Today’s graduates need more than subject knowledge — they need soft skills: critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and emotional intelligence. Yet language classrooms are still widely treated as places where only linguistic outcomes matter. This article argues that EFL lessons are powerful and underutilised spaces for developing soft skills alongside language competence. Drawing on the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework (2020), the Oxford Global Skills position paper (Mercer et al., 2019), and the CASEL model of Social-Emotional Learning as applied to ELT by Pentón Herrera (2024), together with empirical studies by Hadiyanto (2021) and Wicaksono and Saraswati (2024), the article examines how communicative tasks can advance both linguistic and competency goals simultaneously. The review finds that well-designed tasks — those built on genuine learner interdependence, creative problem-solving, and shared outcomes — consistently produce measurable gains in 21st-century competencies alongside language development. Deliberate pedagogical intention, rather than incidental exposure, is identified as the decisive factor in soft-skill growth. Five evidence-based classroom strategies are discussed in detail: Structured Academic Controversy, Collaborative Inquiry Projects, Reflective Journaling, Literature Circles and Socratic Seminars, and Peer Feedback. Assessment approaches that go beyond test scores — including portfolios, self-assessment, and process documentation — are also addressed. The article concludes that integrating soft skills into English teaching is not a pedagogical luxury but a core responsibility of language education.