Shustikova E.G.

Kostanai State University named after A.Baitursynov.Kazakhstan.

Formation and Development of Critical Thinking through Referencing and Annotating.

The main task of modern higher educational establishments is the disclosure of the abilities of every student, education of a personality who is ready to live in a hi-tech competitive world. Conception of the education modernization points at the necessity of training highly qualified specialists possessing new critical thinking, high mobility, competence, tolerance, specialists who are able to reach extremely high standards in their work. These requirements are related to the necessity of the formation and development of critical thinking of students which is an integral part of their professional competence. The study of the state educational programs, academic plans and programs of higher educational institutions reveals the growing importance of the development of critical thinking of students during the high school training. In this regard it is necessary to create conditions for the development of critical thinking in the process of teaching a foreign language in the system of higher professional education. One can see a lot of different definitions of critical thinking in modern scientific literature. But the most complete definition was given by American National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction, which describes critical thinking as an intellectual process of conceptualizing, application of principles and notions, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information, obtained on the basis of experience, through observation, thinking or communicating, as a guide to action or belief.

All researchers stress that critical thinking involves the ability and skill to collect information, to process, to evaluate and to apply it in the activity, that is we speak about the ability to work with the information namely about the information competence. One of the best ways of contributing to the development of this competence is referencing (abstracting) and annotating. The rapid growth of science and technology, high development of international relations in our time require a constant exchange of information about literature on all fields of knowledge. In this regard the modern concept of teaching a foreign language in a non-linguistic higher educational institution emphasizes the role of a foreign language as an integral component of a modern specialist training of any profile.

An important goal in the teaching a foreign language in a non-linguistic higher educational establishment is to prepare a specialist for mastering reading as an operative way of getting and structuring professionally important information. The relevance of the topic is determined by the needs of future professionals in the mastery and skills of abstract translation, which is one of the most important types of work in the process of teaching students and master-students a foreign language. The value of abstracting (referencing) and annotating as a methodological technique forming skills and developing the abilities of reading and writing in a foreign language was investigated in the works of many linguists e.g. Veize A., Bim I.L., Cheremisov B.A. etc.

Now along with the traditional complete (full) translation abstract translation and annotating are used, which contain in a compressed form relatively detailed information on such characteristics of the original text as its purpose, the subject matter and methods of investigation. The range of the use of abstracts and annotations, the main purpose of which is the prompt dissemination of information, is extremely wide. The knowledge of the fundamentals of the abstract interpretation and annotation allows to orient quickly in literature on specialty and to process a huge amount of information. Functions inherent to annotations and abstracts are quite diverse-referral, communicative, informative, educational etc. Abstracting and annotating develop such thinking skills as: 1.identification and challenge of assumptions, 2.checking up factual accuracy and logical coherence, 3. consideration of the context, 4.exploration of alternatives. These four thinking skills are in fact the principles that form the basis of critical thinking. Taken together they allow you to reflect critically on any information and make the right choice. Thus abstracting and annotating contribute to the formation and development of critical thinking of students of non-linguistic higher educational establishments that is the key to the effective solution of social, scientific and practical problems.

References.

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3Грудзинская Е.Ю. Использование возможностей технологии критического мышления в подготовке управленческих кадров. Развитие критического мышления в высшей школе: технологии и подходы: М.сб.ст.2007.

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