Cognitive styles in methodology of Russian as a foreign language

Abstract

This article attempts to consider the types of cognitive activity of students in the process of learning foreign languages, including Russian as a foreign language. It contains a synthesis on this topic and practical results of the material implementation developed with the consideration of linguo-cognitive styles of students. Special attention is paid to the analytical cognitive style that is inherent in the students of technical fields. Considering the features of the linguo-cognitive picture of students with a predominantly analytical cognitive style, the authors conclude that these features are innate to the students from European countries who speak European languages and studied within the European educational system. Attention is paid to the consideration of cognitive styles in the existing training materials on RFL. The textbook, created by a group of authors (editor-in-chief Avdeyeva), which is addressed to students of the engineering field, was given as an example. Moreover, the article analyses the special course by Krasnokutskaya, developed at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute and addressed to European students studying Russian as a foreign language. Based on the analysis and testing of mentioned training materials, conclusions on the feasibility of further development of such manuals are drawn.

Keywords

• russian as foreign language
• theory of cognitive styles
• analytical left-hemisphere cognitive style
• engineering mentality
• european mentality