Abstract:

This article presents the results of the design and creation of educational environments created for the training of foreign students in technical universities at the initial stage. The aim is the adaptation of foreign students in the Russian-language educational environment and the acquisition of electronic educational skills. The electronic educational environment was created at the department of natural sciences of the preparatory faculty for foreigners of the Kuban State Technological University.

The legislative acts of different levels regulating the creation of educational resources for students were studied. We came to the conclusion that it is necessary to create an educational environment to accommodate the resources. Moodle was chosen as a platform.

The educational environments for students of several Russian technical universities were analyzed and by analogy we developed the educational environment for foreign students of the preparatory faculty.

We determined the main difficulties of foreign students while studying at a technical university. It was decided how these difficulties can be overcome through the use of educational information resources.

The main difficulty is the poor knowledge of the Russian language. At the initial stage of training, speaking (as well as listening) is a big problem. Electronic educational resources make it possible to accommodate educational content in a sound format, which allows students to listen to words and phrases during their independent work. Listening skills are acquired by listening to adapted texts and audio clips and watching video clips. One of the features of educational resources for foreigners is the dynamics of the adaptation level from adapted texts to authentic ones.

Another difficulty is the poor knowledge and the differences of school programs in different countries on different subjects. A distinctive feature of the created educational resources is that they contain basic concepts and information on academic subjects. It helps to increase the Russian vocabulary, to repeat the material, and to introduce the content of educational subjects which is necessary for studying at a technical university. Levelling out the differences between foreign school programs helps to adapt foreign students to the Russian-language educational environment of a technical university.

A great difficulty in teaching foreign students is the poor Russian language in the field of academic terminology. The educational content in electronic educational environments allows them to learn terminology of subjects in Russian and to develop lexical skills through the repetition of terms and phrases.

The authors came to the conclusion that the proper organization of training in the educational environment, as well as the repetition of educational content and the organization of listening practice help foreign students to improve their knowledge in lexical and listening skills.

Keywords:

Foreign students, electronic educational resources, educational environment, educational content, Russian-language vocabulary, listening skills.