TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND INCORPORATION OF THE 21 ST CENTURY SKILLS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

The 21 st century skills, also known as 4Cs, are considered key skills that
learners need to acquire and master throughout their education since they are expected to
empower and help them thrive and succeed in profession and career. These skills are gradually
and increasingly covered in foreign language teaching and learning materials, such as language
learning textbooks, and they are meant to be mastered along with standard language skills.
However, since language teachers may lack sufficient education and training on these skills
and ways they are incorporated in language teaching (Halvorsen, 2018), this study aimed to
investigate and explore language teachers’ awareness and knowledge of the 21 st century skills
as well as to investigate whether teacher professional development in the area is needed.
The study adopted a survey research design while a questionnaire was utilized as a data
collection instrument. Participants included high school teachers working in public schools
in North Macedonia. The findings suggest that teachers in general have some knowledge and
confidence in teaching 21st century skills, but further professional development is necessary
to ensure the skills are fully integrated into language instruction.