Abstract:

The problem of studying the peculiarities of international students’ adaptation to the university educational environment is actual in the modern conditions of developing the international educational system. At Russian universities, international students traditionally take an annual course at the preparatory faculty for foreign citizens and, after passing the exams, begin their chosen degree studies in groups with Russian students. The process of their academic adaptation in junior academic years is complicated by their poor knowledge of the language of instruction, a large amount of new vocabulary, and poor listening and speech recognition skills in Russian. The lack of special educational literature adapted for international students in general subjects aggravates the situation.

The main source of educational information for modern students is Internet resources. Students are interested in finding quality educational content, which meets their needs, as quickly as possible; and universities, creating informational educational resources, are interested in most effective use of these resources by students. This problem is very acute for international students. Their poor knowledge of the language does not let them find high-quality educational content on the Internet in Russian. The educational content placed in the educational environment of the university is not adapted for international students, and there may not be any educational content in their native language(s), or it may have specific content.

To facilitate the academic adaptation of international students, it is necessary to create special learning environments for them. This issue is especially relevant for international students in their junior academic years. The features of such virtual informational and educational resources are: the adaptability of educational content; the presence of a quality thesaurus; maximum visualization and audio accompaniment of educational material. At Kuban State Technological University, a virtual educational environment has been specially created for junior international students, hosting the following general education courses: Russian for foreigners, physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, descriptive geometry, history, and philosophy. This educational resource is intended for all junior students, regardless of their majors. The experience of using such an educational environment allows us to conclude that the use of adapted resources at the initial stage of training contributes to academic adaptation and the successful acquisition of competencies following the chosen degree studies.

Keywords:

International students, virtual environment, academic adaptation, information educational environment, educational resources.