Modern methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language to non-philology students

Teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL) to non-philology students has been an active area of research for the last several decades. There has been a constant increase in the number of students learning Russian, due to the growing role of the Russian language in the academic environment and to the development of international relations in this area. The ultimate purpose of teaching Russian to international non-philology students is for them to speak Russian fluently (first of all, in a specific discipline), to express their thoughts, to understand their interlocutors, to reproduce and interpret orally and in writing the information obtained from print and audio sources. Learning Russian for professional purposes for non-philology university students is not only a means of mastering their future professions, but also a possibility to competently communicate in the professional environment and easily adapt to constantly changing working conditions. This study aims to show how RFL is taught to non-philology students at the current stage of development of higher education, to specify the challenges and the teacher's tasks in this area and, finally, to discuss the development of communicative competence among non-philology students. © 2017 Serials Publications.