Formation of Socio-cultural Competence in Foreign Language Teaching

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of the formation of socio-cultural competence in foreign language teaching, and the possibility of using the discipline “Foreign Language” in achieving this goal. The importance of students’ socio-cultural competence formation is caused by modern Russian society inconsistencies: on the one hand globalisation processes are going on, and on the other inter-ethnic relations are getting worse, and conflicts are getting more violent. The characteristics of the components of socio-cultural competence are outlined in the paper and the stages of this competence formation (motivational, informative, activity) in teaching a foreign language in high school with the use of effective methods and technologies are described.