Pedagogical model of digital support for educational activities in Russian outside the language environment

Introduction. The expansion of possible ways of popularizing the Russian language abroad in terms of implementing
economic, cultural, political, and educational goals actualizes the problem of developing and testing a model of digital
support for educational activities in Russian outside the language environment, including in African countries (primarily
with the support of the “Centers for Open Education in Russian and Russian Language Teaching”). Such a model
should provide students with inclusiveness, accessibility, equality, and different levels of mastery of not only the Russian
language and Russian culture, but also digital literacy as an element of digital literacy.
The purpose of the article is to describe a pedagogical model of digital support for educational activities in Russian outside
the language environment and to test its effectiveness in the context of teaching Russian language and Russian culture
in the Republic of Uganda.
Research methods. The study was conducted among students in the Republic of Uganda. 254 students took part in
the experimental work. We used the following methods: observation, questionnaires, methods for diagnosing the level of
knowledge of the Russian language and Russian culture, as well as digital etiquette. To test statistical hypotheses, the
Pearson chi-square test was used.
Results. Based on the comparative analysis of empirical data, statistical analysis, positive dynamics and an increase in
the values of indicators for various criteria – cognitive, motivational, practical – were established. The data indicate an
increase in the level of knowledge of the Russian language and Russian culture, knowledge of digital etiquette, motivation
for learning and experience in using the Russian language and digital knowledge in practice (χ 2 =77.021, p<0.01). The
proposed pedagogical model of digital support for educational activities in Russian outside the language environment has
shown effectiveness in teaching students from the Republic of Uganda.
Conclusion. The developed pedagogical model of digital support for educational activities can be used in African
countries that teach the Russian language and Russian culture outside of immersion in the language environment. The
work contributes to the theory and methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language.