The historical experience and wisdom of the people are reflected in its proverbs and sayings, and their knowledge contributes not only to knowledge of the language, but also to understanding the way of thinking and the “spirit” of the people. A comparison of national phraseological units shows how much people have in common, which contributes to their better understanding and rapprochement. Proverbs and sayings reflect experience, ideas related to various activities, life and culture of people, the correct and appropriate use of proverbs and sayings gives speech originality and expressiveness.
Thus, it becomes obvious that one cannot underestimate the methodological and practical value of using proverbs and sayings in the process of teaching a foreign language, in particular at non-linguistic faculties, where the number of hours in this discipline is limited, and it is not possible to study in detail the characteristics of the culture and mentality of native speakers.
The problem of maintaining a high level of interest and motivation of students in teaching foreign languages is currently extremely urgent. One of the factors of students' interest in the educational process is the competent implementation of the sociocultural approach as an essential component of teaching a foreign language. At present, the acquisition by schoolchildren of such qualities as understanding, tolerance and an adequate attitude to other cultures and their representatives because of the establishment and development of international relations is urgent.
The post-industrial era puts forward new priorities in the field of language education, since knowledge of any language is called upon to become an instrument for achieving mutual understanding, agreement, and consent. The ability to do this should be the object of targeted formation, especially in schools and in foreign language lessons.
In this regard, issues related to the organization of multicultural education and its content are of importance. Within this framework, an approach to training and education is being implemented, which allows considering the specifics of students, developing a tolerant attitude towards representatives and phenomena of a different linguistic-ethnic culture. In addition, multicultural education enables the young man to better understand his own culture and its role in the formation of the global cultural space. Thus, a person comprehends the identity of his people, but at the same time knows and respects the characteristics of other ethnic groups.
The education system gives a person all the necessary skills for self-development, but at the school stage, it is necessary to maintain a high level of motivation and interest in the subject. In many ways, this task is fulfilled by sociocultural competence — knowledge about the country of the language being studied and its national-cultural characteristics, as well as the ability to use this knowledge in the process of communication.
The achievement of the corresponding goals is carried out through familiarization with another culture, increasing the general level of education of a student of a foreign language in the process of mastering new sociocultural knowledge and broadening his horizons. Thanks to this, effective management ensures the student’s communicative activity and personal behavior.
Thus, the mastery of sociocultural competence performs an important function of optimizing the achievement of the main goals of teaching a foreign language.
The phraseological system is a treasury of language, a kind of bank in which cultural and historical realities are stored. This is a certain baggage of knowledge of mankind about the world and people, not losing its relevance over time.
As it is mentioned above phraseologisms reflect the spirit of the people, they are appropriate in any conversation and make speech rich and imaginative. Phraseological units represent the quintessence of the best means of expressing the language, succinctly and vividly reflect the uniqueness of a particular society and its culture and preserve the historical and mental heritage of the people. Idioms carry a maximum of informativeness with a minimum of lexical volume, and this is their weight as lexical units and phrases.
This is a kind of concise instructions for use, a guide to action, and the only problem in mastering this linguistic section is the mismatch of the forms of expression of the same meaning in different languages. Ignorance of the equivalents of various widespread expressions may become a reason for misunderstanding, and even conflict, in the process of intercultural communication.
In the framework of this article, we consider the use of linguistic and regional material through the prism of a sociocultural approach at the senior stages of education.
The adolescent period is, in our opinion, the most interesting from the point of view of studying and the most fruitful from the point of view of teaching. Since it is in high school that the student is able not only to study the grammatical, lexical and phonetic sides of the language, but also to join the culture of the country of the language being studied through understanding its mentality residents, through associations and analogies, as well as analysis and reflection.
Students are at a stage when everything that is somehow connected with personality and character is interesting and important for them. Their own social experience is extremely limited, and they are still guided by stereotypes imposed by society. It seems to us important to capture precisely this time in the lives of students and allow them to break some of the stereotypes about other cultures and become more open, listening and understanding life and people. The adolescent’s consciousness is still being formed, and at the senior school stages there is an opportunity to make positive changes in it, teaching the children to think wider, deeper and not as stereotyped as it happens in older generations. Extremely variable time requires a modern person to be flexible and adapt to life, so one of the keys to successful existence is constant self-development.
For the senior class, the development of the cognitive interests of adolescents reaches such a level that they are almost ready to perform all types of mental work of an adult, including the most complex ones. The cognitive processes of schoolchildren acquire such qualities that make them flexible and perfect, and the development of cognitive means is somewhat ahead of the personal development of children.
The senior course is the most favorable for the formation of the most important personal qualities, for the orientation of the generation in society and for the provision of feasible assistance in resolving some age-related and psychological conflicts. Thus, a foreign language teacher in high school has an important task — not only to correctly teach the subject in terms of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics. Also, to introduce students to the peculiarities of the national mentality of the speakers of the studied language, with the cultural characteristics of the countries studied, and to formulate an adequate Representation of students about the worldview of representatives of a foreign language culture.
The problem of using phraseological units as a factor in the development of sociocultural competence, in our subjective opinion, is mainly limited by time and the extreme grammatical and lexical richness of a foreign language lesson in high school classes.
As a result of this, phraseological units, unfortunately, are given insufficient attention today. However, phraseological units are a universal means of teaching both linguistic categories and the sociocultural realities of a foreign language and the culture of its speakers. Thus, idiomatics partially solves this problem and becomes an effective means of both teaching and upbringing and is of particular importance in the process of teaching foreign languages.
References:
- Alekhina A. I. Phraseological unit and word. — Minsk, 1991, 119 p.
- Amosova N. N. Fundamentals of English phraseology. — L.: Nauka, 1989, 97 p.
- Litvinov P. P. Phraseology. — M.: Primstroy –M, 2001, 182 p.
