The article addresses linguo-cultural peculiarities of phraseological units with the component 'fire' in five different languages. The authors analyze phraseological funds by comparing and contrasting semantic groups. The greatest similarity is found between English and German phraseological stocks, whereas Spanish and Tatar ones have significant differences both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

The relevance of modernization process of professional training of future academic staff of higher educational institutions consists of a comprehensive update of the system of professional training of teachers and academic staff. These processes are focused on a scientifically and practically oriented improvement of the educational process. As well as professional and pedagogical interaction of its participants in the educational and professional environment. Theoretical and methodological foundations of increasing the professional training of teachers of higher schools in the conditions of master programmes are grounded; the author’s concept of improving the professional training of teachers of higher schools in the conditions of these programmes is formulated and tested; substantiated the content of the modernization of professional training of teachers of higher education; affordable author's model of modernized professional training of higher education teaching staff in the conditions of a master programmes. Experimentally verified effectiveness of the proposed scientific and methodological support for the professional training of teachers of higher educational institutions.

In the context of modernization of education and digitalization of society, one of the socially significant areas implemented in educational institutions of higher education is pedagogical design. The urgency of the problem is due to the social order of the society for the training of highly qualified specialists with critical design thinking, ready to solve professional problems of any level of complexity; the increased interest of scientists in the development of theoretical and methodological foundations of pedagogical design, on the one hand, and the lack of development of mechanisms for its practical implementation in higher education, methodological support tools for its implementation on the other. Students should select texts based on the language of their future specialty, make assignments for the consolidation of the passed terminology (Erofeeva & Yusupova, 2018). The design background goes back to antiquity. Plato in the works "State" and "Laws" proposes and discusses the project "ideal state". Speaking as a practitioner of state building, Plato proposes to first build a state mentally, which is one of the first prerequisites for design. Scientific understanding of the process and results of design as a special activity began at the turn of 20-21 st centuries, which was characterized by the presence of reflection and design activities, the emergence of project terminology.

The need of increasing the effectiveness of students’ professional training determines the search for new mechanisms, models and technologies of educational process organizing at a university based on systemic, competency-based and practice-oriented approaches. The theoretical and methodological foundations of increasing the effectiveness of students’ professional training are substantiated, including key scientific approaches (systemic, competency-based, practice-oriented) and the principles of their realization (professional orientation, competitiveness, interdisciplinarity, social partnership, practice orientation, pedagogical support, regionalization). A model for increasing the effectiveness of students’ professional training using distance educational technologies has been developed and experimentally tested. The pedagogical ways of increasing the effectiveness of future specialists’ professional training in universities using distance educational technologies have been identified. Distance educational technologies are considered as a means of increasing the effectiveness of students’ professional training. Correct use and further development of the abovementioned technologies would improve the overall professional competency of intending specialists in the area of education.

The article regards the viewpoints of authoritative experts (university rectors, teachers and psychologists) concerning digital education. The analysis shows that digital resources give education unprecedented opportunities and open up new horizons. However, at the present stage, there is not even a clear definition of what "digital education" is, since Russian teaching theory also includes an upbringing component into educational process. Without this component, education will become just learning with an unknown result. Live creative communication is a necessary part of the personality development but it is precisely excluded in a dialogue with a machine. The article offers a fragment of the lesson-quest, in which you can use either virtual reality tools or, at least, a smartphone. The lesson is devoted to expanding knowledge about the work and personality of W. Shakespeare: it creates the image of the city of London in the XVI century and involves various types of activities, including creative ones. The necessary information was available on specialized websites of museums or galleries. Special attention was paid to the fact that the language of the articles should be clear, the articles were interesting in content and would have such details that are little known even to the most erudite students. Students are supposed to apply their analyzing, comparing and generalizing abilities making the quest.