Meeting Employers’ Needs: Examining Soft Skills as Part of Curriculum in English Language Arts Classrooms

Wooderson, Clinton

Meeting Employers’ Needs: Examining Soft Skills as Part of Curriculum in English Language Arts Classrooms

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分析

Employers are indicating that students that have just graduated from high school are not prepared with adequate soft skills. High school teachers are burdened with the task to make students college and career ready. While “soft skills” is a broad term, some of its concepts can be found in the English curriculum. The speaking and listening objectives in the English curriculum are not tested on a standardized scale. This lack of testing could produce a narrowing effect that limits the amount of time spent teaching the speaking and listening content. Other potential barriers to teaching the speaking and listening skills include technology and a lack of training for teachers during their undergraduate studies. This study examined the implementation of reading and writing skills along with speaking and listening skills in English II classrooms in the state of Missouri. English II teachers were the focus of the survey due to the curriculum that they are responsible for teaching being subjected to a standardized test known as the End of Course exam. This standardized test only assesses reading and writing skills, but not speaking and listening skills. A Pearson’s r was used to determine the relationship between time spent teaching the assessed objectives of reading and writing and the nonassessed objectives of speaking and listening. A Pearson’s r was also used to determine the relationship between the time spent teaching speaking and listening skills and the potential barriers. Speaking and listening skills were not found to be taught in relation to the reading and writing skills. Although a discrepancy was found, the studied barriers of test preparation typologies, perceptions of standardized assessment, technology, and undergraduate training were not found to be the barriers that limit the soft skills implementation. More research is needed to better understand the inconsistencies.

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