Distance learning in the university foreign language environment through the eyes of Chinese students

Introduction. With the transition of universities around the world to distance learning during the pandemic of COVID-19, the higher education has become the global and accessible, and competition between universities in the international educational market has increased. The opinion of Chinese students about distance learning as an alternative form to the traditional in-person education at Russian university is an important criterion for the evaluation of university's ability to retain and attract the foreign students to study in Russia in an environment of competition among the universities, as the Chinese students exactly are make up the majority among the foreign students of Russian universities. The purpose of the study is to find out the opinion of Chinese students about the distance learning format at the Russian university from the point of view of influence it on the formation of communicative competence in Russian language and adaptation to a foreign language environment of university. Materials and methods. The 100 Chinese students of 1-4 years of the Humanitarian Institute (HI) and 57 students of the 1st year of the Institute of Industrial Management of Economics and Trade (IIMET) of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University took part in the survey. The research methods are analysis and systematization of student’s answers to questionnaires, content analysis. Results and discussion. The results of the research showed: 1) the Chinese students in general assess the distance learning format as more comfortable (89% – comfortable, 3% – not comfortable) in comparison with in-person (43% – comfortable, 54% – not comfortable) education in the psychological aspect, which is associated with their national characteristics (75% of students are not afraid to answer in front of other students in a distance format, 89% of students feel more comfortable in distance classroom lessons); 2) the students do not experience the difficulties in using the new technical programs and Internet resources (56% – no difficulties; 24% – yes difficulties; 20% – no answers); 3) the formation of communicative competencies in the Russian language largely depends not on the format of learning (68% of students like to study Russian in distant format, 59% are satisfied with their success in learning Russian), but on the readiness and individual skills and abilities of the learner to study (58% of students note they use knowledge of the Russian language in the classroom) and on the teacher skills and abilities in the work in a distance format (75% of students note the importance of presentation materials prepared by the teacher); 4) the difficulties in adapting to the foreign language environment of the university are associated with the level of proficiency in the Russian language and the cultural traditions of the countries (74% of students note difficulties in communicating with the administrative services of the university, 64% of students do not use Russian to solve educational and administrative issues). Conclusion. The obtained results and conclusions can be useful for academic staff, as well as employees of the administrative services of the university and all interested persons who works with Chinese students.