MULTILINGUALISM AND MULTICULTURALISM IN THE SCIENTIFIC AND EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF A MODERN RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The relevance of the topic considered in the article is determined by the ongoing international-ization of Russian universities and the need to solve the problems of cross lingual and cross-cultural interaction that arise in a multilingual and multicultural academic environment. The readiness of for-eign and Russian students for effective cross lingual and cross-cultural communication is due both to the knowledge of foreign languages and familiarity with the peculiarities of a foreign culture. The purpose of the research is to study the perception by Russian students, majoring in management, of the specifics of the multinational educational environment of the university of economics, as well as to analyse the intensity of their cross lingual interaction and the factors impeding it. To conduct the research, the methods of survey, interviewing and quantitative and qualitative data processing were applied. The results obtained confirm the relevance and need for the development of cross-cultural and foreign language communicative competencies among students and allow to better understand the features of cross-cultural interaction in the academic environment. 48% of the respondents consider the knowledge of a foreign language necessary for productive communication among Russian and foreign students, which indirectly confirms the difficulty of in-teraction with foreigners in Russian. Only 28% of the respondents consider it important to know the differences in cultural values for mutual understanding among representatives of different cultures. It was found that, according to the students, one of the effective means of improving foreign lan-guage communicative and cross-cultural competencies is the involvement of Russian and foreign students in joint classroom and extracurricular activities, as well as informal communication. The leading role of university departments of foreign languages in solving the issues of internationaliza-tion of the university is emphasized. The analysis of the perception by Russian students of the cross-cultural environment of a Russian university has not been carried out before. The results obtained have a practical focus and can be used in developing a strategy for successful adaptation of foreign students in the academic environment of universities in the Russian Federation.

Keywords

• internationalization of universities
• multilingualism
• intercultural communication
• foreign students
• higher education
• foreign language