Ekaterina A. Percevaya

There are many entertaining virtual technologies in the modern world, computer games being one of the realities without which the young generation cannot imagine their life in today's constantly evolving space. Computer games provide new opportunities for modifying the educational process in order to optimize and modernize it. For this purpose, it is necessary to look for new learning tools that will help to make the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities more productive and significantly increase the motivation of students. Computer games can be used in this case, as they are able to display real situations to users and immerse a person in a virtual world, where it is necessary to solve a number of communicative and situational tasks. The study of this aspect today is extremely relevant, primarily because the history of computer games is not great. This topic is considered by many researchers, but the impact of computer games on different spheres of life, including learning, is not sufficiently studied and, for this reason, gives extensive opportunities for further research. The aim of the study is to prove through a practical experiment the assumption that computer games of non-educational nature can serve as a tool for independent work to improve the communication skills of students studying English in non-linguistic universities. This research used the following methods: theoretical – analysis and generalisation of scientific works and literature on the problem under consideration, pedagogical experiment, mathematical – statistical processing of the research results. The results of the experiment clearly show the effectiveness of using computer games as independent work for students. Listening skills improved by 6.2%, and reading ones by 8.7%. The experiment proved the results of introducing and using computer games in the educational process to be successful. The theoretical significance of the research lies in the detailed analysis of the concept “gamification”, its main classifications, as well as in the examination of computer games functions. Practical importance is represented by a number of methodological recommendations for the introduction of computer games as a tool for independent work into the educational process. The effectiveness of using this tool in learning English is proved by the results of the experiment.

Today, the educational environment of Russian universities is in demand not only for students from Russia, but also for students from other countries. In this regard, teachers face a number of new and important tasks in organizing the educational process taking into account psychological and cultural characteristics of foreign students. Nowadays this problem is extremely relevant because in the process of integration and interaction of cultures there are a lot of people who speak two languages and have the right to be called bilinguals. The purpose of this study is to analyse and classify bilingualism, to study it in detail as a factor influencing the educational process, especially the study of foreign languages. The following methods were used to conduct this research: theoretical – analysis and generalization of scientific works and literature on the problem; empirical – observation, survey (questionnaire), pedagogical experiment; mathematical – statistical processing of the research results. Taking into account the data of the conducted sociological survey of students from different countries, the article analyses and studies in detail the concept of ‘bilingualism’, provides a detailed classification of its varieties. The factors contributing to the emergence of bilinguals in today's society are presented and the importance of studying this phenomenon in relation to modern trends in education is explained. The categories of bilingual students and peculiarities of teaching foreign languages to all these categories of students on the basis of higher education institutions are also studied. The term ‘bilingual consciousness’ is proposed and it helps to designate a person who speaks several languages. The practical significance of the work consists in revealing a number of problems faced by bilinguals in getting higher education in general and in learning foreign languages in particular, as well as the advantages they can have in learning, and, consequently the most favourable educational environment of a higher educational institution for bilingual students is characterized and the necessity of its formation in a modern educational institution is explained. A comprehensive study of the “bilingualism” concept based on the theoretical explanation of the term and practical understanding obtained through a survey of bilingual students is made in the paper for the first time.