Five Tips for Developing Students' Communication Skills and Intercultural Skills

Perhaps you know that your students will use English to interact and build relationships with people from around the world and you already know that they will need skills that go beyond producing accurate vocabulary and perfectly grammatical sentences. And perhaps you are not sure how best to help students develop these skills in the language classroom. “I can teach grammar very well but I’m not an expert in communication skills and intercultural skills” or “I just get students to work in groups and hope that they accidentally pick up these skills” are some things I’ve heard teachers say.

But developing communication skills and intercultural skills does not have to be accidental and you might just have more expertise to do this than you realize. In this session, we'll look at five simple things you can do to help students master these crucial soft skills in a systematic way and prepare them for international communication, using examples from the Voices program.

Chia Suan Chong is a writer, communication skills trainer and teacher trainer. She is the author of Successful International Communication, where she presented her ADAPT model as a framework for dealing with intercultural conflict. Delivering both online and face-to-face training to teachers and learners around the globe, Chia specializes in interactive workshops that encourage reflection for more effective international communication and improved collaboration. Currently based in York, Chia was English Teaching Professional’s award-winning resident blogger between 2012 and 2019. Chia has contributed extensively to the British Council Learn English website and holds a DELTA and a Masters in Applied Linguistics and ELT. She is a co-author for National Geographic Learning’s integrated skills series Voices, for young adult learners and adult learners of English.