Russian anthroponyms at the initial stage of teaching Russian as a foreign language: linguodidactic aspect

Abstract

This article is devoted to the topical problems of studying Russian anthroponyms at the initial stage of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The authors highlight and describe the main difficulties that foreigners face when using Russian first and last names in speech – the choice of the combination of components of the Russian personal name necessary in a specific communicative situation; the presence of a wide range of hypocoristic and qualitative personal names, the difficulty of correlating them with the full form of the name; the coincidence of some male and female hypocoristic personal names, making it difficult to distinguish them in a small context. A comparative analysis of elementary level textbooks on Russian as a foreign language from the point of view of the representation in them of Russian personal names prescribed by the lexical minimum of the corresponding level for mastering by students. It is established that the necessary lexical material in the analysed manuals is not fully presented, lack of systematic presentation of information about the formation and use of anthroponyms is mentioned. The authors of the article have formed and presented a system of language and speech tasks that make up for these shortcomings and contribute to the successful development of Russian personal names by foreign students at an elementary level of language proficiency.