Developing critical thinking in higher education through the analysis of academic texts in a foreign language

ENG: The main task of contemporary higher education is to reveal the abilities of each student, to educate a person ready for life in a high-tech, competitive world. Modern society, and therefore modern education, needs a free, creative person with certain qualities of thinking. Freedom of thinking implies a critical approach, oriented towards creative and constructive activity, so the qualitative characteristic of thinking of a free person is critical thinking. The article considers the development of HE student’s critical thinking in a VUCA world. The implications of FL academic reading for shaping critical thinking are analyzed within theoretical visions and existing practices. A combination of narrative review and grounded theory methodology allowed systematizing current patterns and trends, and ultimately suggested a conceptual vision (scheme) of the landscape of developing critical thinking in HE students through the analysis of academic texts in FL.