Abstract
<jats:p>The aim of the research is to define and stratify the fundamental principles for constructing a modern variable model of teaching Russian to foreign students at preparatory faculties. Verified, practically effective methodologies that implement the communicative-activity approach to teaching in its various forms are selected as the methodological basis of the work. The analysis of these forms from the perspective of the existential (life-essential) needs of a specific linguistic persona of a foreign student allowed the author to define the fundamental principles whose implementation ensures the optimality of the model at the current stage of development of the methodology for teaching Russian as a foreign language. The scientific novelty of the research lies in defining and clarifying the fundamental principles and tenets of communicative-activity methodologies, evaluating them from the perspective of the existential needs of modern students at preparatory faculties, and, consequently, constructing an effective variable model of teaching Russian to the specified student cohort on this basis. The results of the research are as follows: the author’s personal contribution consists in developing a modern multi-level model for teaching Russian to foreign students on an integrative basis, which incorporates the achievements of various forms of communicative-activity methodologies. The research showed that it is precisely the methodological level of the teaching model, with the correct definition of its fundamental principles, that sets the vector for the deployment of the entire teaching system as a whole and ultimately ensures effective learning activities for students. The following are defined in the work as such fundamental principles: 1) the anthropological principle (reliance on the student’s personal resources, considering their existential needs); 2) the communicative principle (forming the student’s communicative competence under given conditions); 3) the cognitive principle (forming the presupposition required for learning, created based on the student’s linguistic persona and their language consciousness). The proposed variable model was created on a theoretical and practical basis, verified by years of experience in teaching Russian to foreign students (both the author’s own and that of her colleagues). In the research, the author primarily relies on results obtained during laboratory sessions with small groups in the context of Russian preparatory faculties (Chinese learners, levels A0+ – A2+).</jats:p>