International students’ language and cultural integration: Expert comments by a teacher of Russian as a foreign language

The article provides the results of the study of the educational programs potential within academic courses of Russian as a foreign language in the fields of “Philology” and “Linguistics” when solving the issues of language and cultural integration of international students into realities of modern Russian society. The study has revealed the merits of tools and resources for teaching Russian to international students: a number of profile academic disciplines. The study confirms that the solution of the issues of linguistic and cultural adaptation of international students is achieved in the course of doing the academic disciplines “Lexicology”, “Linguocultural Studies”, “Linguocountry Studies”, “Translation Theory”, in the study of linguistic sections “Non-Equivalent Vocabulary”, “Semantics”, “Cognitive Linguistics” and in mastering the competences of analyzing the fictional text (its stylistics and phraseology). We outline the role of the relationship between Cognitive Linguistics and Linguocultural Studies in bringing international students closer to the issues of linguistic consciousness, which predetermines the full command of the language. The study allows us to conclude that the degree of mastering professional competences for a linguist and philologist can be considered as their level of linguistic and cultural competences.