Influence of the multicultural environment of a Russian university on the language training of foreign students

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in terms of the development of academic mobility processes, it is necessary to develop linguo-cultural content that reflects the need-motivational sphere of foreign students, as well as the implementation of the developed content, taking into account the multiculturalism of Russian universities. Besides, it is recognized that in the multicultural university environment, a foreign language culture for a foreign student acts in two ways: as a culture of the target language country, on the one hand, and as a culture of the educational environment of a Russian university, on the other hand. The empirical part of the study was carried out on a sample of 42 foreign students from Russian universities. Students were interviewed through a questionnaire to identify as follows: the attitude of foreign students towards the discovery of Russian culture and learning the Russian language; difficulties in learning the Russian language; their awareness of the qualities that characterize personal effectiveness of language training. It was revealed that foreign students recognized the wealth and beauty (42.9%), the uniqueness of the Russian language and culture (38.1%), the importance of the Russian language as a means of intercultural communication (23.8%). The absolute majority (95.2%) of foreign students experience difficulties in mastering the grammatical structure of the Russian language. As for personal qualities, the students revealed those that are interconnected with the features of national identity and allow foreign students to adapt to the Russian educational environment and reality. Based on the data obtained, it was concluded that the complexity of educational activities served as a guideline in the teacher’s actions in solving problems of mastering a foreign language and culture by foreign students, preserving the national identity of an individual, and training his/her for intercultural communication in a multicultural world space.