Features of distance learning of foreign languages in non-linguistic specialties at the university

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the topical methodological issues today, especially to teaching a foreign language at the universities in a distance format. The material examines the features of teaching the discipline «Foreign language» at the universities in Kazakhstan and Russia, the goals and objectives of this
discipline, the competencies that students master at the end of this course. Turning to the history of the origin of the distance-learning format gives a complete picture of its goals and objectives, and the factors considered
explain the reason for the transition of many world universities and leading educational institutions to the distance format. The authors have shared their own experience in teaching on educational platforms. There were created questionnaires to determine the attitude of students to learn a foreign language online, as well as to identify the difficulties faced by both students and teachers for further analysis. This anonymous survey made it possible to reveal the real attitude of respondents to distance learning, and the results of the survey clearly demonstrate the risks that participants in the learning process may face at the end of the «Foreign Language» course. The authors have described the positive and negative aspects of that type of education having analyzed the scientific and methodological works on the issue of distance learning. The authors have made conclusions and recommendations for teachers of foreign languages, which will further help in organizing foreign language
classes in the format of distance learning using techniques of the empirical research method as observation, self-observation, conversation, questionnaires, and generalization of the existing pedagogical experience in this area of research.