A cross-cultural comparison of how students in Japan, China, Russia, Ghana and Saudi Arabia feel about their interpersonal skills and the impact this may have on English language teaching

This cross-cultural study explores student condence in interpersonal skills and the role that this may play in English language teaching. The research was conducted at a Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Ghanian university as well as at an international school in Saudi Arabia. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used order in to have in-depth understanding and to probe the issues involved more extensively. Results show that many students lack condence in their use of interpersonal skills which may have a pedagogical impact on language learning in the classroom as well as in the ability of students to use their language skills outside the classroom