Questioning the status quo of Russian as a foreign language: the results of a sociological study

Abstract

The article is devoted to consideration of the issue of the status of the academic discipline “Russian as a foreign language” in the educational structure of training foreign students in Russian higher educational institutions. The problem is very relevant and requires an immediate solution, since this subject still does not have an official code of academic discipline in Russian universities. The paper attempts to answer the question to what extent RFL as a special academic discipline is familiar to Russian and foreign students. The main research method is to conduct a sociological survey of Russian and foreign students studying at several universities in the Russian Federation. In addition, the questionnaires ask a number of questions, the answers to which allow us to see the important differences between RFL as a university academic discipline and other related or related disciplines (for example, a foreign language). The main goal of conducting a pilot sociological study was to clarify the problem of how familiar RFL as a special subject is to one or another social group associated with university activities, and what place this subject, in the opinion of respondents, occupies in the educational structure of a higher educational institution. the object of the study is a special academic discipline in the university curriculum – Russian as a foreign language, and the subject of the study can be considered the perception of the academic discipline by students studying Russian as a foreign language (i.e. foreign students), as well as Russian students who themselves are native speakers of Russian and studies a foreign language. In addition, the subject of the study must include the place that this discipline occupies in the structure of education as a whole, as well as the specifics of teaching this academic discipline in a higher educational institution.