This contribution explores motivational factors from the perspective of students in order to design an effective approach to teaching. Its purpose is twofold. First, it pinpoints findings from a student needs analysis regarding their learning in relation to today’s teaching reality. Second, the findings serve as the basis for proposing a corresponding set of tools to implement an effective approach to teaching. The student needs analysis was conducted at the Škoda Auto University in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic, originally pursuing students’ motivation in language learning. The data disclosed rich information about student learning sentiments and motivation, suggesting that it is internal rather than external drives that play a key role in their determination to learn. These include a desire for self-advancement, challenge, achievement, or success, as well as a need to link the content of learning with internal feelings, interests, and experiences. The set of methods described in the subsequent part of the study are designed for the initiation of each lesson or opening a new topic, a phase during which students become motivated and make internal decisions about the degree of involvement with the subject. Linked to the findings from the research, they help teachers to welcome students’ perspectives and autonomy, tapping into their feelings, ideas, or personal experiences.

The job expectations and requirements of the information age bring with them a need for a change in teaching and studying. A quantitative approach to working with information and a frontal style of teaching, still a wide practice in many institutions, no longer seem to be suitable preparation for current students’ needs. One of the areas affected by these changes are the foreign language competences necessary to efficiently deal with study and job related practices and, correspondingly, to succeed in the job market. Along with the change in student needs comes the demand for change in the organization of language classrooms and instruction. Young people, facing a deluge of information and unlimited access to resources, are challenged by the changing needs in processing the material. A qualitative approach to information is required with a growing focus on information processing, analysis, critical evaluation and implementation in practice. Similarly, the need for efficient communication skills such as negotiation, argumentation or presenting seem to be more in demand than grammatical precision or encyclopedic knowledge. From this perspective, language instruction accentuating activities focused on memorizing and drills needs to be restructured so the students can develop targeted key competences for the current times. This paper focuses on the research of student needs and how they are perceived from the perspective of students and their study or internship experience, as well as from the perspective of teacher practitioners. The purpose of the study is to identify the key competences students need to succeed in the job market as a resource for restructuring university language instruction.

The twenty-first century is a time of unprecedented social and technological development. Defining the period is an internationally interconnected world pregnant with information, dynamic events, and individual choice. These attributes create a highly complex, unpredictable, ambiguous and volatile environment that places new demands on every adult individual to continue in their efforts to educate, requalify and upskill during the course of their whole life. Based on both national and international educational strategies, a willingness to pursue life-long learning and an ability for it represent the main objectives for the curricula and educational programs. The current study presents a language teaching model that aims at student autonomy in language learning. The model, specifically focused on business English, was based on student needs analysis studies conducted and replicated in 2006, 2013 and 2016 at ŠKODA AUTO University, and as part of an international HEI cooperation research between 2017 and 2020. The Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach is adopted to combine course topics and outlines. In-class and self-study activities aim at language competences proportionally distributed between reading, writing, listening, and speaking tasks. Teaching methods cover both individual work and peer cooperation. Course requirements provide students with a high degree of freedom when making decisions about the content of their projects. As such, this concept helps students find the area of their self-realization, which boosts their motivation, willingness and ability both to continue and self-direct their further learning.

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Language learning is a life-long process. In a world that connects people across nations through study, work, travel and socializing, new chances and challenges arise, intensifying a need to improve modern foreign language skills. The aim of language education, therefore, should not be limited to providing mere language instruction but it should also involve the development of learner autonomy so that students are equipped with strategies, methods, and approaches for managing their language development over the course of their whole lives. Higher Education Institution (HEI) teaching practices need to react to this reality through their teaching approaches and methodologies. The following study conducted with ŠKODA AUTO University presents an analysis of the current students’ simple language management (LM) process, which reveals their language learning attitudes, behaviors and ‘acts toward’ language. Data were collected between 2017 and 2020 from students’ written narratives describing and analyzing critical incidents (CI) that reflect the learning strategies the students adopt, the study styles they use, motivation for learning, as well as the actions they plan and conduct. As a result, these findings form the basis of a deeper understanding of the language teaching process, which in turn enhances language education methodology.