Abstract:

The year 2020 has set a fundamentally new methodological task for teachers around the world to preserve the education system and to outline ways of its transformation in connection with a possible threat to human health. We aim at dwelling on the emerging oppositions of system and chaos, methods and techniques, elaborately designed actions and spontaneous decisions. However, no matter how destructive these oppositions may seem, the nonlinear dynamics, the principles of which are transposed to all areas of knowledge, focuses on the coherence of the interaction of parts in the formation of a structure as a whole. Following this idea in its most general form, difficulties caused by the pandemic period and the increasing chaos should eventually lead to the equilibrium of the entire system as such.

After the beginning of the pandemic, it took university teachers 1 or 2 days to sort out the existing tools for conducting synchronous and asynchronous distance learning and connect to the leading technical applications. The next problem was the transformation of all types of control (current, intermediate and final ones) into a remote form. All of them have undergone changes under the conditions of distance training. Current control (CC) includes written quizzes, presentations, tests, research papers, essays, etc. (in asynchronous mode this work is done using email, cloud services, social networks, etc.), oral quizzes and presentations, projects, simulated professional dialogues (using video-conferences). Most popular among Russian teachers are the intuitive testing services and tools that allow them to create, conduct, evaluate knowledge, and process the results. The variety of forms and methods of conducting CC with the help of applications allows teachers to use them as a means of increasing motivation of students.

The analysis of the intermediate and final control (IC, FC) revealed the following methods of preparation for it: development of Regulations, proctoring agreements, and the universities’ point and rating systems’ usage.

The experience of examination session in 2020 showed the effectiveness of the developed system for conducting CC, IC, FC. However, this experience revealed some weaknesses of this form of knowledge assessment. The main problems are the inability of many students to self-organize, or students’ attempts to avoid demonstration of real knowledge (e.g., some of them try to read instead of performing oral presentations hiding the written sources of information or micro-headphones). Thus, teachers or IT specialists of universities have to take measures to control the independence of the response.

Naturally, individual and group coursework with online technologies in some respects either lost or gained attractiveness on the part of potential customers of educational services. Mastering usage of numerous applications and services that can help in learning foreign languages should become part of the teacher’s activity, but the number of training tools should meet the requirements determined by the teaching objectives. It is reasonable to continue distance learning (in case of unfavorable development of the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection) using effectively one or two services for conducting synchronous classes, while the asynchronous part requires variability. Cross-service technical competence of teachers may become one of the main ways of improving their competitiveness under new educational conditions.

Keywords:

Distant learning, foreign language, forms of knowledge assessment.