THE PROBLEMS OF DISTANCE LEARNING EDUCATION WHILE TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT THE NON-LINGUISTIC HIGHER SCHOOL

The global development of technologies and their penetration into various areas of common life has a direct impact on the formation of a modern educational sphere. Traditional forms of teaching no longer satisfy the current needs of modern students. The accelerated pace of modern life and the constant lack of time dictate the search for other ways of learning. The article deals with some problems of distance learning education while teaching foreign languages at the non-linguistic higher school. These problems are analyzed in detail and their possible solutions are described from the point of view of teaching modern students in the classroom, in particular, teaching them to the English language. For example, one of the serious problems in teaching English to students in a group (which is typical for all universities in Russia) is the inability of individual students to master new material in the presence of other learners. At first glance, the solution in this situation seems obvious: a teacher needs to devote a part of his time to individual work with each of these students separately. However, if we examine this case thoroughly, such an implementation of individual work can take time from other students who master the learning materials more rapidly. Modern pedagogics offers the following solutions to this series of problems. Students and teachers can use capabilities of the newest information technologies, for instance distance learning education, when teachers and students are separated by space and, sometimes, time. Besides there are a number of other problems, the solution of which is also the involvement of distance learning using digital technologies. The authors emphasise the correct organization of the process of distance learning, which itself is ambiguous and has its own characteristics. No doubt, that in most Russian universities distance learning education is not a very common teaching method. The arrangement and management of the educational process often challenge the level of knowledge and competence of teachers in teaching foreign languages. The authors claim that the greatest difficulty is that this process has a dual structure. The teacher must not only correctly submit material on a foreign language, but also make sure how deeply the students were able to assimilate it. The authors describe in detail the advantages of such teaching and they consistently justify the need to use all types of speech activity. The authors suggest possible exercises for a particular type of activity. The system of control and monitoring of language learning for all types of speech activity is exemplified in detail, emphasizing the nature of distance learning education. The usage of electronic textbooks, platforms, case technologies is also described in the article. Audio and teleconferencing are involved in the process of teaching as well. This way undoubtedly makes distance teaching a competitive form of education. This method can be applied to a foreign language acquisition and English in particular.