Abstract:

The development of the Internet prepared all the teaching society for implementing online teaching into practice. Everybody got gradually accustomed to the idea of delivering lectures via the Internet, but nobody expected to give classes teaching foreign languages in groups online. The pandemic brought the necessity to take up online teaching instead of conventional teaching quite abruptly. Therefore, online teaching has become the main part of the curriculum.

The purpose of the research was to compare the results of teaching English only online and teaching English partly online and partly face-to-face/offline.

The participants of the study were the students of the RUDN University studying the English language as part of their curriculum. The participants were divided into two groups. In the first group, the students had been studying online for a year and in the second the students studied for two months offline and then they were transferred to online studying mode. After this period, their command of the English language was assessed using the standard Progress Tests, and, also, through one-to-one conversations with the teacher and monologues.

The results of the conducted survey of the distant education participants showed that in spite of all the difficulties in studying a foreign language most students’ knowledge was assessed positively during the assessment tests.

To sum up we must admit that there are certainly some drawbacks in online teaching. Learning online calls for more endurance and concentration, it demands more effort both from students and teachers. We must understand that it is not easy to maximize productivity while working remotely. We should bear in mind that remote work is much more challenging to carry out in the right way than the conventional classwork. It should also be remembered that it takes more time to take up new material online. Teachers should help students to feel motivated in order for them to work effectively.

Keywords:

Online education, hybrid education, assessment, perseverance, second language acquisition, successful learning.