Soft skills are critical in all jobs, and yes, they absolutely can be taught. Discover practical strategies and ready-to-use language for weaving communication, critical thinking, and self-management into your beginning and intermediate ESL classes
About This Session
Description
There’s a lot of talk about the importance that employers place on soft skills in the workplace, including clear and effective communication, critical thinking, and self-management.
The question for beginning and intermediate English language teachers is how to explicitly teach these skills in ESL classes?
This session will introduce the concept of soft skills in the classroom, provide concrete language and activities for discussing and practicing them with learners, and language that learners can use in job interviews to share their abilities.
What we'll cover:
In this workshop, we’ll unpack some of the essential soft skills that English language learners need to be successful in the workplace, keeping in mind that for many learners, this means transferring or adapting skills that they’ve developed in their home languages and cultures and used successfully for years. We’ll find ways to apply and strengthen existing skills, and develop ones that are specific to US workplace culture.
In this session, we will explore concrete activities for incorporating critical thinking into beginning and intermediate classes, discuss how to improve learning and self-management strategies for success in the US, and try out effective communication activities that will help learners shine in the workplace.
Topics & Focus
Primary Topic Area
Session will also cover:
Assigned by TCALL
Pending
Audience
Level
Case study?
Promotion?
A note from the presenter:
No other info available at this time.
Handouts & Materials
No handouts or materials available at this time.
“Name of Session” – session presentation slides (PDF)
Name of Document – lesson sample (PDF)
Name of Document (PDF)
Name of Document – infographic (JPG)
Presenter
Andrea Echelberger
LESLLA
Andrea Echelberger has worked in the field of adult education as a classroom teacher and an instructional trainer for over 20 years, providing training and support for English language teachers on both a state and national level.
Andrea has worked extensively with refugee-background adult emergent readers, served as an EL Fellow and EL Specialist with the US State Department, and has developed a wide variety of workshops and classroom instructional materials for ABE teachers of all levels. She served for three years on the international board of LESLLA, an organization that focuses on adult emergent readers. Andrea’s favorite areas of research are universal design for classrooms, healing-centered classroom practices, and pronunciation instruction.
Breakout26 – ECHELBERGER
Page checked or updated: 6/10/2026
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