Abstract:

Today the number of students studying abroad is constantly growing. Even in the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and border closures around the world in 2020-2021, most international students continued their studies online. One of the problems, the applicant who is planning to study abroad faces with, is the choice of the language of education. On the one hand, the language of the country where the student is planning to study, looks very attractive for many reasons, such as a better adaptation with this country, immersion in its culture, communication with the locals. On the other hand, most of today's major international universities offer education in English, which has become the language of international communication and the second language for many people since childhood.

It should be noted that in Russia (USSR period), international students were traditionally taught in Russian. There were special preparatory faculties where students from different countries studied the Russian language for 1 academic year. Russian universities started to open programs in English over the last decades only. One of the pioneers in this direction was the Medical Institute RUDN, which began teaching international students in English in the late 90s.
Research on the intercultural adjustment among international students in Russia, show that poor knowledge or difficulties in learning the Russian language are the problems that complicate both the process of acculturation, and the effectiveness of learning. In this regard, the question that arises is: how can studying in English be related to the effectiveness of studying and adaptation in a Russian university.

In order to identify why applicants choose to study abroad (in Russia in this particular case), prefer to study in English and face with problems of intercultural communication in Russia, etc., we have conducted a survey among international students of Medical Institute RUDN.

The survey consisted of two stages:
1) an interview with open-ended questions;
2) a questionnaire of closed and semi-closed questions, compiled on the basis of the interview results.

The survey involved students from different countries (India, Algeria, South Africa, Iran, etc.) studying in specialties General Medicine and Dentistry. All disciplines are taught in English, but all students study Russian as a foreign language.

The findings show that the majority of students prefer studying in English, as it is their native language or they have studied it for many years as a second language. Another important reason why they chose English, is because it gives more job opportunities and further career growth, and Russian, on the other hand, is difficult and unfamiliar. Students are generally satisfied with the number of hours and the quality of how the Russian language is taught, but they mostly prefer to communicate in English (inside and outside the university). The vast majority of students would still choose to study in English if this choice was again faced by them. At the same time, they do not name serious difficulties and problems associated with life and education in Russia.

The results of this study will be used to develop recommendations for optimizing acculturation in Russia for international students studying in English. We also plan to research correlations between the language of education and the features of intercultural adjustment among international students studying in Russia.

Keywords:

International Students, Study Abroad, Russian Language, English Language, Language of Education, Intercultural Adjustment, Medical Students.