Chinese Philology Students Studying Russian's Cultural Knowledge of Russia (Based on the Results of a Diagnostic Questionnaire)

Bokareva Yuliya Mikhailovna PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Modern Russian Language and Methods of Its Teaching, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University 630126, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Vilyuiskaya str., 28 yuliamihail@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Novoselova Ol'ga Arkad'evna PhD in Philology Department of Modern Russian Language and Methods of Its Teaching, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University 630126, Russia, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, Vilyuiskaya str., 28 novoselova.olya2011@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Previously published in Russian in the journal Pedagogy and Education.

This work's relevance is due to modern trends in developing methods and practices for teaching Russian as a foreign language (RCT). Currently, the methodology for teaching foreign languages focuses on the interrelated teaching of language and culture, as well as the cultural component of the educational process, especially in the absence of an authentic language environment.

According to results from V.D. Gorbenko, T.N. Dominova, N.O. Ilyina, Yu.A. Kumbasheva, and M.V. Mityakova's Content Analysis of the Most Relevant Directions in the Teaching Methodology of RCT Over the Past 5 Years, "linguistic, communicative, cultural, and anthropocentric" directions were identified ^{[1, p. 260]}

At present, in the development of the methodology of language education, one of the urgent tasks is the formation of students' communicative competence, an important component in the structure of which is cultural (regional, socio-cultural in a broad sense) competence (sub-competence), which requires familiarization with significant social and cultural realities of the country of the language being studied [2–4]. It emphasizes the need to develop skills not only in all types of speech activity but also to transfer knowledge about foreign cultures, broaden the horizons of foreign-speaking students, and stimulate their interest in learning a new language and a new culture [5–7]

This requirement is especially relevant in preparing foreign philology students [8–10]. It is noted that with a competency-based (along with a personal-activity) approach to their training, a linguo-culturological component ^[9] or conceptually close country studies, cultural studies ^{[6; 11]} is included in the composition of the proper professional competence, along with others, when culture acts as "one of the objects of learning" along with language and speech, L. P. Klobukova, L. V. Krasilnikova, A. G. Matyushenko, defining the specifics of the training of foreign philology students, suggest that as an “extremely important part of the communicative competence for future teachers of the Russian language and literature” to allocate a cultural and regional component to them as "they are in the process of being able to successfully form the image of Russia in students' professional activities and transfer their knowledge about Russian culture in all its diversity to them" ^{[10, pp. 95–96]}.

The cultural orientation of the training allows students to develop the ability to engage in intercultural communication, which is especially important for carriers of systemically different cultural values.

The relevance of the work also lies in its orientation to one of the modern areas of linguistics—imagology, which studies the image of the country. Researchers point to the need to form a positive image of Russia in the international educational space [see, for example, 13–14]. In this connection, it seems important to develop tasks that allow us to diagnose the formation of cultural and regional competence, the amount of cultural knowledge about Russia among international students, and the image of the country of the language being studied in their worldview.

The theoretical basis of this research was the works devoted to the main problems of linguo-culturology and linguistics, which occupy an important place when teaching Russian as a foreign language ^{[2; 6; 8; 11]}, research in the field of imagology [14–15], publications of methodologists, considering the main problems of teaching foreign languages, including Russian as a foreign language, concerning the subject content of culturological and competence-based approaches in language education, the integrative principle of familiarizing students through language with the culture of the country of the language being studied ^{[2; 5; 7; 16–21]}, Russian language teaching works devoted to the problems of ethno-oriented approaches to teaching Russian as a foreign language [22–26], as well as the works of methodologists and teachers of the Russian language from the People's Republic of China, considering relevant the issues of training Chinese students—future philologists in the absence of an authentic language environment: consistency in teaching regional studies material, the development of students' ability to navigate in a foreign language culture, criteria for the selection of regional studies, including factual information that contributes to the formation of cultural competence [27–33].

Russian for Universities' series "Vostok" (parts 1–4), created by Chinese-Russian scholars, became the empirical basis of the study, according to which foreign trainee students studied the Russian language for two years before coming to Russia (language material of exercises on phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and speech development, texts for reading):

1. Shi Teqiang & Zhang Jinlan. (2008). Russian language in universities (1). Beijing: Publishing House of Teaching and Research of Foreign Languages. p. 349.

2. Liu Sumei. (2010). Russian language in universities (2). Beijing: Publishing House of Teaching and Research of Foreign Languages. p. 424.

3. Huang Mei. (2010). Russian language in universities (3). Beijing: Publishing House of Teaching and Research of Foreign Languages. p. 445.

4. Zhang Chaoyi. (2011). Russian language in universities (4). Beijing: Publishing House of Teaching and Research of Foreign Languages. p. 280.;

Russian as a foreign language 2) materials of the questionnaire of students of the Xinjiang State and Xinjiang Pedagogical Universities (PRC, Urumqi), who came under the academic mobility program for a one-year internship (3rd year of studying Russian as a foreign language) to Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (NGPU), with a level of proficiency in Russian in the amount of 1 certification level (B1) for several years: a) materials of the entrance questionnaire, allowing to reveal knowledge about the culture of the country from Chinese philology students who came to Russia; b) materials of the final questionnaire, showing changes in the ideas about the realities of Russian culture among trainees at the end of the academic year.

In the process of teaching foreign philology students the Russian language, the development of cultural and regional competence (according to L. P. Klobukova) is one of the leading tasks ^{[10; 12; 29; 30; 32; 34–35]}, which includes cultural knowledge about the country of the language being studied, works of art, outstanding figures of culture and science, the objects and phenomena of traditional Russian life, and traditions, rituals, and customs.

When teaching RCT, "an appeal to culture is made not just to illustrate linguistic phenomena, but to familiarize with it, evaluate and understand it" ^{[7, p. 49]}. This is consistent with the tasks of training "comprehensively developed Russian graduates" in the PRC "in accordance with the requirements of the concept of "One Belt and One Road" ^{[32, p. 172]}, which are guided by methodologists and teachers of the Russian language in China as part of the reforms in the education sector of the PRC. It is noted that "future Russian graduates should not only be able to "understand by ear, speak, read, write and translate but also have knowledge about Russia" ^{[32, p. 172]}. This implies "strengthening the cultural component in their language and professional training" ^[29].

When it comes to Russian language teaching as part of a cultural approach, we have attempted to establish what information about Russian culture the philology students who studied Russian in China and came to Russia for an internship in the third year possess in order to determine their basic ideas about Russian culture, their preferences and interests, and some common trends in the development of cultural and regional competence.

To understand what cultural phenomena Chinese students who have studied Russian in China for two years may know, the first four parts of the Vostok series textbook "Russian Language for Universities" were analyzed. We will present the collected materials from textbooks, grouping the nominations of the phenomena of Russian culture on a thematic basis.

Architecture: Red Square, Kremlin, Monument to Alexander Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman," Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral, Assumption Cathedral, Annunciation Cathedral, Ivan the Great Bell Tower, Pokrovsky Cathedral/St. Basil's Cathedral, etc.

Literature: "The Word about Igor's Regiment," A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov, I.S. Turgenev, A.A. Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, I. Bunin, M. Gorky, M. Sholokhov, Ostrovsky, P. Bazhov, A.B. Chakovsky, Sergey Mikhalkov, V. Aksenov, S. Dovlatov, etc.; "Ruslan and Lyudmila," "The Bronze Horseman," "Eugene Onegin," "The Captain's Daughter", "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish," "Hero of Our Time," "Dead Souls," "The Inspector," "Fathers and Children," "Crime and Punishment," "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," "Resurrection," "The Man in the Case," "Cherry Orchard," "Mother," "Quiet Don," etc.

Pushkin's poems, Chekhov's stories, Rasputin's novel.

Texts suggested for reading: M.Y. Lermontov's "Sail" (text with translation), A. Tolstoy's "Russian Character," P. Bazhov's "Stone Flower," V.M. Shukshin's "Exam," S. Dovlatov's "Crepe Finnish Socks," etc.

Music: P.I. Tchaikovsky, D.D. Shostakovich, opera "Prince Igor" by A.P. Borodin.

Visual art: Andrey Rublev, Ilya Repin, Vasily Surikov "Boyar Morozova," Isaac Levitan, Viktor Vasnetsov "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf,” etc.

Theater: Mayakovsky Theater, Bolshoi Theater, Maly Theater, Mariinsky Theater, BDT. Tovstonogova.

Movies: "Anna Karenina," "The Siberian Barber" by Nikita Mikhalkov, and Oleg Menshikov, films by E. Ryazanov, "Irony of Fate, or with a light steam!", "Office Romance," "Train Station for Two," "Cruel Romance," the film by George Danelia, "I'm walking around Moscow," etc.

Handicrafts: samovar, matryoshka, khokhloma, Pavlovsky Posad shawl.

The analysis of cultural materials of the textbook "Russian Language for Universities" from the "Vostok" series shows that:

– there is a lot of information about Russian culture in Russian language textbooks created in China; they are diverse and from different cultural spheres;

– information about the realities of Russian culture is given in special sections; for example, in the first part, there is an "About Russia" section. In the third part, there is a heading "It's interesting" containing information about Russia, as well as the materials of exercises on phonetics, tasks on grammar and vocabulary in the section "Speech Development," and the texts for reading, visualization, and educational material tools are used—cultural information is accompanied on the pages of the textbook by photographs of sights, reproductions of paintings by Russian artists and portraits of cultural and art figures;

– a concentric way of presenting the material was chosen as the leading one in the textbooks, in which the compilers of the textbook return to the once-named phenomenon of culture in subsequent topics and parts, each time adding new information, deepening it, for example: in the second part of the book, the name "monument to Pushkin" is given, and in the third, there is an expansion of information: "Monument to A. S. Pushkin in the center of Moscow, sculptor A.M. Opekushin." In the fourth, the name of the monument is repeated once again, and the poet's name is given in full: "Monument to Alexander Pushkin."

This principle of arranging educational material provides accessibility—the transition "from easy to difficult," "from what has already been learned to the new," and openness—the possibility of deepening and expanding what was previously studied and considering students’ needs.

Russian textbooks for Chinese students have been analyzed to show that they contain texts devoted to specific facts of Russian culture (events, monuments, personalities). Still, materials reflecting the Russian-Chinese dialogue of cultures are practically absent. Researchers of the cultural approach in teaching foreign languages note that knowledge about a foreign culture is perceived through comparison with native culture; based on contrast, the facts of Russian culture are evaluated, and a personal attitude toward them is formed ^{[6; 16]}.

The textbook materials that students use to study in China help establish what language base they should possess, including culturally oriented knowledge. The analysis results allow the teacher to take into account what students have already studied in order to update the acquired knowledge in further work and replenish and expand this knowledge, which contributes to the development of cultural and regional competence among philology students.

At the beginning of the academic year, when Chinese students are interning at the NGPU, they are asked to complete several tasks to understand what knowledge they have after studying outside the language environment, as well as to arouse interest in Russian culture, understanding its global significance and motivation to study it.

As an example, here are three tasks that were offered to trainees in September 2023:

Task 1. Write down what phenomena of Russian culture you know. The following incentives were given to students: universities, architecture, ballet, painting, cinema, literature, music, folk crafts, theater, monuments, museums, holidays, Russian cuisine, etc.

Here are the responses and reactions of students of the PRC (September 2023); they are typed in italics next to the number of responses as a percentage of the total number received.

Scientists – Pushkin 20%, Russian 20%

Universities – NGPU 100%, MSU 20%, NSU 20%

Architecture – Red Square 20%

Ballet – "Swan Lake" 20%

Movies – "Masha and the Bear" 20%, "War and Peace" 20%, "And the Dawns are Quiet Here" 20%

Literature – "War and Peace" 20%

Music – youth 20%, "Swan Lake" 20%

Folk crafts – hunting 20%, matryoshka 20%

Theater – Bolshoi Theater 20%,

Museums – Hermitage 20%

Holidays – Victory Day 60%, New Year 20%

Dishes of Russian cuisine – Pancakes 60%, borscht 40%, soup 40%, meat 20%

The answers from the Chinese interns show that they have some knowledge about Russian literature, theater, cinema, etc. (this is evidenced by the reactions to War and Peace, the Bolshoi Theater, Swan Lake, And the Dawns are Quiet Here, Matryoshka, Victory Day, etc.), but they are few and superficial. Pushkin's reaction to the stimulus, scientists think, suggests that students have learned the precedent name, but they do not know exactly what area of culture it is associated with. There are incentives for the task that remain unanswered: painting, monuments, clothing.

The second task tests the knowledge of cultural studies materials from the textbook "Russian Language for Universities," which the students who participated in the survey studied in China for two years (Table 1).

Task 2. Fill in the right column of the table by answering the questions: Who is it? What is it?

The purpose of the proposed task is to determine whether students know/remember the names they studied while being taught Russian in their homeland (these names were presented repeatedly in educational materials), whether they understand which sphere of culture these lexical units relate to, and with which cultural realities they are connected—through the indication of a generic concept.

Table 1. Responses of Chinese students (September 2023)

Table 1 shows that 100% of the correct answers were given to the stimuli Pushkin and L. N. Tolstoy, 80% – F. M. Dostoevsky and Christmas. The interviewed students did not find out/did not remember which area of culture the stimuli "Arguments and Facts," "Boyar Morozova," D. S. Likhachev, "Irony of Fate, or with a light steam," N. Mikhalkov, Armory Chamber, "What? Where? When?", and E. Ryazanov. In general, students from this group do not know the names of paintings, films, scientists, or film directors presented in the textbooks for the first two courses.

The third task was completed after watching the video of the first part of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sochi's show Dreams about Russia, which is called Alphabet. In the video, "the most significant, civilizational, national, universal values and achievements of Russia at different times and in different epochs in literature, art, science and technology (technology)" are named in alphabetical order ^{[36, p. 154]}, as well as historical milestones and geographical attractions: A – ABC, B – Baikal, C – Sikorsky helicopter, G – Gagarin, D – Dostoevsky, E – Catherine the Second, E – "Hedgehog in the Fog", Z – Zhukovsky, Z – Grain Harvester, I – Empire, Y – Tchaikovsky, K – Kandinsky, L – Lunokhod, M – Malevich, N – Nabokov, O – Orbital Station, P – Periodic Table, P – Russian Ballet, C – Satellite, T – Tolstoy. Television, U – Ushanka, F – Fisht, X – Khokhloma, C – Tsiolkovsky, H – Chekhov, Sh – Chagall, Sh– Shchusev, B – Pushkin, Y – We, B – Love, E – Eisenstein, Y – Parachute, I – Russia.

In the video, nominations related to the sphere of art make up 48% of the total number of named cultural realities, with the sphere of science and technology (including space research) making up 30%. This indicates that the video's creators sought to create an image of a country whose symbols are works of art, achievements in art, scientific discoveries, and successes in space exploration.

Almost none of the cultural phenomena listed in the video relate to everyday realities: only the ushanka is named, probably because this headdress is perceived worldwide as one of Russia's national symbols. Dishes of national cuisine, for example, were unnamed.

After getting acquainted with the video, students are invited to present their alphabet, naming what is important, from their point of view, to the phenomena of Russian culture. The students' answers are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Responses of Chinese students (September 2023)

*Repeats from the video are given in parentheses. The number indicates the number of identical student responses.

It is noteworthy that in the answers of students of this group, almost no specific cultural phenomena are named (names of cultural figures, works of art, etc.). Still, general directions, spheres of culture, or generic concepts are presented (such answers in Table 2 are highlighted in bold), for example, architecture, literature, music, painting, ballet, culture, attraction, museum, holiday, film, etc.

The students' answers received during the assignment can be grouped according to the thematic principle in accordance with the spheres of culture presented in the video.

Common names of cultural realities: culture, attraction, museum, circus

Architecture: architecture, Red Square

Literature: literature, proverb

Music: music, lullabies, songs (Tchaikovsky)

Fine arts: painting, art (Malevich)

Theater: ballet, dance

Movie: movie (Hedgehog in the Fog)

Handicrafts: matryoshka (Khokhloma)

Russian traditions: Christmas tree, games, holiday

National dishes and drinks: dishes, cuisine, pancake, vodka, dessert, kvass, soup, bread, black bread

Clothing: clothing

Education: (ABC), alphabet, education

Etiquette: etiquette, table etiquette

Science, technology: (Gagarin), (lunokhod), scientific, aircraft, technical

History: history, wars, East Slavic, power (Catherine the Second), international, Soviet time, revolution, tsar, shield

State symbols: flag, coat of arms, anthem

The students' responses included unnamed writers and poets, artists, composers, and works of literature and art.

Answers that were not included in any group were sports, Russian characters, gods, cities, geography, animals, winter, climate, plants, and tourism (I am Russia). It should be noted that all of them have a regional orientation. For example, Russian characters, animals, plants (which are in Russia), (Russian) winter, (Russian) climate, (Russian) sports—these are phenomena that have differences, their own specifics in different national pictures of the world.

The results obtained show the peculiarities of assimilating cultural information in the absence of an authentic cultural environment: the studied lexical units denoting spheres, cultural trends, generic, generalized names of cultural realities (landmark, architecture, painting, etc., included in the Lexical minimum for Russian as a foreign language of the first certification level) were remembered and reproduced, what is filled with nationally oriented specifics in different cultures is connected with the value representations of native speakers of the studied language and, from the point of view of students, is significant in Russian culture, as, in fact, in their native one. This indicates the consolidation in the consciousness (in the lexical and semantic stock of the linguistic personality) of common cultural elements (architecture, cinema, music, literature, painting) at this stage of language proficiency, meaningfully unrelated (not supported by background knowledge) with the ethnocultural features of the country of the language being studied, specific facts, names, foreign cultural achievements, cultural and country-specific information remains not assimilated due to inactivity, lack of demand, and lack of motivation.

The survey conducted at the beginning of the academic year allows us to determine the initial knowledge of students, in general, to make a "cultural portrait" of the group, reflecting students' ideas about Russian culture, the level of formation of their cultural and country-specific competence, i.e., to identify which areas of culture (literature, music, architecture, fine arts, Russian traditions) knowledge students have practically no knowledge about which ones are not enough (group students give 1–2 correct answers), about which cultural realities students know well (there are many correct answers/more than two and they are diverse). They compiled a "cultural portrait," which allows the teacher to identify "cultural gaps," to understand what should be paid attention to during the year, what information of the cultural and country-specific plan should be introduced into texts, assignments, tests, what forms of work can be offered taking into account the linguistic and cultural specifics of students, to suggest ways to expand the initial knowledge. The results of 2023 indicate that foreign students have learned the words naming the directions and areas of culture but are almost not familiar with works of art. Therefore, in the course of training, the teacher will need to pay attention to specific works of painting, cinema, architecture, as well as national customs and traditions.

"Cultural portraits," according to the survey results of groups of students, are different in different years. Even though the textbooks they study in China are the same, the universities from which interns come to NGPU are the same. However, the social conditions and forms of education and the students' training level are changing. Thus, the responses of students in one of the groups contained many reactions related to politics, with communist ideology (Lenin, the Communist Party, Pavel Korchagin, N. Ostrovsky, Lenin's mausoleum, etc.). In contrast, in the other group, culturally oriented vocabulary prevailed, and ideologically colored themes weakened.

At the end of the academic year, after students have studied Russia for one year, they are again invited to compose their own alphabet of Russian culture, naming what they consider important in Russian culture. The teacher's task is to make a comparative analysis of the answers received during the final questionnaire with those given at the beginning of the academic year and to trace what changes in ideas about cultural values occurred during the year while these students studied and lived in Russia, traveled around the country (visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities), evaluate the effectiveness of selected teaching methods, educational materials, and ways of transmitting cultural knowledge and information about culture.

We present the results of the responses of student trainees from the 2015–2016 academic year as an example of a comparative analysis of diagnostic materials collected during the entrance and final surveys.

The analysis of these answers shows which facts and information about the cultural realities of Russia were preserved in the answers of foreign speakers (stable, relevant knowledge), which information presented at the beginning of the year was not repeated at the end of the training, and what new culturally oriented knowledge philology students acquired (a dynamic aspect of cultural and regional competence).

1. The list of Russian writers and poets named by Chinese students became less diverse by the end of the year: 11 writers and poets were named at the beginning of the year, and 7 were named at the end of the year.

Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chekhov remained. Such names as Radishchev, Ostrovsky, Gorky, A. Tolstoy, Yesenin, Sholokhov, and Evgeny Charushin did not repeat. Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Zhukovsky appeared. The total number of responses in which writers and poets are named as symbols of culture has practically not changed: at the beginning of the year, there were 24 such responses, and at the end, 23.

2. At the beginning of the school year, several people named specific literary works (Winter Oak, Hero of Our Time, To Chaadayev). Although these were isolated reactions, the participants of the experiment associated the names of literary works with the Cultural Fund of Russia. At the end of the school year, not a single literary work was mentioned in their responses.

3. The number of names of literary heroes also decreased in students' responses: Anna Karenina, Zhivago, and Eugene Onegin at the beginning of the year and Pechorin and Cinderella at the end of the year.

4. Significant changes have occurred in the group of responses naming architectural ensembles, structures, and monuments. If, at the beginning of the year, students recorded only 20 reactions related to architecture, then at the end of the year, this list has significantly expanded to 69 reactions. The answers were unchanged : Cathedral, temple, Shchusev, Red Square, Kremlin. At the end of the year, the reactions chapel, Nevsky Prospekt, Arbat were not given (the students saw the Chapel as one of the first sights, getting acquainted with Novosibirsk shortly after arriving in Russia, and the names Nevsky Prospekt, Arbat were learned by them in China). New answers included architecture, towers, palace, bell towers; specific names of attractions appeared: St. Isaac's Cathedral, Assumption Cathedral, Church on Blood, Kazan Cathedral, Winter Palace, Archangel Cathedral, St. Sophia Cathedral, Summer Garden, Peterhof, Ivanovskaya Square, Tsaritsyno. These changes are explained by the fact that students traveled around Russia, visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, saw a lot, and emotionally perceived.

5. In the heading "Museums" at the beginning of the year, 2 museums were named: the Hermitage (8 answers) and the Russian Museum (3 answers), and the word museum itself was indicated (1), and at the end of the year, the Hermitage appeared in 18 answers, such an increase is because students had a chance to visit this museum and the impression of it turned out to be more vivid, memorable.

6. Small changes can be noted in the fields of music, fine arts, theater, and cinema. At the beginning of the year, Tchaikovsky and Glinka were presented; at the end, only Tchaikovsky, whose works students listened to during the year.

In the responses related to theater, the name of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker remained unchanged. At the end of the year, other ballets were added, including Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, which students watched in Russia.

In fine arts, at the beginning of the year, the names of artists were given in the alphabet: Levitan, Repin, the word landscape, and at the end, only Shishkin.

7. Although the answers, which present Russian holidays, were more diverse at the beginning of the training (Victory Day, Christmas, Knowledge Day, Maslenitsa, Easter), in the end, only the name of one holiday made the strongest impression, Victory Day. This group can also include the Immortal Regiment reaction associated with this Day.

8. The nominations of national dishes and drinks became more diverse: at the beginning of the year, bread, borscht, cabbage soup, vodka, and kvass were given, and at the end, pancakes, borscht, cabbage soup, soup, kvass, okroshka, that is, first of all, those dishes that were tasted, liked and remembered were called. We noticed that students came to our country with the conviction that all Russians drink vodka, and at the beginning of their studies in Russia, the word vodka appeared in the answers of three people and alcohol by one person. At the end of the school year, there were no such reactions. Perhaps this indicates that the idea of Russian drunkenness/drinking culture has changed.

9. In the reactions naming handicrafts, in addition to the words matryoshka and samovar (which were at the beginning of the year), gzhel, Khokhloma, and casket appeared, which indicates a thematic expansion of the vocabulary associated with Russian folk crafts.

Russian survey materials have shown that students learn a lot about Russian culture in China while learning Russian. During their year of studying in Russia, their ideas about the symbols of Russian culture changed. Some specific names of works of art and the names of artists who were learned before coming to Russia have been forgotten. At the same time, the answers at the end of the academic year showed significant changes in the subject content of the cultural and country-specific competence of Chinese trainees—on the one hand, due to the updating of information gleaned from textbooks on the Russian language during direct acquaintance with the sights of Russia, and on the other hand, due to the acquisition of new culturally-oriented knowledge through their perception, memorization and comprehension, which is especially important for carriers of systemically different cultural values ^{[29; 30; 33]}.

The general humanitarian plan's topics (family relations, education, traditions, and customs), which also include a cultural component (literature, art, folk crafts, etc.), allow you to acquire basic knowledge about foreign cultural values during training and develop the skills and abilities necessary for intercultural interaction.

The results obtained indicate that with purposeful, systematic work on the development of cultural and country-specific competence, international students gain knowledge in those areas that the teacher paid attention to during the year as relevant and significant in the Russian picture of the world, including in cultural spheres poorly mastered by students (judging by materials of the entrance questionnaire) during the period of study in the absence of an authentic language and cultural environment. Russian students became acquainted with the monuments of Russian architecture and paintings during the 2015–2016 academic year on excursions and took part in Russian holidays, so at the end of the academic year, the answers of foreign speakers related to these areas of culture became more diverse and reflected what was learned, emotionally perceived during direct acquaintance with the sights of culture, with the Russian way of life and the traditions of Russia.

Thus, the following conclusions can be drawn:

The Russian for Universities textbook (parts 1–4), developed in China for philology students, shows the cultural materials of the Russian culture, which they got acquainted with when studying the Russian language in their country.

The input diagnostics materials, for which three tasks are presented as an example in this article, allow us to establish what knowledge and in what areas of culture the students who have arrived possess and what kind of "cultural gaps" are found.

The materials of the final survey show the changes in international students' perceptions about Russia's culture over the year. As a final task, you can suggest creating your own alphabet of Russian culture, indicating the cultural realities of Russia that are significant from the point of view of foreign speakers.

A comparative analysis of the results obtained during the survey allows us to draw conclusions about the basic cultural values of Russia in the picture of the world of Chinese philology students. It seems that the basic cultural knowledge includes precedent names from different spheres of culture, which remained unchanged in the answers of students at the beginning and at the end of their studies in Russia: the names of Russian classics (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Levitan, Repin), the names of architectural structures (Kremlin, Red Square), museums (Hermitage, Russian Museum), ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty). Russian folk crafts (matryoshka, samovar) and dishes of national Russian cuisine (bread, borscht, kvass, cabbage soup, pancakes) are also included in the basic cultural knowledge.

Students learn the presented precedent names and names of cultural realities while studying outside the language environment, as evidenced by the materials of textbooks "Russian for Universities." These precedent names and titles are associated with the dominant cultural values of Russia in the linguistic consciousness of international students.

This work's practical significance lies in the possibility of using the developed diagnostic materials in teaching Russian as a foreign language while developing cultural and regional competence among philology students as an integral part of professionally oriented competence. The results of the survey of international students and the analysis of the cultural content of textbooks may be in demand in improving the professional competence of foreign teachers of Russian studies.

We see prospects for further research in the possibility of studying the material collected during the survey to analyze Russia's image in the representations of international students and China's system of cultural values.