A study of animalistic phraseological units of the modern Russian language by international students

The authors focus on animalistic phraseological units, describe their etymology, necessity and expediency of addressing these phraseological units in view of their extreme importance in the development of communicative competence among international students. The proper understanding of Russian oral speech and written language, free communication in Russian are impossible without mastering a sufficient number of common phraseological units. Etymological analysis of phraseological elements allows one to reveal, predict, and interpret the difficulties of learning them by non-native speakers. Students’ interest in the study of phraseology when acquiring the practical knowledge of the Russian language is caused by the fact that during the communication process phraseological units perform important functions of the designation of phenomena, facts, processes of reality, their emotional and expressive evaluation. A special system of exercises for better learning of the subject is offered.