This article is structured on the intersection of two paradigms, namely, two basic ideas – linguoecology and optimal teaching of Russian as a foreign language, which is dictated by the peculiarities of communicative and speech situation in Russia of the XXI century, a fundamental change in the category of normativity and expansion of the boundaries of usage, which actively includes all elements of the substandard. Thus, the development of lexical competence among foreign students becomes a pressing issue. The methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language advances by deepening links with linguistics, at the current stage – with such important area of linguistic science as linguoecology. Over the past decade, linguistic ecology turned into an independent branch and clearly formulated its difference from cognate disciplines, such as rhetoric, stylistics, and speech culture. If the category of norm revolves around the concepts of “appropriate” / “inappropriate”, the ecology of language, or ecological linguistics, is concerned with the question of usefulness or harmfulness of a particular phenomenon for the language, its development and prosperity, in other words,  its “eco-friendliness”. Considering the fact that this direction is a new direction in linguistics, and even its basic terminology is yet to be established: the terms ecological linguistics, language ecology, linguoecology, and ecolinguistics are used in a close sense. However, the sphere of interests of the new direction is clearly outlines: on the global scale, this is the problem of endangered languages and cultures of indigenous small-numbered peoples, and within the framework of a living functioning language, these processes are destructive specifically for it.