communication, teamwork, problem solving, analytical thinking, and time_x000D_ management) into Business English instruction via project-based assignments in an EFL context. The purpose is to investigate the effects of such an approach on students’ acquisition of business English knowledge and their development of the six_x000D_ skills. The subjects were 68 students taking the elective Business English course in a private university in central Taiwan. While both groups received the same classroom instruction, the experimental group did the project-based assignments demanding heavy use of the six 21st century skills, whereas the control group did the_x000D_ traditional instruction-based assignments requiring little use of the skills. A pretest_x000D_ and a posttest were administered to gauge students’ progress on the content area knowledge. Two surveys were also conducted and five reflective journal entries submitted to measure the effectiveness of the approach. The quantitative results showed that the project-based assignments did not significantly affect students’ acquisition of the content area knowledge or the development of the six skills in either positive or negative way. However, the qualitative results demonstrated that such an_x000D_ approach could foster students’ six 21st century skills and improve their employability in the future.