Nicknames in teaching Russian as a foreign language

The question of expanding the range of linguistic units involved as a linguo-didactic material is raised in the article. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the need to use such a category of proper names as nicknames in the framework of the Russian as a foreign language course. Illustrative material mainly includes well-known, culturally significant nicknames of historical and political figures, as well as modern informal names. The relevance of the research is ensured by the fact that the selection of anthroponyms as educational materials in teaching Russian as a foreign language is not typical for the current linguistic, linguo-cultural and socio-cultural situation. In particular, there is a contradiction between the negative attitude to nicknames established in the society and their real status in the Russian anthroponymic system. Due to the underestimation of the role of nicknames in the society, this type of anthroponyms is not represented in the didactic materials on Russian as a foreign language. However, it is advisable to introduce nicknames in teaching, since they have been a fact of the Russian linguistic and cultural space throughout its existence and meet all the basic approaches of modern Russian pedagogy: competence-based, meta-subject and axiological. The descriptive-analytical method was the leading research method in the article. Nicknames are considered as a category of anthroponyms. The author shows that nicknames are a fact of linguistic and social communication, a linguistic, socio-cultural and individual psychological phenomenon. Nicknames are multifunctional: they perform nominative, identifying, differentiating, individualizing, marking, emotive, axiological, and other functions. The teacher of Russian as a foreign language taking into account the relevance, cognitive significance and communicative value of nicknames; it is necessary to distinguish them from similar categories - pseudonyms and Internet nicknames. The adequacy of the selection will be facilitated by relying on the author’s classification of nicknames. Nicknames provide rich material for mastering various linguistic topics properly and establishing meta-subject connections. This approach will make it possible to overcome the “separation from reality” to some extent, and to improve the quality of teaching Russian to foreigners, develop their competencies, improve their linguistic personality, and introduce them to Russian culture.