Studying russian literature in primary schools in Mongolia

The article discusses the issues of reforming the Mongolian educational system, concerning the implementation of the new basic educational program and the updating of textbooks. The features of developing reading skills in Mongolian students in the context of integrating the subjects “Literary Reading” and “Mongolian Language” are identified. A review of the “Mongolian Language” textbooks for grades 1–5 has revealed the range of Russian folklore and literature texts included in them. This creates an opportunity for Mongolian students to learn about Russian folk traditions and the values of Russian culture. The content of the textbooks suggests that the methodology of teaching Mongolian through reading texts representing Russian literature is aimed at engaging Mongolian primary school students in understanding the values of a different culture. An analysis of the composition of the texts of Russian fiction proposed by Mongolian specialists for study in elementary schools allows us to state that the selection criteria were, firstly, the correspondence of the poetics and problems of the texts to the age-related features of text perception, and secondly, their educational potential. The works included in the textbooks correspond to the reading circle of Russian preschoolers and primary school students (the fairy tales “Turnip,” “Kolobok,” “The Fox and the Goat,” and the texts of children’s writers and poets such as L. Tolstoy, I Krylov, A Kuprin, S Marshak, N Nosov, V Sukhomlinsky). In most of the works, the central characters are children, which is important, as it is methodologically easier to reveal the characters of Russian people, ideas, and values of another culture through characters of the same age. The inclusion of foreign-language works in “Mongolian Language” which combines linguistics with literary reading, helps to expand the worldview of Mongolian children. The use of Russian folklore and literature demonstrates the importance of building intercultural connections with Russia for Mongolian primary education. At the same time, the correlation between texts and topics allows us to see that the study of Russian folklore and literature is related to the development of students’ meta-subject skills.