LINGUOCULTURAL BARRIERS IN TEACHING RUSSIAN TO CHINESE STUDENTS

Abstract

Abstract. The relevance of this research is determined by the growing academic mobility between China and the Russian-speaking world, which necessitates consideration of the linguocultural characteristics of Chinese learners in teaching Russian as a foreign language. The purpose of the article is to identify typical linguocultural barriers encountered by Chinese students in the process of learning Russian and to propose methodological approaches for overcoming them. The methodology involved analyzing typical phonetic, grammatical, and communicative errors made by Chinese doctoral students (four first-year PhD students of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University) during a series of phonetic, grammatical, and speech tasks. The methods included testing, error analysis, comparison of results, and data synthesis. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying how previous educational experience (studying in China vs. studying in a Russian-speaking environment) affects the nature of errors and communication barriers among Chinese learners—an aspect that has not been thoroughly examined before. The main findings confirm the most common phonetic difficulties of Chinese students (incorrect pronunciation of certain vowels [ы], [о], [у], [э]; monotonous intonation), grammatical mistakes (incorrect use of verb aspect, double negation), and communicative barriers related to “face-saving” behavior and passivity in class. It was found that students who previously studied in a Russian-speaking environment demonstrate a higher level of confidence and motivation (average score ~5.96 compared to 5.14 among those who studied in China), which contributes to overcoming these barriers. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of applying the results to develop Russian language teaching programs for Chinese learners—from targeted training of difficult phonetic elements to the introduction of special courses on speech etiquette and intercultural communication. This approach can optimize the learning process, increase its efficiency, and enhance the adaptation of Chinese students to a new linguistic environment.