Introduction. The extent to which foreign students assimilate the material depends on a number of factors, including the level of language training, individual characteristics and the type of thinking. Goal. The purpose of the paper is to present and describe methods for developing an engineering mindset. Engineering is a special type of thinking that involves producing various mechanisms, such as analysis, synthesis, generalisation, comparison and abstraction. Additional processes that accompany engineering mindset itself are referred to as the environment and the motivation to succeed. The number of foreign students wishing to study engineering in Russia is increasing. This is due to global changes, as well as growing interest in the technosphere as a whole. Materials and methods. The article presents the experience of teaching Russian as a professional subject at the Preparatory Faculty of Belgorod State National Research University The study used practical data obtained from foreign students over the 2012–2025 academic period. Results. Russian language training for future engineers is carried out according to a modular approach: students first receive a basic knowledge of the language before beginning to study the professional module. In engineering, technical and technological groups, three subjects are studied: mathematics, physics and computer science. Before beginning to master these disciplines, a foreign student needs to familiarise themselves with the relevant terminology, vocabulary, grammatical structures and constructions, as well as the simplest mathematical operations and physical processes, the designation of quantities and variables, and how instruments and computers work. A teacher assists with all these stages, taking into account the specifics of the profile group. Language training for engineering students has a number of specific features, so it is necessary to provide methodological recommendations that promote the development of logical thinking, spatial imagination, creativity and motivation.