Interconnected development of intercultural competence and soft skills through tasks in foreign language education at a university

Abstract

Introduction. The formation of universal competences (flexible skills) is an imperative of the modern education system, while foreign language proficiency is one of the key competences of a modern specialist. A foreign language as a subject has great potential for the interconnected development of both subject and meta-subject, universal competences. The research purpose is to analyze the textbooks and online courses that are actively used by university teachers and evaluate the structure of tasks used and their potential for the interconnected formation of intercultural competence and soft skills. Methodology and methods. Twenty-one teachers of Petrozavodsk State University took part in the survey. Criteria based on the framework of intercultural competence and soft skills were developed to evaluate learning materials. Based on the proposed criteria, six groups of tasks were identified that contribute to the interconnected development of intercultural competence and flexible skills (culturological materials; tasks for critical thinking development; tasks for information analysis and interpretation; tasks based on students’ experience; tasks for generating one’s own ideas and products; tasks for the interaction (in pairs, groups) and creation of a joint product). Results. The study showed that 85.7% of foreign language teachers of Petrozavodsk State University (Russian Federation) agree that the development of intercultural competence and soft skills is possible and necessary. However, only 42.1% of the respondents are satisfied with the quantity and quality of tasks offered in textbooks. Moreover, all respondents use additional tasks and 95.2% do it regularly or often. The analysis of the textbooks confirmed that the respondents have reason to be dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of tasks. Only 19%-25% of the tasks offered in textbooks and/or online courses can be used to develop universal competences and intercultural competence. A more detailed analysis of the tasks revealed that the least presented were tasks for creating one's own product (individually) and group tasks for creating a group product. Conclusion. The results obtained allowed to develop a classification of tasks to be used in foreign language classes at a university for the interconnected development of subject and meta-subject competences. The formulations of tasks for achieving integrated results in foreign language education were proposed.