Ekaterina A. Percevaya

Today, the educational environment of Russian universities is in demand not only for students from Russia, but also for students from other countries. In this regard, teachers face a number of new and important tasks in organizing the educational process taking into account psychological and cultural characteristics of foreign students. Nowadays this problem is extremely relevant because in the process of integration and interaction of cultures there are a lot of people who speak two languages and have the right to be called bilinguals. The purpose of this study is to analyse and classify bilingualism, to study it in detail as a factor influencing the educational process, especially the study of foreign languages. The following methods were used to conduct this research: theoretical – analysis and generalization of scientific works and literature on the problem; empirical – observation, survey (questionnaire), pedagogical experiment; mathematical – statistical processing of the research results. Taking into account the data of the conducted sociological survey of students from different countries, the article analyses and studies in detail the concept of ‘bilingualism’, provides a detailed classification of its varieties. The factors contributing to the emergence of bilinguals in today's society are presented and the importance of studying this phenomenon in relation to modern trends in education is explained. The categories of bilingual students and peculiarities of teaching foreign languages to all these categories of students on the basis of higher education institutions are also studied. The term ‘bilingual consciousness’ is proposed and it helps to designate a person who speaks several languages. The practical significance of the work consists in revealing a number of problems faced by bilinguals in getting higher education in general and in learning foreign languages in particular, as well as the advantages they can have in learning, and, consequently the most favourable educational environment of a higher educational institution for bilingual students is characterized and the necessity of its formation in a modern educational institution is explained. A comprehensive study of the “bilingualism” concept based on the theoretical explanation of the term and practical understanding obtained through a survey of bilingual students is made in the paper for the first time.