IMPLEMENTING OF A DIVERGENT APPROACH FOCUSED ON VERBAL CREATIVITY IN PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH TRAINING FOR GRADUATES

Abstract

The work aims to apply a divergent and convergent approach in teaching professional English focused on developing verbal creativity within the training of communication skills for university students. The research involved 50 students of economics in an experimental group with a divergent approach (N = 25) and a control group with a traditional convergent approach (N = 25) at the University of Zilina in an engineering study within an 8-week experiment. Before/after the experiment, verbal creativity in topic-based production was tested based on verbal, associative and expressional fluency, spontaneous flexibility, and originality in business English. Comparing the test results of both groups and student self-assessment questionnaires (5-Linkert scale, open-ended questions) were used to measure the differences in connection with the experiment. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were implemented (mean, median, standard deviation) using SPSS software and open-ended questions were coded and analysed through Google Analytics. The research findings confirmed expectations about the positive impact of the divergent approach that applied pro-creative methods and forms in a student-centred interactive environment that proved increasing motivation, language awareness, and practical knowledge of the target language compared to the control group.