Mind Mapping Method in Foreign Language Education: Transformative Effects of a Productive Approach

Abstract

AbstractThe study establishes the connection between the need to form soft skills in students and critical thinking skills. The objective of the study was to examine how productive methods of developing soft skills and critical thinking affect the learning and structuring of abstract concepts. The study argue that the formation of soft skills and the development of critical thinking can be effective in foreign language teaching for structuring information and developing creativity. Also, the article is devoted to the research of effectiveness of productive teaching methods originally designed to develop critical thinking (mind maps) in teaching foreign language at university. To find out how the mind mapping method affects the perception, structuring of scientific information and creativity a special study was conducted. In addition, the method of statistical analysis was used in the study. Based on the results of the changes in the level of formation of ideas about scientific concepts are analyzed. Critical thinking in the study appears in a dual role: it is thinking skills, which are supposed to develop, and the scientific concept, which was used to create the research material. Analysis showed a different, more personalized, structuring of scientific information when using the productive method of learning (mind mapping). The results prove that using of productive teaching methods in the foreign language teaching significantly affects the level of adoption and structuring of scientific information, as well as the level of creative thinking.KeywordsProductive methodCritical thinkingCreativityMind mappingSoft skillsForeign languages educationInitiating dispositions