Abstract:

An internationally oriented University has a great potential for successful adaptation and integration of foreign students into the educational environment. There is a lack of interdisciplinary research in this field, so the given paper is an attempt to plug the gap. The research determines the factors that influence interethnic interaction in the educational environment of an internationally oriented university.

The article gives the theoretical description of the integrated model of interethnic interrelation and the structure of this model. It focuses on the interethnic interaction of the representatives of different ethnic groups in the process of learning Russian as a foreign language.
The experimental base for the given research is RUDN University that is an internationally oriented university with students from 150 countries. The target audience of the research are 500 foreign students (both pre-university and university ones from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe).

The purpose of the study was to identify the factors influencing the effectiveness of interethnic interrelation. Learning Russian as a foreign language is the main component of interethnic interaction in the suggested model as the language is the basis of linguocultural adaptation. The authors included in the field of their research the Internet communication as an effective linguo-cultural instrument of integration of foreigners into the Russian-speaking environment. Special attention was also paid to non-verbal communication of the representatives of different ethnic groups in the process of learning Russian as a foreign language.

The description of the suggested model is based on the analysis of the adaptation processes among the foreign pre-university and university students of RUDN University. The analysis helped to determine the communicative barriers in the Russian educational environment, as well as the factors affecting the effectiveness of the interethnic interaction of different ethnic cultures representatives.

The research is important for developing the educational strategies necessary for international universities, and the content of the educational programs of teaching Russian as a foreign language to make the interethnic interrelation more efficient.

Keywords:

Educational environment, interethnic interaction, internationally oriented University, adaptation and integration, Russian as a foreign language.