Lexical and grammatical difficulties in Russian as a foreign language among Chinese students: overcoming them at different stages of learning

the article provides a comprehensive analysis of the lexico-grammatical difficulties encountered by Chinese students at different stages of learning Russian as a foreign language (RFL). At the beginner level (A1-A2), the primary challenges include a limited vocabulary hindering communication and mastering basic grammatical categories absent in Chinese: the gender and number system of nouns, verb conjugation by person and number, the case system (nominative, accusative, genitive cases), and flexible word order. The intermediate level (B1-B2) shifts focus to difficulties with polysemous words, acquiring set phrases (phraseologisms, collocations), understanding complex sentences, and using verb forms of the subjunctive mood. The advanced stage (C1) is characterized by challenges in using abstract and specialized vocabulary (e.g., in topics like "sport," "healthy lifestyle"), distinguishing contextual synonyms, as well as tense agreement in complex syntactic structures and the nuances of case government. The authors emphasize that these difficulties stem from profound typological differences between Russian (fusional, with rich morphology) and Chinese (isolating, analytical) languages. To overcome them, a methodology based on three key principles is proposed: the gradual introduction and practice of material; systematic contrastive analysis with Chinese to identify interference; and the active use of communicative tasks (including Task-Based Language Teaching – TBLT) at all learning stages. The effectiveness of this approach depends on the teacher's consideration of the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the Chinese audience.

lexical and grammatical difficulties, comparative analysis, teaching methods, communicative approach, initial/intermediate/advanced stages of learning