Teaching Soft Skills for Employability

The Ministry for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada includes employment-related language training in its current initiatives. This article aims to contribute to the topic of teaching soft skills for job interviews and job retention, as informed by research from the fields of business and applied linguistics, including pragmatics, as well as insights from personal experience in employment-related classrooms. Ideas for lessons on some critical verbal and nonverbal soft skills are provided for employment-oriented classes at intermediate to advanced levels. Those skills focus on shaking hands, engaging in small talk, and asking questions.