Teaching Me Softly. A Research Study on Language Educators’ Must-Have Skills According to a Group of Prospective Teachers
Abstract
Recent years have seen the propagation of soft skills in education and professional training, including teacher education. However, few studies investigate language educators’ beliefs about these skills within the theoretical framework of teacher cognition. This paper contributes to this research field by discussing the results of a study aimed at investigating the beliefs of a group of prospective teachers about the professional skills that language educators should possess. Data were gathered through a scenario-based task and a learning diary, followed by a mixed-method analysis. Results show that, while empathy is by large the most relevant skill for the participants, other people-oriented and task-oriented skills are frequently mentioned. A correlation was also found between skills’ frequency and priority in the dataset and the professional background of the participants, some of whom also work as teachers or private tutors.
Presentato: 28 Settembre 2024 | Accettato: 15 Maggio 2025 | Pubblicato 29 Agosto 2025 | Lingua: en
Keywords Language teacher education • Case study • Educational linguistics • Soft skills • Teacher cognition
Copyright © 2025 Michele Daloiso. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2025/02/002