An Analysis of Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration Skills in the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) General English Textbook in Sri Lanka

Advanced Level General English (GE) Course in Sri Lanka aims to prepare students for success in higher education, work, and social life. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to equip students with “21st century skills” in addition to language skills. A crucial factor that determines the success of the programme is the teaching material. The Advanced Level GE textbook is the primary teaching material for the GE course in schools nationwide. This study explored the representation of 21st century skills in this textbook by employing Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) to systematically categorize and evaluate instances of 21st century-related activities and discussions within the textbook. Although the study investigated twelve 21st century skills, in this paper, we focus on the 4Cs (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration). The results indicate that although the 4Cs were the most visible skills and constituted the majority of occurrences (85.27%), some important aspects or subskills were not adequately represented. In addition to other outcomes, the presentation will mainly contribute to English Language teaching material development and evaluation at both policy and implementation levels. Keywords: 21st century skills; English Language Teaching (ELT); General English (GE); Textbook; Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA)