Foreign students’ reading competencies in blended learning

Abstract

Blended learning of Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) was evaluated for advanced
students of the Language Flagship Program (in the context of reading skills). Key concepts regarding
recognition and interpretation of underlying meanings in the text were clarified. A new approach to
RFL education includes a preliminary system of exercises accompanied by teacher’s feedback, student’s
correction and followed by classroom session, which helps to reinforce new skills and have a deeper
interpretation of a text. Exercise samples are presented in the article. Exercises are focused on such
competencies in reading as the extraction of the author’s message and intentional program of text,
recognition, and attribution of explicit and implicit affective evaluations and irony, recognition of
cultural gap and its fill-in. The education process proved that flipped classroom instructional strategy is
efficient for blended learning