As suggested by Beall (2015), our responsibility is to prepare EFL learners for their future in the best possible way, developing them with core skills and competences to live and work in globalised workplaces. These skills have been known as the 21^st century skills or deep learning skills (Douglas & Haꞵler, 2015). Communication & collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity & innovation, and ICT literacy are the key 21^st century skills that should be developed throughout the process of learning and acquiring a foreign language. However, not many of us have a clear idea of how to incorporate these skills into the lesson or are using some textbook versions that are not updated yet. This presentation will provide an overview of the 21^st century skills and introduce several adaptation techniques to make the textbook tasks/ activities more effective in developing learners with the relevant 21^st century skills while improving their English.