Distance Language Education

Abstract The article gives an insight into distant learning technologies in teaching the theory of English to future translators and interpreters. The introduction of Distant Learning Resources (DLR) has recently become crucial for higher educational institutions due to the increased interest of the undergraduates in e-learning and boost in the electronic device market. The empirical base for the research is the results of the pilot Distant Learning Resource project that has been recently launched at the Faculty of Translation Studies and World Cultural Heritage, Kazan Federal University, Russian Federation. The authors present their findings on introducing the Distant Learning Resources into various academic linguistic courses they teach at the University. These resources have been developed to facilitate teaching and learning English for academic purposes by making the course materials most available, the assessment – maximum objective, and the students’ feedback on academic topics – more productive. The research data collected with the help of traditional scientific methods of observation, product analysis and questionnaire have allowed the authors to come to a number of conclusions. The most valuable of them is that thanks to the Distant Learning Resources students’ academic performance as well as learning independence has been considerably enhanced. The authors highlight considerable advantages and minor drawbacks of introduction the DLR into the process of students’ learning. Moreover, the authors’ opinions are supported unreservedly by the results of the students’ opinion survey on popularity and efficiency of DLR, as referred to in the article.