CREATIVITY FEATURES IN LINGUISTICS STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT LEVEL OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Second (foreign) language (SL/FL) proficiency is one of the most important competences of a person in the modern global world. Numerous studies show that the process and the result of the second (foreign) language acquisition (SLA / FLA) can influence human development in different areas. For example, A.V. Kharkhurin considers bilingualism (multilingualism) as a factor in the development of human creativity. In our previous study, we tested the hypothesis of a positive relationship between SLA and the level of students' creativity. But, contrary to the hypothesis, we revealed only few correlations between the creativity indicators and SLA assessments. We assumed that the relationship between creativity and SLA may vary depending on the level of creativity and / or SLA. Based on this, the purpose of the present study is to compare the features of creativity among students with different SLA levels. The sample includes 128 (82% - female) first- and second-year university students in the Linguistics Department, all students study English as their major SL. The creativity was measured with the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). The ATTA includes one verbal creativity task and two non-verbal creativity tasks. We used indicators for each task separately, total indicators of Fluency, Originality, Elaboration, Flexibility, and the Total Creativity Index (CI). To assess SLA we used: (1) the semester Final Grades by English (from 0 to 100), and English teachers' assessment of SLA in their students by authors' expert scale (10 indicators related to different aspects of SLA such as audition, reading, writing, vocabulary, speaking, communication, phonetics and so on). The descriptive statistics methods, coefficients Cronbach' a and McDonald's., Kruskal-Wallis' H-test, and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used for processing the data. Statistical processing was carried out in the R software environment for statistical computing and graphics, version 3.5.2. The research results confirm that there are differences in Flexibility among students with different SLA levels: students who are more proficient in English show greater flexibility in solving creative tasks. Most clearly the differences between students' groups with different SLA levels are manifested in the correlations between the SLA assessments and creativity indicators. Thus, we confirmed the hypothesis of a non-linear connection between creativity and SLA level.