Students’ Perceptions towards 21st Century Skills Implementations in their Prospective EFL Classes: Gen Z Pre-Service Training

The chief interest of the present research work revolves around the investigation of perceptions of EFL Master 1 students at Maghnia University Center on 21st-century skills learning and implementation in their future teaching careers after graduation. As the informational age urges citizens, not least language learners to hold the magical quit of skills to succeed in modern times. To reach this end, this research work was undertaken using an exploratory research paradigm. It encompasses two sorts of research designs. The first was an exploratory case study to find out how the students felt about 21st-century skills being a must for them and their post-graduation prospective students. Focused group discussions were utilized as the next study tool to find out how well-informed the students were about these abilities and how important they would be to them as future instructors. Action research, the second study design, assisted the teacher researcher in putting those perspectives into practice through student presentations and instructional practices regarding how they viewed teaching 21st-century skills. To better integrate 21st-century skills into EFL/ELT classrooms, the intervention served as pre-service training for Gen Z. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results uncovered that Gen Z favored both 21st-century learning and implementation in their future teaching practices. The main presented future teaching technique was project-based teaching as a method of choice. Thus, it is recommended to adopt a project-based syllabus in Algerian academic institutions so as to promote 21st-century teaching/learning.