The role of a foreign language as a communicative means in organizing and making international events

The article deals with the role of a foreign language as a communicative means in organizing and making large international events. The article depicts the challenges that translators, interprets and other Russian-speaking rep-resentatives faced during the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and the World Cup. The article notes that two grand international sporting events have convincingly demonstrated that the Russia's education system is radically to reconsider its approaches to the problem of learning a foreign language at all levels from the elementary school to the university studies. Based on numerous data of the surveys conducted by Russian sociological services, the authors concluded that a small part of the Russian population speak any foreign language. There are several reasons for the situation: the short-age of teaching staff, high academic workload, and low wages. The article provides a comparative description of the methods of a foreign language teaching in the education system of Russia and European countries. Based on the analysis conducted by the authors, the article states that the forms and methods of a foreign language teaching used in Russia today are archaic and require crucial changes. The Russian education system needs fundamental changes in the methods of foreign languages teaching. As an example, the authors refer to a positive experience of the European Union countries. The article concludes that the implementation of the technological revolution in our country is not possible without the formation of competencies among the Russian citizens meeting the requirements of the twenty-first century, including foreign language skills.