PSYCHOLOGICAL AND LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS I.A. Novikova Chair of Social and Differential Psychology Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10/2, Moscow, Russia, 117198 A.L. Novikov, M.A. Rybakov Chair of General and Russian Linguistics Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10/2, Moscow, Russia, 117198 The paper presents the results of a full-scale interview with Russian language teachers that teach Russian as a foreign language at the preparatory departments at multinational universities. <...> The research findings identified the basic psychological and linguistic features that are typical for the Russian language acquisition by the students from different regions of the world (Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Arab countries). <...> Key words: Russian as a foreign language; Russian language teaching; Russian language acquisition; international students, intercultural communication and adaptation. <...> The knowledge of one or more foreign languages is essential for effective intercultural communication in today's super-diverse world [10]. <...> The foreign (second) language acquisition is an important factor of the intercultural adaptation in the new socio-cultural environment [1; 9]. <...> Most international students name poor language skills among the main problems of their adaptation in a foreign country, as well as one of the difficulties of training at the university [8]. <...> Russian universities have a lot of experience in teaching international students from different regions of the world. <...> Therefore, in the Russian universities, where international students study, there are special preparatory departments. <...> International students learn the Russian language and the basics of their future major subject at preparatory departments for a year. <...> The Russian language curriculum for the international students includes the phonetic, grammatical and lexical aspects of language learning. <...> The Russian language is a language difficult enough to learn. <...> The Russian language has been classified as the third difficulty level of the four levels according to the study of The Defense Language Institute (DLI), Monterey, CA. 61 Вестник РУДН, серия Психология и педагогика, 2015, № 1 It is evident that one of the difficulties for the beginners who learn the Russian language is related to the Russian alphabet. <...> The Russian alphabet is derived from the Cyrillic alphabet and Russian cursive <...>