The development of critical thinking among university students by means of the English language

Abstract

The relevance of the research is due to the need to develop critical thinking among university students as a key competence of the XXI century. The purpose of the work is to identify the potential of the English language as a means of forming critical thinking. Tasks: 1) to determine the essence and structure of critical thinking; 2) to substantiate the role of the English language in its development; 3) to develop and test a methodology for the development of critical thinking by means of the English language. The research methods included theoretical analysis of literature, modeling, pedagogical experiment, testing, questionnaires, statistical data processing. The sample consisted of 60 students of 1-2 courses in the field of Linguistics of the A.A. Kadyrov Chechen State University. The results showed that: 1) critical thinking is a meta-subject competence that includes cognitive, reflective and communicative components; 2) teaching English provides ample opportunities for the development of each of them; 3) the developed methodology, based on problem tasks and critical analysis of texts, significantly increases the level of critical thinking of students. The theoretical significance of the research consists in clarifying the structure of critical thinking and substantiating the linguistic and didactic conditions of its development. The practical value is associated with the possibility of using the results to improve language education at the university. The prospects for further research are related to the study of the specifics of the development of critical thinking at different stages of learning.