Sociocultural Competences as Essential Components in Teaching English // Theoretical foundations of the functioning of Education. Ways to improve the effectiveness of educational activities

Abstract

The formation of students’ sociolinguistic competence as an essential component in the process of teaching English is the key to effective intercultural communication. An acquaintance of students with national and cultural features of the country whose language is studied helps to increase the educational role of foreign language teaching, as it allows to expand the horizons of students, to form and develop their interest in studying this subject, to raise their public consciousness. One of the priorities of English language teaching is the formation of students’ sociolinguistic competence, which requires knowledge of national and cultural features of English-speaking countries, the norms of speech and non-speech behaviour of its speakers, and the ability to build their behaviour following these features and norms. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to reveal the ways of forming students’ sociolinguistic competence as a component of the process of teaching English, which is the key to effective cross-cultural communication.