Online-trip to Russia: creating a virtual sociocultural environment for teaching Russian as a foreign language

The necessity to develop new methods and measures in teaching Russian as a foreign language is caused not only by the growth of distant educational technologies, but also by new cognitive style generation formed in the circumstances of changing the natural surrounding into the virtual (the cyberworld) one. The lack of methodic instruments for compensating the language and sociocultural environment in distant teaching of Russian as a foreign language interferes the forming of students’ communicative skills. The aim of the research is therefore to develop and realize the sociocultural surrounding model for the foreigners learning Russian in conditions of restricted natural surroundings. The material of the research contained the digital culture and country study content created in line with culturological approach in pedagogy and linguistics and in accordance with distant Russian language teaching experience. The research was held with the help of theoretical (analysis, comparison, extrapolation), diagnostic (pedagogical observation, expert value, oral survey) and reconfiguring (pedagogical modelling, integration of the research results into the learning process) methods. The results of the research consist in working out the didactic and methodic demands for modelling a virtual sociocultural surrounding; creating on this base an interactive calendar “Trip to Russia” that corresponds with the cognitive type of the “digital” generation and allows to perform the functions of the sociocultural surrounding in distant learning of Russian as a foreign language: it promotes the development of sociocultural competence, positive attitude to Russia and Russians, increases motivation for learning Russian. In conclusion the authors present the opportunities of the virtual sociocultural surrounding to use it efficiently in studying Russian as a foreign language.