ABOUT TEACHING SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD IN SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR RUSSIAN-SPEAKING AUDIENCE Galina A. Khimich, Ekaterina D. Terentieva Peoplesʼ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) Abstract This article explores the issue of teaching Spanish as a foreign language for Russian speaking audience, and, particularly, one of the most complicated topics at the advanced level of studies, i.e. subjunctive mood. The purpose of the present article is to describe fundamental differences of the Subjunctive mood in Russian and Spanish, which potentially could form the difficulties in the process of teaching this topic to the Russian speaking audience at the level of perception, comprehension and usage. It is sufficient to note that the idea of subjunctive mood in Russian is based on the one and only existing form of expression of unreal action, whereas in the modern Spanish such action can be expressed through four different forms of Subjunctive mood and two forms of conditional mood, apart from two forms of Subjunctive which are not in active usage anymore. Basing on the got conclusions the present article describes the methodology of teaching the topic of “Subjunctive mood”, which was successfully tested by the authors of the present article on the audience of university students during many years and includes the best practices of teaching Spanish as a foreign language of Russian and Spanish linguistic schools. The use of the present methodology enables students to get a clear idea about limits, sphere and mode of usage of the subjunctive mood and use it correctly in oral and written speech on daily basis. Keywords: Subjunctive Mood, Spanish as a second language, teaching Spanish, teaching methodology. 1 INTRODUCTION Subjunctive mood forms one of the most important grammatical topics at the advanced level of studying Spanish. Its role in written and oral speech is essential, and its expressive input into the system of Spanish is undisputable. Use of Subjunctive mood is an indicator of linguistic maturity of the non-native speakers of Spanish. That is why it is very important to teach students to use it correctly, as there is no doubt that to form correct communicative and translation skills “in teaching E/LE 1 teaching of grammar occupies primordial role” [1]. 2 METHODOLOGY When you study a language being out of the country where it is spoken, it means out of permanent communicational context or linguistic immersion, only conscious rationing and comparison with native language allows a student to avoid missing and substitution of complicated grammatical structures both in oral and written speech. Traditional Russian didactic approach is based on the idea that the use of grammatical forms must be produced on the base conscious reasoning (conscious practical method). We consider that when it comes to teaching foreign language for students over 15 years old the method of teaching according to “repeated patterns/models” is not quite effective. That is why in the Russian manuals the materials, tasks and didactic suggestions for studying Subjunctive mood as well as many other topics are based on scientific comparative studies of the Russian and Spanish languages and conclusions made taking into consideration research in translation theory or Russian-Spanish translating science investigated by Russian Hispanists. Comparison with the native language facilitates the process of learning and “enables to clarify coincidences and divergences in development; evolution and functioning of various languages, understand specific features of each one and work out linguistic laws” [2]. As it was demonstrated by V. S. Vinogradov in his article “Breve historia de la hispanística rusa / Concise history of the Russian Hispanistics”, which is devoted to explaining the science of studying and developing the methodology 1 E/LE here and after: Español como lengua extranjera / Spanish as A Foreign Language Proceedings of INTED2018 Conference 5th-7th March 2018, Valencia, Spain ISBN: 978-84-697-9480-7 7884