The article is aimed at examination of the first-year students' opinion about distance education, as well as their social behaviour and academic performance during online English language classes in Kazakhstan. The initial survey was conducted among the freshmen of the four biggest universities of Kazakhstan: KazUIR&WL after Ablai khan, KazNU after al-Farabi, KazNPU after Abay and AlmaU. The aim of the survey was to investigate the students' personal needs and attitude towards online education, their needs and personal feelings about the learning process. On February 1, in Kazakhstan, the situation with distance education changed, and some of the freshmen were allowed to switch back to the traditional learning (for practical disciplines only, e.g. English). Thus, the next stage of the study was to specify the impact of distant learning onto the social behaviour and academic performance of the freshmen of KazUIR&WL after Ablaikhan, by observing their English language classes (traditional and online) and compare the results. The two-week classes examination resulted in the undeniable fact that distance education phenomenon affects learners' behaviour and performance during the lesson, but not always in a negative way, as it is traditionally thought. Taking into consideration the situation with the pandemic of COVID-19 and a growing possibility of transferring a greater part of education to online regime, the findings reported in this study might be found of a particular interest by scholars and policymakers in educational sphere.