The article presents the analysis of distant technologies that are utilized by the world methodological society: a set of distance technologies (desktop videoconferencing, e-mail, voicemail, online chat, web-based resources, e-learning platforms), synchronous/asynchronous technologies, m-learning/e-learning technologies. These technologies were analysed from scientific positions concerning their typology, essential characteristics, and linguistic and methodological potential.

The authors of the article also provide distance technologies that can be used when teaching Russian language as foreign for medical purposes: synchronous technologies, professional websites, e-learning platforms, e-mails, mobile applications.

The verification of distant technologies’ usage is conducted experimentally. The obtained results show that distance learning is useful and should be used in teaching foreign languages for other levels and professional purposes.

Not only does the success of distance educational courses depend on the distance technologies that are provided by a teacher, but also we should rely on the consistent and integrated efforts of students, faculty, facilitators, support staff, and administrators.

The article is devoted to an important problem in the higher educational system, namely, the presentation of the technology of development of transversal skills of future philologists in the process of distance learning in the online course “Effective Communication.” This study presents experimental information that makes it possible to determine the effectiveness of the proposed technology for the development of such transversal skills in students as: critical thinking, interpersonal skills, organisational skills, and informational skills.

This article gives some examples of students’ systematic semi-autonomous work in the multimedia master’s seminar, which enhances their language competencies as well as strictly technical skills. The theoretical background, based on the results of research carried out by the author in 2005–2019, demonstrates how knowledge of learners’ first and second languages is advantageous during the acquisition of a third language. Seeing that this process is individual (every learner has his or her different “linguistic biography”), it is difficult take this fact into account in the coursebooks. E-learning courses, which allow students to work in semi-autonomy, become helpful in this situation. Accommodating the needs of biand trilingual students, prospective foreign-language teachers and translators create their own multimedia resources that fill gaps in the didactic offerings. Moreover, the unusual forms of learning by teaching (LdL – from the German phrase Lernen durch Lehren) improve the quality of the learning process, helping students achieve the desired language and communication skills.

Despite the growing empirical interest in academic procrastination in the distance learning, there are only limited studies on the determinants of this phenomenon in the blended learning programmes. The present study investigates the relationships between general self-efficacy, two types of procrastination (active and passive procrastination), and the behavioural tendency to postpone learning activities in a blended learning university course using Moodle platform. Results indicate that passive procrastination is strongly positively associated with procrastination in blended learning, while perceived self-efficacy and active procrastination are unrelated to the self-reported task delays during the blended learning course. In addition, the negative link between the reported number of previous completed blended-learning courses and procrastination in blended learning is observed. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings for a blended learning environment are discussed.