The issue of aligning language self-assessment with the final Russian language exam results of foreign students in the preparatory department

Soloveva Anna Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0001-9472-5966 PhD in Philology Senior teacher, Russian as foreign language department, Russian State Agrarian University 127247, Russia, Moscow, Beskudnikovsky passage, 4-2-84 yarlee@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Saikina Ol'ga Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0001-7886-6769 Assistant; Center for the Study of Russian as a Foreign Language ; Russian University of Transport (MIIT) 49 Timiryazevskaya str., office 216, Moscow, 127434, Russia saikina-olga@yandex.ru

Linguistic self-esteem is a part of an individual's socio-cultural self-image, conditioned by the environment. The study of the socio–cultural component is an urgent problem presented in the works of researchers studying its influence on the consciousness of speakers both in their native and in a foreign language environment ^{[1, p. 91]}.

A number of studies in psychology are devoted to the study of the structure of self-esteem, namely, the problem of the discrepancy between a person's self-esteem and his real characteristics.

The concept of self-esteem first appeared in psychology in the works of W. James in 1890 ^{[2, p. 296]}. James defines self-esteem using the metaphor of fractions: "Our self-esteem in this world depends entirely on who we think we are and what we do. It is determined by the ratio of our real and perceived capabilities: this is a fraction, the denominator of which is our claims, and the numerator is our success: thus, this fraction can be increased both by reducing the denominator and by increasing the numerator" ^{[2, p. 296, cit. 3]}. Thus, James argued that the dependence of self-esteem is determined by the degree to which expectations of success are realized.

Later, in the middle of the twentieth century, foreign researchers developed ideas about self-esteem in line with the behaviorist or Freudian paradigms, where other factors affecting self-esteem, such as external conditions (behaviorism) or the unconscious (Freudianism), became fundamental. The unifying factor for these factors was that they were beyond the control of the will of the individual – the bearer of self-esteem ^{[3, p. 257]}.

According to modern foreign psychological concepts, self-esteem can be a system of self-image formed by a complex of internal and external factors. These representations can be both stable and change under the influence of various factors.

The key characteristics of self-esteem in psychology are the following oppositions: stability/variability, reliability/fragility, reality/unreality.

In the works devoted to self-esteem, the concepts of "self-esteem" and "self-image" are also separated. The latter concept characterizes an individual's set of knowledge about himself, such as age, name, height, etc. The concept of self-esteem, unlike self-image, includes an emotional assessment ^{[4, p. 220]}, which is the reason for the diversity of types of self-esteem.

The concept of self-esteem in some studies correlates with the concept of self-acceptance, from which it is concluded that correcting low self-esteem helps in alleviating manifestations of psychological stress ^[5].

However, there are also objections to this position ^{[6, p. 1]}. Thus, the role of self-esteem in maintaining good psychological health is questioned. In this case, self-esteem is considered as a global self-image, while individuals define themselves as worthy only as long as they receive approval for successfully completing important tasks ^{[7, p. 484]}.

In Russian works, self-esteem is also a combination of the rational and emotional sides of the personality. In particular, A. N. Leontiev states that self-esteem "is the result of a specific generalization of emotions" ^{[8, p. 304]}. In the works of I.I. Chesnokova, self-esteem also serves as an instrument of self-knowledge of an individual and consists of the sum of various components, creating a holistic image of the "I". I. I. Chesnokova writes that "experiences associated with self-awareness are generalized into an emotional and value attitude towards oneself. The generalized results of self-knowledge and emotional-value attitude towards oneself are fixed in self-esteem, which is included in the regulation of personality behavior as one of the defining motives" ^{[9, p. 89 (Cited in [10, p. 73]})].

The need for research is dictated by the changing conditions for obtaining language competencies (online, offline, mixed format), and, as a result, a change in students' self-perception of their knowledge.

The first approach to the study of issues of linguistic self-esteem on the basis of the Timiryazev Russian State Agrarian University-MSHA, in particular, the study of self-esteem of foreign speakers in the Russian language environment, was a study on the linguistic self-identification of Chinese students who studied online in China and offline in Russia ^{[11, p. 416]}.

The formation of self-esteem of foreign students is influenced in one way or another by a combination of internal and external factors: the temporal aspect, the success of socio-cultural adaptation ^{[12, p. 508],[13, p. 139]}, climate, the level of initial general education training in disciplines at home, interpersonal horizontal and hierarchical relations in a new environment, education, etc. D.

Linguistic self-esteem can be considered as part of the general concept of self-esteem, formed by the above factors.

Thus, linguistic self-esteem can be defined as a set of an individual's own socially, culturally and psychologically conditioned and emotionally colored ideas about the mastery of a language or languages.

Based on this definition, a research hypothesis is put forward, the essence of which is that there is a correlation between the level of linguistic self-esteem and the results of students learning Russian as a foreign language. It is assumed that students with consistently low linguistic self-esteem can successfully master the Russian language program than students with consistently real and consistently overestimated.

Based on this assumption, the purpose of the study is formed: to identify patterns found in previous studies based on surveys on linguistic self-esteem as a subspecies of self-esteem.

To achieve the presented goal, it was necessary to solve the following tasks:

1. Create a questionnaire and organize student surveys.

2. To identify and systematize the main types of self-assessment of students, depending on the level of language proficiency demonstrated on the exam.

3. To offer an interpretation of the formation of linguistic self-esteem.

In the previous studies conducted by O. S. Saikina ^{[11, p. 418]}, a discrepancy was found between the declared and the available levels of proficiency of Chinese students in the Russian language. The author points out the difference in the training formats as the reason for this discrepancy. Thus, students who did not study in Russia rated their own level of Russian higher than those students who already lived and studied in Russia at the time of the experiment.

This study examines the patterns of determining the level of students' own knowledge, most of whom studied full-time.

Two main types of linguistic self–esteem can be traced in the work - stable and changing.

Within a stable self–esteem, it is assumed to distinguish three types - real, overestimated and underestimated.

In changing self-esteem, one can trace rising and falling self-esteem. Thus, it is always suggested to identify 9 types of linguistic self-assessment.

Table 1

The study was conducted in several stages.

At the first stage, two surveys were conducted among foreign students of the preparatory department who studied full-time in the 2022-2023 academic year. The countries of the students are Iran, China, Vietnam, African and Latin American countries.

The surveys were conducted using the Google Forms platform.

The calculations of the answers were carried out in the Microsoft Excel program.

The surveys were offered to students in Russian and English. The vocabulary of the questions met the requirements of the First certification level (according to the website https://textometr.ru / ).

The survey structures contained one question each to check the respondents' understanding of the content of the questions.

In the first case, it was a question about the transport used in Moscow. If the student answered "autorickshaw" (public transport, which does not exist in Moscow), his questionnaire was not counted.

In the second survey, the answer was not counted if, of the suggested options, the student answered the question "Where do you usually buy food?": "On the bus."

91 people took part in the first survey, 89 questionnaires were recognized as valid.

55 people took part in the second survey. 53 questionnaires were recognized as valid.

The limitations of the method are related to the knowledge assessment system from 2 to 5 points. Not all types of self-assessment can be identified for students with different results. So, for students with an excellent result, it is impossible to establish the type of self-esteem "overestimated".

At the second stage of the study, survey data were analyzed and median self-esteem indicators for each survey were calculated.

Next, the relationship between the type of self-assessment and the final result was analyzed.

The results of the study are summarized and presented in the form of the following tables:

Table 2

Table 3

*-- - it is impossible to determine the presence due to the limitation of the method

Based on the analysis of available data, it was found that linguistic self-esteem can be stable and changing, that is, dynamically developing and forming in the learning process under the influence of external factors. One of the factors influencing the change in language self-esteem is the result of the Russian language exam.

The following types of language self-assessment are most widely represented among students at the preparatory department of the RGAU-MSHA in the 2022-2023 academic year, depending on the exam results:

For students with excellent results, low self–esteem;

For students with a "good" result, low self–esteem;

For students with a "satisfactory" result – understated, rising to real, real.

For students with an unsatisfactory result, it is a real one.

Thus, the survey results showed that the real level of knowledge of foreign students in 2023 is, on average, higher than their perceptions of it. At the same time, knowledge of the exam result affects the perception of the level of proficiency in the Russian language. However, the degree of this influence spreads unevenly among students: to a greater extent it is important for those students who passed the exam with an average score, and to a lesser extent for those who passed with "good" and "excellent".

At the same time, in the groups of students who passed the exams for "good" and "excellent", there are more in total those who, despite the results, consider their knowledge not to correspond to their assessment on the exam, assessing their own level of proficiency in Russian as low, and sometimes even lower than originally assumed (types of self-esteem "Declining to understated", "Rising, but still understated").

Overestimated self-esteem was revealed only in the group of students with average and low results.

The results raise a number of questions for practicing teachers of Russian as a foreign language.

On the one hand, low self-esteem demonstrates a correlation, according to the study, with a higher level of Russian language proficiency. In this case, the following explanations are possible:

A) students feel discomfort from their own ideas about the low level of Russian language proficiency and try to compensate for it, thus achieving higher results than expected.

Russians Russian language proficiency requirements for graduates of the preparatory faculty are overstated, which may be due to living in a linguistic environment among native speakers of the Russian language. Comparing their level with the level of native speakers, the student draws conclusions about their own low language level.

In both cases, the difference between the real situation and self-esteem is seen as a problem.

However, if we compare underestimated and overestimated self-esteem, it seems that in the latter case, this difference affects the result for the worse.

Thus, stating the difference in self-esteem, it would not be correct to say that in all cases it can negatively affect the learning outcome.

At the same time, the desire to create conditions for the formation of adequate linguistic self-esteem can be considered as a promising practical direction in teaching Russian as a foreign language. Thus, it is possible both to reduce the psychological discomfort for students with low linguistic self-esteem, and to make more realistic the expectations of students with an inflated one. Methods and techniques for achieving this result seem promising for research in the field of teaching methods of Russian as a foreign language.

Stability of self-esteem is also important. As can be seen from the survey results, stable real low self-esteem is associated with a "satisfactory" result. This fact, on the one hand, shows the predictability of the result and the adequacy of students' assessment of their own language level. On the other hand, this is associated with rigidity in the dynamics of language learning, which does not allow the student to claim a high result.

Speaking about the prospects for the study of linguistic self-esteem, it is planned to duplicate the survey for students who studied at the preparatory department in 2023-2024 in order to clarify the results.