The article analyzes new technologies that have replaced traditional language education, which for many years was based on the grammatical approach. The article is devoted to the consideration of the role of multimodal practices in teaching Russian language and literature in the context of critical thinking development. Multimodal practices represent a whole system of practice-oriented technologies, well-thought-out methodological techniques and forms of teaching. Based on the material of Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice in Wonderland” in comparison with the cat Bayun, a character of Slavic fairy tales, the methodological development of classes is presented, the importance of developing students’ cognitive skills through the formation of individual training trajectories within the framework of language learning based on infographics is postulated. A multimodal approach to the study of language facts is of particular interest for linguodidactics of higher education, among which are the techniques of meaningful reading in teaching both the native language and literature, and foreign languages, which is explained by the need to develop “soft skills”, which include critical thinking. It is proved that the use of multimodal practices in literature classes helps to understand the text meaningfully. The authors emphasize the effectiveness of multimodal practices in understanding the meaning of the studied linguistic phenomena and facts of literature and culture in general (infographics, linguacultural cluster, etc.) from the position of developing the ability to interpret the meaning in the context of a dialogue of cultures and eras, which contributes to the development of critical text analysis skills by students. The role of multimodal and cross-cultural (translingual) practices in learning the Russian language is emphasized. The article contains practice-oriented cases for both teachers of Russian as a foreign language and for teachers of Russian and other subjects in the humanities.