This article has been derived from the “The Function Of Literature In Teaching Russian As a Foreign Language” doctoral thesis. An education project titled “Creative Reading Workshop for Foreign Students” which utilizes various Russian literary texts and distant education tools is also explained in this paper. The aim is to develop theoretical rationale on top of scientific and methodological ways for a holistic and optimal learning system that can attract and motivate foreign students both in face-to-face and distance teaching of Russian as a foreign language. In the article, reading ability and speech activity, which are among the four basic skills, are considered as complex psychophysiological processes that can be executed on the basis of phonetic and lexical-grammatical information. The theoretical significance of this study is the identification of main aspects of improving the process quality in teaching to read The practical significance of this study is the definition of specific methodological techniques in the course of teaching to read using internet sources. It is undeniable that nowadays distant education is a main element in teaching Russian as a foreign language, and distant education is one of the primary methods of teaching, which is used in many educational institutions including universities.
Keywords: Teaching Russian as a foreign language, literary texts, teaching reading and comprehension, e-learning course, interactive reading lessons