(71) QUESTIONING THE CONVENTIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS: TRANSFORMATIONAL TEACHING APPROACH

摘要

Stages of the cultural and social adjustment to the new life conditions in most cases are a painful experience. The situation is further complicated with getting used to a new culture and language system, forms of communication and a diverse mix of the learning group. Russia's higher education system is experiencing the need for scientific research which would offer efficient pedagogical approaches and teaching methods when working with a group of foreign students, with a view to activating their previous learning habits, encouraging positive communication, and understanding new social roles and personal responsibility for the academic results. Cultural peculiarities of the students’ mindsets and the global phenomenon of “clip thinkers” call for reshaping the traditional instruction mode in teaching Russian as a foreign language. Search for modern world's knowledge has oriented towards the transformational teaching approach, which is almost terra incognita for Russian educators. The new approach can help address the problems university lecturers experience with facilitating individual language acquisition irrespective of their student’s language level. A boost to implementation of the changed content was catalyzed by the discrepancy between the international students’ self-assessment of their Russian language skills and the standardized test. The online questionnaire included 22 items in line with the state standard in Russian as a foreign language, and the test was administered in three groups of 48 international students. We believe that international teaching experience can foster innovative teaching context in the multicultural group and contribute to students' satisfaction with their university experience.