Prosody instruction : soft skills and effective communication development through drama techniques.

Abstract

Due to the rapid globalization, the increase in the use of technology, and the role the English language has taken in this process of connectivity by becoming a lingua franca, more stress is laid on interpersonal and intrapersonal skills for an individual to participate in the globalized world and to communicate effectively. Consequently, soft skills have become a paramount quality that students, teachers, and other professionals need to possess to communicate with people. Nevertheless, university curriculums and EFL programs focus primarily on technical and linguistic knowledge learning such as grammar, speaking, listening, vocabulary learning, and pronunciation; overlooking suprasegmental aspects of language that will enhance effective communication and soft skills for either students or teachers. Therefore, prosodic training appears to boost intrapersonal and interpersonal communication in the pursuit of a strategy that might contribute to the situation described above. These factors will lead to communicating effectively with native and non-native speakers of the English language. Thus, this pedagogical proposal aims at training pre-service teachers from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional in the use of Prosody through drama techniques to strengthen their soft skills to become effective communicators.