Abstract: Abstract: The subject of this study is the cultural knowledge of international philology students about Russia. The paper contains the results of a survey that was conducted for several years (starting in 2014) among students of the Xinjiang State and Xinjiang Pedagogical Universities (PRC, Urumqi), who studied Russian for two years using the textbooks "Russian Language for Universities" (created in China) and came to Russian as a foreign language for a one-year internship (during their third year of studying Russian as a foreign language) at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (NGPU), with a B1 level in Russian. The purpose of the work is to present a system of diagnostic tasks that allow students to identify the initial knowledge of philologists about the culture of the country of the language being studied. The purpose of the work is to present a system of diagnostic tasks that allow one to identify the initial knowledge of philology students about the culture of the country of the language being studied and changes in their ideas about the realities of Russian culture at the end of their year of study, to determine the basic cultural and country-specific information acquired during training by carriers of systemically different cultural values. Analysis of pedagogical, methodological, and educational literature on the problems of teaching foreign languages, including Russian as a foreign language, questioning of foreign speakers to determine cultural and regional knowledge about Russia, a method of describing, generalizing, and systematizing the data obtained, a method of thematic classification of cultural studies material presented in textbooks and assignments performed by students. The novelty of the research is determined by the material introduced into scientific and methodological circulation, obtained as a result of a survey and questionnaire of international students of philology, and by allowing the study of the image of Russia that has developed among international students. The study's main conclusions are related to the developed and tested system of diagnostic materials aimed at determining the level of cultural and regional competence of international students. The materials obtained allow international philology students to identify the basic culturally-oriented knowledge about Russia that they have after studying outside the language environment, as well as to track the changes that have occurred in their ideas about Russian culture during their studies in Russia and draw conclusions about the dominant cultural values of Russia in the language consciousness of international students.

Keywords: socio-cultural competence, country-specific competence, ethnomethodics, cultural knowledge, training of foreign philology students, cultural competence, competencies, methods of teaching RCT, RCT, chinese students

Abstract: In his article Flerov analyzes the status of linguistic education in the current socio-economic environment of Russia. In the last century foreign languages were one of the most promising professional majors even despite the fact that Russia was a closed-off country. Nowadays linguistic education does not have such a high status and economics, management and law are in greater demand than foreign languages even though much is being said about the academic space, academic mobility and cross-cultural exchange. The object of the present research is the ability to speak a foreign language as a 'final product' of the process of linguistic education. The choice of the topic is conditioned by the fact that one's ability to speak a foreign language is a constant phenomenon despite changes with the labour market, educational standards, etc. The subject of the research is the image of a language expert as a professional under the conditions of a growing value of profession's financial component and simultaneous reduction in the number of workspaces where an expert in such a major may show himself or herself. From the methodological point of view, 'image' is a convenient category for analyzing the foresaid problem because it contains both cognitive and socio-economic features of a profession that are often differentiated or even opposed to one another.  According to the author of the present researh, synthesis of these two components allows to take a new look at gaps and problems in linguistic education, in particular, those related to the transfer of the education system to the two-level organizational structure. The author of the article concludes that image and popularity of education are two different phenomena even though these two terms often merge as a result of education marketing. On the other hand, there is no denying that difficulties of today's professional linguistic development are quite objective and partly caused by specific features of speaking a foreign language. The author assumes that it is possible to overcome these difficulties through developing the system of linguistic education, particularly, more efficient use of Master's degree programs as an independent level of linguistic education. The author also assumes that by analyzing vocational training based on special features of a particular professional major, it is possible to take a fresh look at traditional educational problems and issues. This gives fruit for the thought and material for further researches, especially, in order to develop particular solutions of the aforesaid problems and issues.   

Keywords: linguistic training, vocational choice, professional route, educational route, professional education, linguistic education, linguistic knowledge, educational image, linguistic competence, prestige of education

Abstract: In her research Kovaleva describes theoretical grounds and conceptual principles of her refl ective positional approach to scenario planning of personality development situations. She also analyzes a number of objective factors that determine transformation of maturity paths and personality development in the media culture. Based on the heritage of Lev Vygotsky, Aleksey Losev, Sergey Averintsev, and Mikhail Bakhtin, the researcher analyzes opportunities of personal growth in terms of comprehension of sign-image and symbolic grounds of the language in the creative space of group discussion of cultural patterns. Th e research focuses on the issues of creative self-consciousness development, subjective positionality and refl ective-hermeneutical competence of students. Th e framework for describing means and opportunities of development is formed taking into account analysis of factors that determine transformation of maturity paths and personality development in the media culture. Kovaleva describes the role of the ability to understand the metaphoric language of media texts as the necessary basis for developing subjective positionality. She illustrates principles and potential eff ects of media hermeneutics as the basic technology of the refl ective positional approach by discussing the Oscar-winning cartoon ‘Th e Old Man and the Sea’ directed by A. Petrov. Th e project discussion scenario composed based on refl exive actions and prospective creative forms of refl ection allows to provide conditions for creative understanding of the main ideas of the aforesaid cartoon in terms of one’s life and development tasks with reference to the objective cultural meaning of the author’s idea.

Keywords: cultural activity approach, media environment, refl exive positional approach, image, symbol, sign, media hermeneutics, refl ection, understanding, positionality.

Abstract: The subject of the research is the scientific and pegagogical heritage of Moisey Pistrak in the sphere of teacher education. For a long time the name of a repressed teacher and scientist Moisey Pistrak who had made a great contribution to the teacher education in Soviet Russia was very little known by the broad pedagogical community. The purpose of the present research is tho extend and clarify our concept of the processes happening in the sphere of teacher education of the 30s - 40s of the 20th century in Russia and near the Don River. In her research Melnikova describes the scientific biography of Moisey Pistrak and analyzes his scientific achievements from the point of view of contemporary issues of teacher education. The author's research based on the restrospective and biographical methods on made it all possible. In her research Melnikova has summarized and presented data obtained from state archives such as the Scientific Archive of the Russian Academy of Education, Archive of the Federal Security Service for the Rostov Region and Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Most Recent History. Most of these documents are studied and published for the first time in the academic literature. According to the author, the system of teacher education of the 1930s established the grounds for fundamental preparation of teachers based on the combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, provided the basis for experimental innovation activity aimed at creation of the labor school and developed programs for overall preparation of teachers, those programs forming the basis of the concept of pedagogical culture as well as the theory of personality-oriented education. 

Keywords: biographical method, scientific and pedagogical heritage, Moisey Pistrak, historical semantic content, Soviet labor school, teacher education, North Caucasus Research Pedagogical Institute, general cultural training, experimental work, fundamental training

Abstract: The subject of the research is the relationship between social knowledge and culture of scientific work. In terms of modern socio-humanitarian science, research traditions are a very topical issue reltaed to both intrascientific and would-be scientific tendencies. The former includes a quantitative growth of researches practically in all branches of knowledge which leads to the decrease in the quality and culture of scientific work. The would-be scientific tendencies include the fact that researches are often ordered by the government or other subjects. The main research method used by the author of the article is the problem analysis of the relationship between social knowledge and culture of scientific work, the author also uses the method of comparison. The main conclusions of the research are the following: 1) social knowledge obviously needs to improve the culture of research as a result of a growing number of researches in this sphere; 2) sociology is one of the spheres that 'present' research results based on applied methods, thus sociology should consider the need to follow the standards and norms of scientific work first and utmost. 

Keywords: social knowledge, cognition, norms, standards, values, sociology, society, culture, methodology, epistemology, problems of sociology

Abstract: The issue of quality of education was brought to attention during the Age of Enlightenment. The significance of modern-era spread of information technologies can only be compared with the invention of the printing press in XVth century, or even the emergence of the written word. Developing mental skills is an important goal of education, and knowledge is not the only thing education has to offer. Learning to think, analyze and compile, based on the knowledge received is also important. Knowledge and understanding are different things. One may know, but may not understand an idea in all its depth, or recognize all of its shades. Practical skill is only born from understanding.

Keywords: pedagogy, education, quality, Enlightenment, knowledge, understanding, intellect, creativity, personality, the mind.