In contemporary secondary education, English classes are expected to perform a broader pedagogical function than the transmission of grammatical knowledge and lexical stock. They increasingly serve as a space where adolescents develop communication, cooperation, critical thinking, self-management, decision-making, empathy, creativity, and digital responsibility. International educational frameworks define life skills as adaptive and transferable capacities that help young people respond effectively to academic, social, and personal challenges, while current language pedagogy emphasizes meaningful communication, learner agency, and authentic problem-solving. This article examines modern techniques for enhancing life skills among 10th–11th grade students in school English classes. The discussion argues that communicative language teaching, task-based instruction, project-based learning, social and emotional learning integration, discussion-based pedagogy, collaborative digital work, reflective practice, and competency-oriented assessment create favorable conditions for life-skill formation in late adolescence. Particular attention is given to the specific needs of upper secondary learners, whose cognitive maturity, social identity formation, career orientation, and increasing autonomy require a more complex, dialogic, and real-world model of English teaching.

Life skills, English language teaching, secondary school

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