It’s a very common question – at exams and in real life as well – how schools can prepare students for life. I wouldn’t like to go into an overall debate about the things different subjects teach students about the skills they will use later on in life, just focus on some of the skills they can learn in a foreign language lesson.
I have always found myself (and other foreign language teachers) extremely lucky because we can talk about basically anything with our students provided it is in that foreign language. We have more chances to get to know them better and to bring in the knowledge they learn in other subjects. This way we can give them general communication skills that they can use later on. I always start my lessons with general questions like “How are you feeling today?”, “What has happened to you recently?”, “What did you do at the weekend?” “Is there anything interesting or bothering you that you would like to share with us?”. This way not only do they learn that at language exams they have warm-up questions, but I hope that on the long run when they want to start a conversation with someone (in any language) they will remember that by asking these simple questions they can develop a very deep conversation if they are both willing to do so. It is also a great tool for ventilation – getting rid of the problems that are bothering them by talking about them and thus being able to focus on the lesson more effectively.
Also at schools they have to learn to tolerate frustration of not being in the centre, of not being the only one the teacher works with; to use the knowledge they learn in one area or subject in another area if needed; to work with others (co-operate); to take part in competitions and tolerate it if they don’t get the first prize; to debate and to speak in front of others even if they make mistakes; to organise their thoughts; to solve problems – just to name the most common ones that come up in a foreign language lesson.