Formation of soft skills of generation alpha students in English lessons in primary school

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of forming soft skills in modern primary school children, representatives of Generation Alpha, during English lessons. Scientific research on the outlined problem is analyzed. The essence and structure of soft skills as a subsystem of life skills are clarified, and their list is presented in the context of the State Standard of Primary Education. Their role for successful self-realization of an individual in accordance with modern educational demands and social expectations is determined. The relevance of developing soft skills in the new generation of students, whom scientists call Generation Alpha, is emphasized. Characteristic features of the new generation of primary school students that influence their learning and cognitive activity (clip thinking, reduced attention span, problems with long-term memory, insufficient development of fine motor skills, orientation towards multitasking, deterioration of analytical and synthetic activities, insufficient formation of speech skills and abilities, pragmatism, emotional poverty, etc.) are outlined. This requires updating approaches to organizing the educational process, selecting effective methods and forms of developing soft skills in representatives of the new generation. It is proven that English lessons in primary school have significant didactic potential for the purposeful development of soft skills, as they are characterized by the communicative orientation of the subject; correspondence to the cognitive and psycho-pedagogical features of Generation Alpha students; opportunities for modeling real-life situations, forming intercultural competence, tolerance, respect for otherness, empathy, and social responsibility, etc. Methods, techniques, and forms of organizing students' learning activities in English lessons that contribute to the development of soft skills are proposed. Pedagogical conditions for the effective development of soft skills in Generation Alpha students in the process of learning English are formulated.