Socialization of foreign university students through the formation of reading literacy

Abstract

The article considers the concept of reading literacy as a means of successful socialization of foreign students of Elabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University. As a prerequisite for the research served the growth of number of foreign students in the Institute. That in its chain caused the problem of socialization of foreign students in the Russian society. The authors analyze the process of reading literacy formation at three levels (baseline, functional, multiple). Each level corresponds to a certain stage of learning a foreign language (the language of the host country). The first stage presumes a digital educational resource “Russian as a foreign language (RuStart)”. At the second stage students’ study at preparatory courses of studying Russian as a foreign language on the basis of university. The third stage of socialization of foreign students (multiple literacy) is characterized by formation of students' professional socialization by means of studying the English language.  The level of socialization of students at each of the considered stages is determined. Besides, the influence of reading literacy on the process of socialization of foreign students is revealed. The aim of the paper is to reveal and analyse value of reading literacy in the course of socialization of students from Central Asia in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia). To meet the aims of the research the authors use cross sectional research design. To reveal a relationship between reading literacy levels and students' socialization, the authors track changes at every stage of the study through testing, questioning, and interviewing foreign students. Thus, correlation characteristics are determined. The impact of the development of reading literacy on the socialization of foreign students becomes evident through the analysis of the results of interviews. The analysis is performed using the method of correlational analysis. The conducted research revealed the integral role of reading literacy in socialization of foreign students in our higher education institution.