Major Challenges in Learning Russian as a Foreign Language in Azerbaijani Schools: Interlingual Interference, Pedagogical Barriers, and Contemporary Methodological Solutions

Abstract

This article examines the principal challenges that Azerbaijani school learners encounter when studying Russian as a foreign language and offers a synthesis of contemporary methodological responses. Drawing on second language acquisition theory and empirical research on crosslinguistic influence, the study analyses systematic difficulties emerging from the substantial typological distance between Russian (an inflectional Indo-European language) and Azerbaijani (an agglutinative Turkic language). Particular attention is paid to phonetic interference, mastery of grammatical gender, the six-case declension system, verbal aspect, word-order flexibility, and stress placement — categories that are either absent or structured differently in the learners' first language. The paper further investigates lexical acquisition difficulties, psychological and motivational barriers, and methodological limitations of grammar-translation-based instruction still prevalent in many national schools. A qualitative synthesis of recent literature, methodological handbooks, and classroom-based studies is complemented by an analysis of typical learner errors documented in Azerbaijani educational contexts. The findings indicate that interlingual interference is the single most influential factor shaping learner output at the early and intermediate stages, and that its effects can be substantially mitigated through communicative, task-based, and technology-enhanced instruction combined with systematic contrastive pedagogy. The study concludes that effective Russian-language instruction in Azerbaijani schools requires an integrated approach that accounts for learners' national and linguistic backgrounds, cultivates a supportive language environment, and balances explicit form-focused instruction with meaningful communicative practice.