Abstract:

The paper describes innovative techniques of graphic presentation of information, which being slightly adapted can be applied in teaching practice foreign languages, in particular Russian as a foreign language. It is known that one of the most complex grammatical topics is the prepositional-case system of the Russian language. The authors of the article believe that some innovative techniques of graphical presentation of information are effective both for introducing new material as well as for systematizing and consolidating knowledge. The paper is aimed at describing such innovative techniques as «fishbone» and «mind-map» adapted by the authors for the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language (A1, B1 levels) and demonstrating their effectiveness in teaching foreign students of Faculty of Pre-university training of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (Moscow, the Russian Federation).

The experiment done reveals and evaluates the effectiveness of the studied techniques. Moreover it shows that the technique «fishbone» is better to use to familiarize foreign students with new grammatical material and the technique «mind-map» is preferable to generalize, systematize and synthesize knowledge of grammar. In addition the experiment demonstrates the dependence of the positive results on future professional specialization of students and their nationality. The research materials are the meanings of some Russian cases in a limited set of speech situations. Some general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, observation and experiment were used as well as the particular methods such as quantitative method and method of linguistic experiment. The results of the research have practical significance for the method of teaching Russian as a foreign language. Thus, innovative techniques of graphic presentation of information such as technique «fishbone» and technique «mind-map» can be recommended to minimize typical errors associated with the use of the prepositional-case forms in speech.

Keywords:

Innovative techniques, the prepositional-case system, Russian as a foreign language.