Abstract: The subject of the study is the process of teaching German classes using video blogs not only as a means of teaching speaking and listening, but also as a means of forming socio-cultural competence. The article discusses the concept of "blog" and its role in the process of teaching German to students of higher educational institutions. The authors raise the question of the need to include Internet resources, in particular video blogs, in the educational process, the formation of students' socio-cultural competence, one of the components of foreign language communicative competence. This competence contributes to the acquisition of skills and knowledge necessary for effective intercultural communication. The main idea of using video blogs is the interrelated and complementary teaching of a foreign language and the culture of the language being studied in the context of intercultural dialogue. It is possible to extract valuable linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge from video blogs, to master models of speech behavior in various situations of intercultural communication. Also, video blogs contain up-to-date information on various topics and provide feedback opportunities that contribute to the formation of the ability to express and argue your point of view in German. As with any didactic tool, certain selection criteria are imposed on video blogs. With a competent selection and presentation of the material, the teacher will be able to form a foreign language competence of the student in a complex, taking into account all language levels: lexical, phonetic, grammatical, as well as extralinguistic factors, such as the communication situation, facial expressions, gestures, etc.

Abstract: Information era of the development of computer technologies and wide availability of Internet opens new opportunities for increasing the efficiency of educational process of foreign languages. The subject of this research is one of the modern and relevant directions in methodology of teaching German language – the corpus-based teaching.  Corpus-based technologies are used in teaching vocabulary, grammar, translation, in cross-cultural research, realization of project activities, as well as allow significantly increasing the quality of education, accelerate the process of acquisition and digestion of knowledge, increase motivation and interest in learning German language. Research methodology is based on the analysis of theoretical insights on the indicated problematic, normative documents, description and assessment of possible application of linguistic corpuses in learning and teaching German language. The achievements in the area of corpus-based linguistics can become widely used in the process of teaching German language.  Corpus-based approach is the most advanced innovation addition to the traditional teaching; it is optimal for understanding of such aspects of language as polysemy, historical, geographical and social variation, changes in language system. The key aspects of corpus-based teaching are the authenticity of material, Interdisiplinarity, empirical adequacy, adjustment to particular tasks and target groups, possibility of self-tuition.

Abstract: The article studies the conceptualization of the image of Russia in Germany during the period of 1990 – 2016. The research object is the conceptual background of the concepts interpreting the image of Russia. The author studies the example of the “Die Zeit” newspaper. To reconstruct the image of Russia, the author analyzes such key aspects as “size”, “economics”, “democracy”, “aggression”, and “political leader”. The topicality of the study is determined by the lack of scientific works about the linguistic representation of the image of a state, which is formed by the mass media and is the subject of discussion in political science, philosophy and history. In the context of the new cold war between Russia and the West with a prominent mass-media and information component, the author believes it is important to analyze the linguistic manipulation in mass-media aimed at the formation of a definite public opinion about Russia. The author uses the statistical, descriptive, interpretative and comparative methods, the method of continuous sampling and specific sampling and complex studies, and analysis of scientific works on this topic. Based on complex and diversified analysis of materials, the authors conclude that against the background of cooperation between Russia and Germany, mass media create the negative image of Russia, to a large extent based on stereotypes, but having dynamic features. In general, in Germans’ worldview, Russia is a huge country with low-developed economy, absence of democracy, pursuing aggressive policy. The authoritativeness of Russian leaders in the country often doesn’t correlate with the attitude towards them abroad. During the period under study, the image of Russia in the German mass media has changed several times. The positive dynamics has been observed in the recent year.