Socio-cultural aspects of foreign language teaching

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-cultural aspects of teaching a foreign language to immigrant students in the context of familiarizing them with the country’s culture, its history, socio-cultural traditions, and the distinctive features of the native speakers’ national worldview. Foreign language teaching is based on the use of the cumulative function, in which language acts as a link between generations, a repository and a means of transmitting extra-linguistic collective experience, since language not only reflects contemporary culture but also records its previous state. The stages of developing sociocultural competences are highlighted; these are regarded as the ability to apply multicultural knowledge, skills and values in the process of intercultural communication within specific real-life situations, with the aim of fostering a tolerant attitude towards other people. The article emphasizes the need to train specialist multicultural educators to acquire the relevant sociocultural competences in order to promote students’ intellectual growth and personal development.