Podobe države in stereotipi, ki jih o Rusiji gojijo učenciudruskega jezikaud(Country Images and Stereotypes about Russia Held by Russian Language Learners)

摘要

This article explores country images and stereotypes about Russia held by Russian language learners in a big publicuduniversity in Malaysia. Several studies in the field of applied linguistics have explored language learners’udstereotypes about the target language country. However, there are some gaps in the academic literature on this topic.udFirstly, no studies have been done among the learners of the Russian language; secondly, a systematic analysis ofudcultural stereotypes held by language learners has been lacking. The present study adopts an interdisciplinaryudapproach to address these gaps. It explores the internal structure of the students’ images about Russia, examines theudstereotypical images about the country and quantitatively assesses favourability of these stereotypes. The findingsudshow that the images about Russia held by the students clustered around several country-related aspects. Severaludprominent stereotypes about Russia were distinguished and the majority of these stereotypes were positive. Theudarticle concludes with a brief discussion on practical implications of these findings.