Abstract
<jats:p>Social, cultural, and psychological adaptation of international cadets is a challenging task for higher education institutions in the system of Russia’s Ministry of Defense. Interpersonal communication skills are an inherent part of this adaptation. While being trained in military disciplines, international students need to adapt to new environment, behavior patterns, communication standards, traditions, and values. Communicative personality is a subject of both psychology and pedagogy. Its formation through speech practice is a key aspect of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL). This article describes an experiment in developing communication skills as part of language competence during extracurricular reading classes. The interpersonal communication skills obtained together with the RFL competence were described through communicative interaction of all participants of the academic process. The results could be used for methodological recommendations on RFL extracurricular reading at a military university. Communication skills and speech competence proved to facilitate the professional development of international cadets in Russian military universities.</jats:p>