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Makale Özeti:
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Introduction. Well-developed professional and creative thinking increases competitiveness and ensures the professional success of future foreign language teachers. Thus, fostering professional and creative thinking is an essential part of their professional development. The novelty of the research lies in studying characteristics of professional and creative thinking such as: associativity, anticipation, divergence, flexibility, criticism, and constructiveness, which are specific to a foreign language specialist’s professional activity.Methods. The pedagogical experiment involved 22 master students from the Institute of History, Philology and Media at Kabardino-Balkarian State University. A critical analysis of previous research allowed the authors to decide on theoretical approaches to developing professional and creative thinking in future English teachers and to develop a special training program. The program is based on the idea of gamification of the educational process and uses the following innovative training methods and techniques: (a) the REAL techniques (N. V. Maslov); (b) case methods (situation–sample, situation–problem, and situation–exercise); (c) game technologies; (d) reverse brainstorming (RB); (e) the association method; and (f) dialogue with a destructive related assessment.Results. The study results indicated positive dynamics for all the characteristics of professional and creative thinking. The students had significantly higher levels of associativity, anticipation, divergence, flexibility, criticism, and constructiveness. However, this process is never fully completed and constant effort is required to develop these characteristics of thinking.Discussion. The development of professional and creative thinking is the main condition for a foreign language teachers’ professional development, providing them with competitive advantages and greater relevance on the modern labor market. Conclusion: there is a need for purposeful work on the development of professional and creative thinking in future foreign language teachers.
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