International Journal of Pedagogics
115
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijp
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue05 2025
PAGE NO.
115-118
10.37547/ijp/Volume05Issue05-28
Techniques for Reading Texts in Russian Language Classes at
Technical Universities
Mavjuda Khabibullayevna Abdullaeva
Lecturer in Russian Language, Department of Uzbek Language and Language Teaching, Fergana State Technical University, Uzbekistan
Received:
17 March 2025;
Accepted:
13 April 2025;
Published:
15 May 2025
Abstract:
This article focuses on the development of speech skills in foreign students learning Russian as a foreign
language in technical universities. It presents methods aimed at expanding students' vocabulary and discusses
approaches to organizing skimming, scanning, and intensive reading. Examples of lexical, grammatical, and
syntactic exercises aimed at developing both oral and written speech are provided. The proposed task formats
help students better understand the structure of scientific texts. An integrated approach to such tasks contributes
to the development of the ability to use specialized literature in future professional activities.
Keywords:
Professional vocabulary, speech development, Russian language, reading, scientific style, foreign
language, technical terminology.
Each state and nation is strong, first and foremost, through its intellectual potential and high spirituality. The
source of this invincible power is books and libraries
—
the great invention of humanity.
—
President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Introduction:
“Place your heart in reading,” said the
Egyptian Khordi over 5,500 years ago. Reading, books,
and libraries have always attracted the greatest minds
throughout human history.
The invention of writing and printing are among the
greatest achievements of civilization
—
without them,
civilization itself would have been impossible. Reading
is a universal form of speech activity, as it allows
individuals to acquire new knowledge, improve their
vocabulary and grammar, and broaden their linguistic
and cultural horizons. Reading in a foreign language, in
particular, holds great potential in this regard. Texts
serve as the primary source of information in a foreign
language, and reading, in turn, is a leading type of
speech activity that helps improve speaking skills.
Speech development and the formation of speech skills
are key aspects of modern methods for teaching
Russian as a foreign language. Special attention in
teaching first-year students at technical universities is
given to working with professionally oriented texts.
This helps them master the language of their future
profession and the scientific style as a whole. The main
difficulty lies in learning technical terminology and
specialized vocabulary. To ease this process, it is
important to regularly practice reading scientific and
popular science materials and to complete exercises
involving professional vocabulary.
At the initial stage of instruction, first-year students
undergo a remedial course in Russian grammar, which
includes sections on morphology and syntax.
At this stage, the instructor seeks to activate students’
professional vocabulary and develop their ability to use
technical terms in professional communication.
Particular emphasis in practical Russian language
classes is placed on intensive reading of specialized
literature, which facilitates deeper retention of
professional terminology. To assess how well this
vocabulary has been acquired, gap-fill tasks are used,
requiring students to insert appropriate terms. These
methods aim to overcome lexical and grammatical
difficulties, as foreign students often understand only
part of the information presented during lectures. This
is due not only to the fast pace of speech but also to
their limited vocabulary, which hinders their
participation in oral responses during lessons. Word
formation exercises are an effective supplement to
International Journal of Pedagogics
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
learning. Mastery of suffixes and the ability to form
deverbal nouns contribute to expanding the active
vocabulary of foreign students.
The syntactic component of the remedial course
includes a set of exercises aimed at analyzing simple
and complex sentences, as well as studying word order
typical of the scientific style. Students are taught the
principles for identifying the grammatical structure of a
sentence, including methods for determining the
subject, predicate, and objects by asking guiding
questions. To ensure better understanding, individual
words and phrases are analyzed, and their syntactic
function within the sentence structure is clarified.
In the second half of the semester, practical lessons are
focused on working with professional texts. The main
goal is to teach foreign students in technical fields to
understand Russian-language literature in their area of
specialization without using a dictionary. Educational
materials include not only textbooks, but also articles
from specialized journals and popular science
publications. Reading without translation helps
students acquire and retain professional vocabulary
and develop skills in constructing oral statements on
topics related to their field.
Although translating into the native language helps
students better understand the text, it simultaneously
hinders the deep assimilation of lexical and
grammatical material. Therefore, when working with
scientific texts, it is important not only to check
students' knowledge of words and their meanings, but
also to monitor how confidently they use this
vocabulary in speech. To achieve this, it is necessary to
apply exercises that activate vocabulary: students not
only retell the text but also discuss its content and
express their own opinions. Such activities contribute
to moving words from passive to active vocabulary and
promote better mastery of scientific expressions and
grammatical constructions.
There are three types of reading: scanning, skimming,
and intensive reading. The goal of scanning is to quickly
determine whether a text contains the necessary
information and to identify its main topics. This type of
reading requires the ability to understand titles,
subtitles, and analyze the overall structure of the text.
It implies a high speed of perception
—
students should
scan the text by paragraph rather than reading it word
for word, and without relying on translation.
Skimming involves the ability to quickly find segments
of the text that contain essential information. However,
this type of reading often presents difficulties for
foreign students due to insufficient language
proficiency, which prevents them from distinguishing
between important and secondary content. To ease the
process, the teacher precedes reading with a set of
questions that introduce the topic and focus students’
attention.
Intensive reading is aimed at deep comprehension and
interpretation of the content. Students must be able to
identify both primary and supporting information,
answer questions about the text, and develop
statements based on what they’ve read. When
encountering unfamiliar words, they may rely on
contextual guessing. Intensive reading is most
commonly used in the first year of study.
In Russian as a foreign language classes, complex
grammatical topics are reviewed and specialized
terminology is introduced. Foreign students generally
learn to identify syntactic elements, break down
complex sentences, and understand complex words
and the principles of word formation. Nevertheless,
when reading scientific texts, students often
misidentify grammatical forms, which leads to a
distortion of meaning. Typically, they can easily find the
predicate expressed by a verb, as it is clearly presented.
Accurate identification of the subject and predicate
significantly facilitates comprehension.
Students often confuse syntactic roles of words
—
for
example, they may mistake a noun in an oblique case
for the subject, and a noun in the nominative case for
an object. This leads to misinterpretation of the
meaning. In such cases, the teacher explains that the
subject is generally a noun in the nominative case. For
instance, in the sentence “The path to increasing the
strength of concrete lies through crushing materials
into the smallest particles,” students may mistakenly
consider the phrase “smallest particles” to be the
subject, and the word “path” the object. Similar errors
occur in the sentence “Reinforced concrete structures
are capable of assuming various structural and
architectural forms.”
When analyzing sentences, students must not only
identify the main and secondary components but also
be able to ask clarifying questions, determine the
connection between a participial phrase and the word
it modifies, and transform simple sentences with
participles into complex ones.
During syntactic analysis, students’ attention is drawn
to word order within the sentence. In cases where one
noun follows another, the second is usually placed in
the genitive case. For example: technique of
constructing high-rise buildings, application of
concrete, use of a cross-ventilation system. If a student
has difficulty determining the gender of a noun, the
word is first written in the nominative case, and then
word combinations are created using the correct case
forms.
International Journal of Pedagogics
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International Journal of Pedagogics (ISSN: 2771-2281)
When a student does not know the meaning of a
preposition, the teacher first explains the meaning of
the verb, after which phrases are constructed to
illustrate verb governance. Then the subject is
identified, and only afterward is the entire sentence
analyzed.
If a sentence contains a noun with a preposition, the
teacher explains whether the preposition depends on
the verb or the noun. In doing so, the topic of verbal
versus nominal governance is revisited. For example:
ceramic brick was used for wall construction, elements
are part of the building structure, the airflow circulates
between the wall and the facing.
In-depth syntactic analysis is carried out only in cases
where the sentence structure causes difficulties. If the
meaning of the sentence is clear upon first reading, no
additional analysis is required.
Before reading without translation, students are
introduced to pre-reading and while-reading tasks.
These include working with the text’s vocabula
ry,
practicing grammatical agreement and governance,
and using contextual guessing to understand unfamiliar
words based on analogies, comparisons, and word
formation.
When offering a professionally oriented text, the
instructor must ensure that most of the vocabulary
used is familiar to the students. Although contextual
guessing plays an important role in the process of
intensive reading without translation, it does not
develop automatically. Easily recognizable loanwords
such as interior, structures, dimensions, component,
and insulation should not be considered the result of
contextual guessing.
When first encountering a new specialized text,
students are asked to translate the section that the
instructor believes may present the greatest difficulty.
This segment typically contains key information. During
the analysis of this passage, the instructor provides a
series of tasks aimed at overcoming lexical and
grammatical challenges. These include exercises for
identifying the base form of words, determining verb
governance, transforming simple sentences with
participial phrases into complex constructions, as well
as lexical tasks such as selecting synonyms and
antonyms, and paraphrasing.
While working with professional texts, foreign students
often face serious difficulties, as their vocabulary is
usually insufficient to comprehend the text without
using a dictionary. In practice, students’ lexical
preparation levels vary, but are generally inadequate
for working with authentic professional sources. In
such cases, the ability to make educated lexical guesses
becomes especially important.
To assess how well a student has understood the text,
questions are asked that pertain not only to the main
content, but also to secondary details. For example:
What new information did you learn from the text
about…? How does the author express their attitude
toward the issue discussed? In what context is this topic
addressed in the text? It is also useful to ask questions
that require students to formulate responses based on
their own analysis, even if the answers are not explicitly
stated in the text.
After completing comprehension tasks, students move
on to outlining the text. Those who are able to identify
the main idea of each paragraph and distinguish
between primary and secondary information find it
easier to remember and reproduce the content.
Intensive reading without translation is aimed at
developing the ability to construct independent
statements based on scientific material. Both in-class
and at-home reading contribute to a deeper
understanding of professional literature. The principles
used in this process help reinforce grammatical
structures typical of scientific style and promote better
mastery of professional terminology.
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