Abstract:

There are many study programmes for teaching foreign languages to foreign students; one of the most popular ways is their immersion into the environment where the language to be acquired is the native one. Daugavpils University in cooperation with the company Latinsoft within the project “Learn Russian in the EU”, alongside the classical methods of teaching foreign languages provides foreign students from English speaking countries an opportunity to acquire specific study courses in which the focus is on not only on studying Russian, but also on the acquisition of various scientific disciplines of the humanities, social and natural sciences.

At the beginning of studies, foreign students are tested to state the level of language proficiency. As a result, they are offered to choose one of the three models of studies:
1) most of the subjects are acquired in English while Russian is introduced only in some study courses (mainly the fundamental terminology);
2) bilingual model of studies – all the subjects are taught in both languages, English and Russian;
3) most of the study courses are delivered and acquired by means of the Russian language.

In this paper, the authors present an example of teaching very specific study courses that is combined with teaching the Russian language, for instance, Nuclear Weapons and Security Policy in the 21st Century; NATO – Baltic States – Russia; Cytology, and a range of other study courses that are implemented at Daugavpils University.

At the end of the studies, foreign students are asked to provide feedback, which is used in the paper to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the specific study courses taught by the authors of the paper.

Keywords:

Russian as a foreign language, immersion, study course, feedback.