Developing Students’ Creative Abilities

The course of stylistics studied at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Institute of Arts is divided into two parts, each taking a term. I am entrusted the first part, devoted to linguostylistics, while the second part, dealing with functional styles and languages for special purposes, is delivered by Prof. G.N.Goumovskaya.
The course of linguostylistics is aimed at acquainting students with expressive means of the English language and the main stylistic devices on different language levels, that is, phonographic, morphemic, lexico-phraseologic, syntactic and lexico-syntactic stylistic devices. By the end of the term the students of the 4th year are supposed to display not only good knowledge of expressive means and stylistic devices but also the ability to use them in written and oral speech. The students’ competency is checked in the final written task of creative character. The students are to write an essay filling it with several expressive means and stylistic devices. The essay must meet the following requirements: logic of the expression, fresh imagery, variety of devices emphasizing the idea.
The subject of last year’s essays was “This gloomy autumn...”. Impressed (but not depressed!) by unusually long and dark autumn, my students did their best to describe it in their works. Reading their essays, one cannot but feel the poetry even of this season of the year.

Ye.B. Yakovenko,
professor assistant of Institute of Arts