Abstract:

This study is devoted to the problem of adaptation of foreign students to life and education in Russia at the stage of pre-university training.

The study is based on the experience of the preparatory faculty of the Kazan Federal University (Russia), where foreign students are annually trained to russian as a foreign language, wish to continue education in Russian universities. The main academic subject at this stage is "Russian as a foreign language". On the one hand, "Russian as a foreign language" is the content of learning to be learned, on the other hand - an instrument for learning a different culture, mastering another socio-cultural environment, mastering professional knowledge, skills and abilities.

The purpose of the study is:
1) to diagnose the difficulties of adaptation of foreigners to learning in non-native language in a non-native linguistic culture environment;
2) to find the ways to optimize the process of teaching of Russian as a foreign language in polyethnic and monoethnic (Chinese, Turkish, Iranian) groups.

For this purpose, interdisciplinary research reveals the ethnopsychological, ethno-cultural, linguistic features of the foreign student as a subject of the educational process, representating of a particular national carries specific psychological, behavioral and other traits that influence the process of intercultural communication, including educational communication.

The study uses interview-diagnostic methods (interviews, questioning of foreign students and Russian teachers), a method of quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the results of the study.

We have developed questionnaires that allow:
1) to diagnose students' level of educational activities and communication in a non-native language and in a non-native linguistic and cultural environment at the initial stage;
2) to predict the difficulties of this ethnic contingent related to psychological, social, intercultural, and pedagogical adaptation;
3) to state the level of satisfaction with the learning process and integration into the Russian reality.

The results of such a study allow:
1) to orient the teacher on a certain ethnic contingent in order to minimize specific difficulties in adaption;
2) to form the teacher's knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for the effective work.

The study of the process of linguocultural adaptation of foreign students shows that the habituation of foreigners to the Russian educational environment and to life in Russia depends on their belonging to one or another ethnic community, national culture. The degree of manifestation and significance of various adaptation processes differ depending on the students: their ethnicity, skills of intercultural communication, individual psychological characteristics.

Keywords:

Linguocultural adaptation, Russian as a foreign language, polyethnic and monoethnic group, communication in a non-native language.