The Efficiency of Distance and Traditional Academic Activities in Teaching English Language to Students of International Economic Relations

Abstract

Digitalized transformational processes that have affected the sphere of education due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused fundamental changes in approaches to teaching. While most courses implied training in a traditional format with direct face-to-face contact between a teacher and students, digital technologies had to be applied on a large scale to various types of educational activities and tasks to achieve the stated goals of completing the courses as part of the curriculum. Two years after the global switch to online learning, most universities now have traditional offline classes, which makes it possible to analyze the efficiency of the two different modes. The following questions thus arise: How successful has the introduction of online learning technologies been? And what types of activities and tasks performed remotely can be incorporated into the regular educational process? This article highlights the main problems brought about by the transition to distance learning in the spring of 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19, analyzes whether teaching staff has managed to adapt efficiently to working online, and identifies the most productive kinds of language development activities applied within the framework of teaching English for special purposes (ESP) to students at the School of International Economic Relations at MGIMO University during the distance learning period. This paper relies on data collected from empirical studies and employs the methods of descriptive and comparative analysis. Conclusions summing up the potential of integrating some online learning techniques and activities into the traditional face-to-face educational process on a regular basis determine the practical significance of the study.