Teaching Conversational English: Techniques for Unconscious Competence Versus Development of Thinking Skills

The purpose of the article is to determine the role of critical thinking and unconscious competence in the implementation of effective communication during group discussions, debates and dialogues. The necessary conditions for creating an effective educational environment conducive to the development of students' conversational skills are demonstrated. An educational experiment was conducted with the participation of 75 third-year students from the School of [BLINDED], [BLINDED], during which the students practiced both critical thinking and unconscious competence in the process of group discussions. The conducted survey at the beginning and end of training, was determined the degree of use of critical thinking skills and unconscious competence in the process of finding answers to arguments during debates, discussions and disputes. The results of the surveys showed that in the process of speaking, critical thinking skills are used more often (79%) than unconscious competence (21%), but at the same time, students considered that unconscious competence (81%) is more effective in debates and discussions, than critical thinking (19%). It was concluded that critical thinking skills are easier and faster to learn to participate in a constructive discussion than the skills of unconscious competence, the development of which must take place in an authentic learning environment for a longer period. The results of the study confirmed that the participation of students in the conversation class increased their ability to analyze, critically evaluate, argue, unconsciously respond and understand the interlocutor. Therefore, it is important to invest additional efforts and create conditions for open, flexible and comfortable communication of students using modern pedagogical methods aimed at developing students' thinking skills of a higher order. The findings can be useful in the field of language teaching, psychology, and linguistics, as well as become the basis for the development of new curricula using collective discussions.