Soft Skills for becoming a Global Educator

Topic; Communication skills & approaches to bridge the language gap in

students

What are communication skills & how can they help students in their current
lives, career and workplace? Question for the audience (slide 1 )

After few responses from the audience, I will begin…

 Mutual interaction among two or more individuals is termed

as ‘Communication’. 
 Existence of life becomes impossible without Communication & mutual
understanding. 
 When it comes to making sure that things are getting in the right way & are
successively moving forward, good communication skills are a building
block.
 So, are you students doing the things in the right way?
 Our students need to communicate with different people in different ways,
and for this, students must be aware of the appropriate form of
communication
 Therefore, it is really necessary to work on students’ communication skills,
whether verbal or written
 There will be examples and practical ideas in the workshop that you may
use in your classrooms which will help your students develop their
communication skills.

Question for the audience which will appear on the slide.

 What, why, when & to whom do your students communicate?

 What are the ways/forms of communication? (SLIDE 2)

After a few responses from the audience, a short ppt will be shown on

Forms of Communication (SLIDE 3-13)

 WHY SHOULD WE TEACH COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN THE ELT CLASSROOM?
(SLIDE 14)

 Obviously, you are already teaching them & Communication is bigger

than language. And I think, If we want students to be able to make the
most of the language they have and to use it really effectively and
appropriately , then we do need to be thinking bigger than just language
and we need to be thinking about teaching them to communicate in a
broader kind of way.
 Let me give you some examples: these are examples of messages of
English teachers to another teacher but they are communicating for the
first time, I would like you to say if each one is an example of good or
poor communication.
 Two messages will be shown on the slide & audience shall be asked their
views on them. (SLIDE 15)
 Now, these are examples of messages, email from students at university
to their university tutor or lecturer.
 A slide will be shown. (SLIDE 16)
 So do you think these are appropriate?
 Of course, it is not appropriate way for communicating with your
university professor because it is too informal and because of the
situation too, as you are emailing to apologize for not being able to come.
So In that context, it is not just about the relationship between the
teacher & the student. It is about the fact that they are apologizing so it
should be more formal & polite.

Introducing approaches to bridge the language gap

 English now is in a ‘post linguistic’ era therefore , it is necessary for the
educators to reflect the Approaches, which go hand in hand with how
English is currently being used, and how it can also be integrated in
classrooms. Language is a barrier in students’ success and therefore
Teachers and researchers should go beyond the traditional approach which
can be called the ‘native language approach’ to rethink new ways of
teaching.
 A question for the audience shall be appeared on the screen.
 What are the new approaches of teaching and do you use them? (SLIDE-17)
 Are they benefitting you?

 Bridging the Language Gap With Emergent Technologies

 The use of technology in language instruction revolutionized the way and
the feel education was provided. Several modes help students with their
language gap. Nowadays, emergent technologies including the Web 2.0,
gamification and game-based learning, and immersive technologies has
taken language education by storm benefitting and bridging the language
gap.
 A slide will be shown with few online games link. (SLIDE 18)
 The use of technology provides learners with valuable language learning
experiences and contributes tremendously to the development of
personality factors like self-esteem, risk taking, and motivation.
 Recently, smartphones have given the teaching and learning process an
effective way to combat the language gap due to the variety of applications
they provide for language learning and their affordability. Most people
might think that the use of these emergent technologies in the classroom is
only for those who can afford it but that is not the case. These technologies
are affordable and most come with free versions giving the chance to the
educator to create and explore potential opportunities to bridge the
language gap by using of them.
 Making Language Learning More Inclusive:
Introducing Rubrics to Adult Students to Improve Written
Performance
 Writing is a component where even adult students lack and therefore we
need to make language more inclusive by introducing Rubrics to improve
written performance.
 There is a need to find strategies to bridge the language gap among adult
language learners. In that sense, this study aims to raise awareness on the
impact of the use and explanation of rubrics in the adult learner’s writing
performance. It intends to answer the following questions:
 (i) Would the explanation of rubrics have a positive influence on student’s
post writing test?
  (ii) Explaining assessment instruments can help in making language
learning more inclusive by lessening adult students’ anxiety during their
performance?
 Rubrics are becoming a frequent tool for the assessment of communicative
skills. As opposed to traditional tools of evaluation, which normally
measured the memory ability and cognitive skills of the learner, rubrics are
assessment tools which measure learners’ performance in a standardized
way.
 A SLIDE ON RUBRIC (SLIDE 19)

Social Media Support and Online Resources

 The use of digital technologies has transformed autonomous language
learning, and nowadays there are umpteen online resources and spaces
with an enormous potential for learning. Practices and methodologies are
continuously evolving with the emergence of social media and instant
communications in a firmly interconnected, multilingual, intercultural and
social World Wide Web. For learners, the use of educational technology is a
factor that fosters their motivation, especially as it enhances autonomous
learning, interaction and collaboration, and it may easily accommodate
multiple learning styles.
 Do you use any online sites for your students?
 A slide will be shown with online links and resources. (SLIDE 20)
The Spelling Gap in English:
 Apart from listening and speaking which can take place either in a face-to-
face speech act situation or in a telephone conversation (with great
distances between), reading and writing are essential for effective
communication in a world of great distances between people who need to
share ideas, with the advantage of writing over speaking being that ideas
can more adequately be coordinated, given the possibility of editing.
 In other words, all four essential language skills are to be taken seriously.
 We hear a lot about how children from low-income families often enter
school with a ‘word gap,’ meaning they have heard and know[n] fewer
words than their more affluent peers, a reality that puts them at a
disadvantage from the very beginning of their education.” In the case of
reading and writing, therefore, appropriate spelling is required, other
aspects of writing aside. Users of English around the world generally agree
that appropriate spelling is important for appropriate written
communication and/or correspondence. Poor spelling typically reflects a
lack of writing skills