Exploring The Relationship Between 21st Century Skills And Uncertainty Management Skills Of Efl Learners

Abstract

21st century’s arrival has made important changes and necessitated the competency in new skills for everyone. In order to equip the students with 21st century skills, foreign language curriculum has been adjusted in the recent years. These skills have also caused a major uncertainty among the learners and teachers. Uncertain situations in foreign language classrooms may be interpreted differently by some students and sometimes these interpretations may be positive or negative. Emotions caused as a result of uncertain situations can support or hinder the language learning process and the development of 21st century skills unless they are managed properly. The goal of this study was to investigate relationship between the skill levels of 21st century and uncertainty management levels of high school foreign language learners in a school located in southeast region of Turkey. The data was collected with the application of two separate surveys and analyzed through descriptive, inferential and correlational tests. The results of these tests indicated that age is one of the key factors to determine the students’ levels of 21st century skills and uncertainty management. It was also revealed that gender was not a determining factor in the students’ 21st century skills. However, it affected the uncertainty management levels and frequency of the students managing their experiences of uncertainty greatly. The study also shed light upon the link between 21st century skills and uncertainty and showed that these two variables have a strong relationship and affected one another greatly.