THE ROLE OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF STUDENTS FROM NIGERIA

The article is devoted to the problem of sociocultural adaptation of the specific group of international students. Today countries attract students from abroad to internationalize higher education. It is one of the tools of raising the educational level in the country. From 1960s, during the Cold War, more than 50,000 African students studied in Russia. According to the report of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the number of foreign students plans to be doubled by 2024, and the number of African students in Russia may not only reach the level of the Soviet Union but surpass it.Foreign students face a significant number of difficulties when trying to successfully complete the adaptation to the different culture. This study aims to demonstrate the factors of the successful adaptation and reveal the role of language in the process of enculturation.The relevance of the article is determined by the increasing number of students from Nigeria in the Russian universities. Nigeria remains one of the most important countries to send its students to study abroad, as the middle class is expanding and the youth demographic in the country. With the Bilateral Educational Agreement between Nigeria and Russia, which invites Undergraduate, Masters or PhD Nigerian students to study in Russia, the number of international students from Nigeria in Russia has risen.For the research we conducted an anonymous survey among Nigerian students in People's Friendship University of Russia.The results of the research reveal the leading role of the language of a culture in the adaptation of students. They also may be useful both for universities' departments which work with international students and for international students who go through the process of social and cultural adaptation in a new culture.