The Council of Europe pays a great attention to multilingual education. A second foreign language is included in the educational programs of many European Higher education Schools. Russia, like the other member countries of the international educational space, allocates a large place to teaching foreign languages. The study of the second foreign language is included in the educational programs of many Russian universities, forming competencies related to the future professional activities of students in a multi-ethnic society, allows them to participate in international conferences and seminars without the help of an interpreter and develops creative thinking. The article analyzes the organizational and methodological features of teaching a second foreign language to the students of non-linguistic faculties, analyses the problem of using various methods and textbooks in the absence of a foreign language environment. For the intensification of the educational process, it is important to use a comparative approach to learning, as well as a rational distribution of classroom and homework assignments. Teaching of a second foreign language is different from teaching the first one. One of the main principles of teaching the second foreign language is a connection between the study of the first and the second foreign language. The peculiarity of the teaching methodology for a second foreign language is not the prevention of interference, but the provision of a positive transfer both from the native tongue as well from the first foreign language.