Аңдатпа
The relevance of the article is determined by the insufficient level of critical thinking development among students of higher educational institutions. It is known that the key principle of success is the development of a critical thinker who is able to adapt to an ever-increasing flow of information; There is a certain contradiction between the potential of the English language as a means to develop students’ critical thinking and the insufficient development of the theory and practice of its implementation. Developing critical thinking in foreign language classes is important for several reasons. First, if language learners can take responsibility for their thinking, they can more successfully monitor and evaluate their own ways of learning. Second, critical thinking enhances students’ learning practices and makes language more meaningful to them. Third, critical thinking is highly correlated with student achievement. And finally, today the emphasis in education has shifted towards the ‘4K’ model: the development of critical thinking, creativity, communication, and cooperation. Therefore, in order to make students more competitive in modern society, we attempted to elaborate a model and course of exercises for developing students’ critical thinking skills in English classes. The results of the study, its main provisions and results can be used in the development of theoretical courses on language teaching methods. Keywords: critical thinking, creativity, communication, higher order skills, cognitive abilities.