Information and Communication Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching in Multinational Higher Education Environment of Mining Region

Abstract

Sustainable development of a coal mining region such as Kuzbass to a large extent depends on the high-level education of specialists provided by higher education establishments of the region. The article focuses on information and communication technologies (ICT) as an integral part of educational process at a tertiary education level that are reforming and advancing it towards the innovative rank satisfying the demands of the mining region industry. The current situation of forced distance learning because of coronavirus epidemics in the world made it necessary to look at ICT not as a supportive tool of an educator but as a meaningful agent of pedagogical interaction. The analysis of ICT function in higher education allows defining ICT as a subject of pedagogical interaction. Some of e-learning resources and applications are analyzed from the point of view of their capability and efficiency to conduct foreign language distance teaching, in particular in multinational student groups of Kemerovo State University.