Application of Bloom's Taxonomy in Teaching English to University Students of Economic Specialties

Abstract

The article outlines the ways of applying Bloom's taxonomy when teaching English to students of higher education institutions specializing in Economics. It is established that the application of Bloom's taxonomy is one of the effective ways of developing critical thinking in students. Six main levels of Bloom's taxonomy are highlighted. Thus, at the level of memorizing new information, which is the lowest level of Bloom's taxonomy, students must demonstrate basic understanding of the topic being studied and recall the main facts on a certain topic. At the level of understanding the educational material, students must describe and explain the information that they memorized in previous lessons. The stage of applying knowledge in practice depends on the degree of aquisition by students of the first two levels. At this level, students must apply the knowledge that they studied theoretically in practice. The levels of analysis, synthesis and creativity already belong to the higher-order thinking levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Thus, at the level of analysis, the educational process reaches a higher, more advanced stage, at which students must determine the relationships between different aspects of the topic and establish connections and comparisons based on this discovery. The assessment level requires not only developed mental abilities, but also the ability to choose methods for completing the task, having critically studied the task. Along with the development of critical thinking, English language skills are also developed. The creative level is considered the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy, at which students reach such a degree of understanding of the topic that they can create original work. Examples of tasks for each level of Bloom's taxonomy are given. It is established that for the effective implementation of Bloom's taxonomy in the educational process, the teacher's qualifications and his/her adherence to basic norms when working with students are of great importance. Passing the above levels of Bloom's taxonomy requires a high professional level from a foreign language teacher. In order to facilitate the mastery of the specified topic, Bloom's taxonomy offers teachers a five-step algorithm (using a specially developed table, forming motivation, using information relationships, etc.). It is established that the introduction of game elements into the educational process is also effective, especially at the levels of understanding and application.