When intercultural education is problematic: the case of Russian as a foreign language

This paper proposes a reflection on the issues posed by the intercultural teaching of Russian as a foreign language (RFL) in the university context. In particular, after defining the concepts of “interculturalism”/“intercultural education” and outlining an updated picture of research on intercultural education in RFL, two of the greatest problems of RFL intercultural education are presented: on the one hand, the ambiguity of the theoretical treatment of intercultural education (and, thus, of its practical applications) by RFL scholars, and, on the other hand, the often essentialized, if not stereotypical, portrayal of Russian culture in RFL textbooks, which in some cases distort reality. Finally, a possible solution is proposed to resolve these issues and make RFL teaching more intercultural.