The transformation of human communication in the digital era has altered the nature of interpersonal interactions and heightened the importance of independent acquisition of knowledge and skills. With the rapid proliferation of digital platforms and technologies, education has become more flexible and accessible, allowing individuals to independently select the pace and direction of their learning paths. In other words, the role of the student in the educational process has undergone a qualitative shift: they have become active participants, responsible for their own outcomes (Global trends in education in the Russian context, 2022). However, this newfound freedom requires learners to develop self-control and self-regulation skills, key factors for mastering new competencies effectively.

In the psycholinguistic context, self-control, including self-correction, is associated with critical psychophysiological and personal mechanisms such as self-assessment and the ability to regulate one’s learning activities.

One key aspect of self-control is self-correction—the individual’s ability to identify and rectify errors independently without external intervention. This process is particularly relevant in the context of digital learning, where interaction with instructors may be limited, and the speed of receiving feedback delayed. Self-correction serves as a powerful tool for improving the efficiency of independent work, enabling students to address errors and enhance the quality of their outputs by consulting reference materials and authentic sources.

Self-correction is especially significant in written communication, which has become an integral part of daily life in the digital society. The ability to independently revise written texts contributes to a higher level of language proficiency, improved logical structure, and elimination of grammatical errors, making communication more effective and comprehensible. As a result, an autonomous author is formed—capable of creating and refining written texts.

Thus, studying the role of self-correction in the learning process becomes particularly relevant in today’s digital society.

However, research indicates that despite recognizing the importance of self-correction, students often face difficulties in implementing it. These challenges are attributed to insufficient preparation for error analysis, the lack of a systematic approach, and an absence of habits for independent work with texts. At advanced stages of learning, when quality requirements for written texts are higher, targeted and consistent self-correction becomes an essential part of writing practice.

The goal of this research was to develop a methodology for fostering self-correction skills in written communication using corpus-based technologies at advanced stages of learning Russian as a foreign language (RFL).

The integration of corpus technologies is motivated by a general pedagogical trend—the growing need to develop skills for working with data sets, including textual data (Zerkina & Lomakina, 2017; Kedrova, 2018). These skills form a complex of actions, ranging from data collection and selection to their integration into educational and practical tasks, and constitute information literacy—an essential component of the competence profile of the modern student (Universal Competencies and New Literacy, 2020).

This general pedagogical trend aligns with a specific didactic development: the increasingly prominent role of corpus-based methods and technologies in foreign language teaching methodologies (Lebedeva, 2020). Linguistic corpora in all their diversity have become a vital component of modern language education, as they provide access to real linguistic material and authentic contexts (Boulton & Cobb, 2017), significantly enriching students’ linguistic experiences.

Nevertheless, there remains a noticeable gap in the methodological literature regarding the systematic description of methods and techniques for using linguistic corpora in language teaching. This study aims to address this gap.

This research advances the understanding and application of self-correction skills in RFL learners through a corpus-based methodology, enhancing error correction, autonomy, and confidence, equipping students with essential communication skills in academic and professional contexts.

To develop the methodology, techniques and methods from related disciplines were employed, including the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL), descriptive and corpus linguistics, as well as digital, corpus-based, and experimental language didactics. The research materials included both international and domestic scientific, methodological, and instructional literature on the theory and methods of teaching foreign languages (including Russian), works on applied and corpus linguistics, semi-structured interviews, surveys of instructors and students, verbal protocols, and a collection of 504 student-written texts. Analysis of the student text collection allowed for identifying the most common types of errors, which then formed the basis for assessing the extent to which corpus data and available search tools could provide users with the necessary information for correcting these errors. The research approach utilized action research, a pedagogical technology that enables dynamic influence on the educational process, accelerating and amplifying change or making it more observable (Ivankova, 2015; Smith, 2015). This methodology was integrated into the RFL teaching process in a written communication course at the Higher School of Translation and Interpreting, Lomonosov Moscow State University, over a ten-month period (September–June, 2021–2022). The pilot group included 63 students from China, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, and Spain. Placement tests conducted at the beginning of the academic year determined the students’ average language proficiency level to be B1+, with the target level set at C1. The educational process incorporated the Russian National Corpus (NCRL) as the primary resource, as well as RusVectores, CoCoCo, and RuSkELL (based on SketchEngine). The research methodology involved: 1) Participant observation during the formation of self-correction skills in the written communication course, followed by quantitative measurements of these skills and graphical representation of the results. 2) A digital written survey conducted at the end of the course to assess students' attitudes toward learning written communication in terms of cognitive-behavioral and affective components (Mizumoto et al., 2016; Marinov, 2018). Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 10 Likert-scale items. Individual one-hour qualitative interviews were also conducted with students. 3) Qualitative research (small-N sample) using the think-aloud verbal protocol method after completing the course (Abas & Aziz, 2016; Fernandez-Michels & Fornons, 2021; Gerova, 2022). This method was chosen due to its suitability for gaining access to respondents’ cognitive processes during written communication tasks. This multifaceted approach provided a comprehensive understanding of how corpus-based tools support self-correction skills in RFL learners.

The study resulted in the development of a methodology focused on two main directions: 1) The step-by-step integration of corpus tools into the process of teaching advanced-level written communication. 2) The direct formation of self-correction skills through the use of corpus technologies. Five key stages of training students in the direct use of corpora were identified: indirect use of corpus tools, instructor demonstrations of corpus tools, guided use of corpus tools by students under the instructor's supervision, independent use of corpora by students for completing academic tasks, and independent application of corpora in real-life language practice (Lebedeva & Obukhova, 2024). This process is built on scaffolding, where the instructor provides initial support and gradually reduces it as students gain confidence in working with corpora. In line with Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development (1978, p. 86), this approach enables learners to complete tasks beyond their current capabilities by building upon their emerging skills. The methodology for developing self-correction skills in advanced-level written communication with the support of corpus technologies includes several components. While these components are presented in a specific sequence, they often occur simultaneously: - Teaching written communication from a process-oriented perspective. - Introducing students to linguistic corpora and their tools. - Training students in strategies and methods for self-correction. - Guided practice with corpus tools under the instructor’s supervision. - Instructor feedback based on corpus data (Obukhova, 2022). - Independent student work. - Regular practice. This methodology combines theoretical foundations with practical skills, emphasizing the active use of corpus resources to enhance the quality of students’ written work. By providing both structured guidance and opportunities for autonomous practice, the approach fosters the development of independent, competent writers capable of effectively leveraging corpus tools for self-correction and language improvement.

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