DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE TECHING AT TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES: TESTING A NEW REALITY

This paper deals with the actual problem of comprehensive understanding of what has happened in the world system of higher education as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and the forecasts about drastic changes in this system in the nearest future. The situation with the pandemic worldwide has developed so quickly and was so unprecedented that no one has had the opportunity to use anyone's experience to overcome the challenges related to the need for self-isolation. Universities in different countries, regions and cities had to make decisions at their own risk. In some ways these decisions surprisingly coincided, in some ways they were completely different. Therefore, the opportunity to compare and analyze the world experience in order to meet the challenges of the global crisis is of particular importance today. In addition, public discourse on this topic is a kind of social construction, in the process of which possible scenarios for the future of higher education are coming into life. These scenarios can become real world strategies for both individual universities and the global university system as a whole. The global challenges that have emerged over the past year enabled the authors to take a fresh look at the process of foreign language teaching at higher engineering institutions with the use of modern digital technologies. Digital technologies for foreign language teaching are only one of several social distancing initiatives that currently need to be applied for students' education. The authors reveal benefits and drawbacks of online learning in general, and the Zoom platform in particular. The paper also describes the Moodle platform with its vast capacity for learning foreign languages