The article studies the issue of choice with respect to an explanatory toolkit in a lesson of Russian as a foreign language in the context of the linguistic and cultural theory of the word.

   The main objectives of this research are systematization of effective types of comments on linguistic and culturally significant information in the literary text and their implementation in teaching practice during the development of the linguistic and cultural competence of international master’s degree students. Linguocultural competence is understood as students’ ability to use linguistic means with a national cultural component in meaning-ful communication activities with native speakers.

   The article identifies the following functions of the commentary: informing, forming and systematizing (organizing). The choice of information for commentaries is based on the principles of reliability, sufficiency, accessibility, the student’s native language support and the potential of creative use in the process of intercultural communication. The article provides various types of comments on a literary text (linguistic, historical, cultural, literary criticism, etc.), which are used in classes of Russian as a foreign language in accordance with the specifics of the information and educational goals. Commentaries on the literary texts of I. S. Turgenev, I. P. Myatlev and I. Severyanin, united by one precedent phenomenon, became an illustrative material. The article presents a detailed description of techniques for working with poetic texts (the algorithm of a comprehensive analysis: title – composition – theme and idea – details – symbols – visual means), taking into account the peculiarities of the new information used in the comments.