This article explores the nature and content of sociocultural competence and discusses the development of sociocultural competence in fourth-grade students in a secondary school when learning English in the modern educational context through reading, which plays a significant role in acquiring sociocultural knowledge.
Keywords: sociocultural competence, competency, English language teaching, foreign language communicative competence, authentic text.
Currently, there is a question about the assimilation of a person in the 21st century into global culture, about bringing their educational level closer to the European standard, about their proficiency in at least two foreign languages. And this is not accidental, as with the intensification of interaction between civilizations and the interpenetration of cultures, the process of mass implementation of foreign language education is clearly defined, during which solid foundations necessary for participating in direct and mediated cultural dialogue can and should be laid. To achieve this, gradual acquaintance with the history and modern life of the country whose language is being studied, its traditions, and culture through the studied language is necessary.
Proficiency in a foreign language and its use entails knowledge of the sociocultural peculiarities of the speakers of the language being studied, as well as a wide range of verbal and non-verbal communication.
The sociocultural component in foreign language education plays a significant role in the development of the learner's personality, as it provides an opportunity not only to familiarize oneself with the cultural heritage of the country whose language is being studied, but also to compare it with the cultural values of one's own country, which contributes to the formation of the student's overall culture. This component is aimed at expanding the general, social, and cultural horizons of the learners, stimulating their cognitive and intellectual processes.
Sociocultural competence is of great importance in modern education. This type of competence involves overcoming xenophobia and existing stereotypes, as well as fostering tolerance towards speakers of other languages and cultures. In English language classes, sociocultural competence is developed through students' acquaintance with the national-cultural specifics of speech behavior and the realities of English-speaking countries: customs, rules, norms, social conventions, rituals, social stereotypes, and cultural knowledge.
Sociocultural competence is a complex phenomenon consisting of linguistic-cultural, sociolinguistic, socio-psychological, and cultural components. The development of sociocultural competence should start from the very first lessons. This may include texts focused on conversational speech in all its main areas, detailing the most common everyday situations; carefully selected examples that reveal the core values and concepts of the culture of the language being studied, including samples of correct and incorrect use of vocabulary, phraseology, and grammar of that language [1].
Sociocultural competence involves understanding that language can be a means of conveying a country's cultural experience, reflecting historical changes, as well as knowledge of norms of speech behavior depending on the communicative situation; it implies the ability to identify nationally-marked vocabulary in texts of different styles and understand their meaning.
According to the dictionary of methodological terms, sociocultural competence (English: sociocultural competence) is a set of knowledge about the country of the language being studied, national-cultural characteristics of social and speech behavior of native speakers of the language, and the ability to use such knowledge in communication, following customs, rules of behavior, etiquette norms, social conditions, and stereotypes of behavior of native speakers. Sociocultural competence is part of communicative competence and is one of its components [2].
Awareness of the value of each culture is infinitely important for the formation of a creative personality. The linguistic component of foreign language education content must necessarily include speech material of different levels, including texts for listening and reading, which should contain ethnographic information on geography, history, social life, elements of language culture of the peoples speaking the studied language, and ethnographic information relevant to communication situations. The content of personality education is culture, which implies personally acquired spiritual values in activity, the space in which the process of personality socialization takes place [3].
The main components of sociocultural competence are:
– the ability to distinguish common and culturally specific aspects in the development models of different countries and civilizations;
– readiness to present one's country and its culture taking into account possible cultural interference from the listeners, anticipating the reasons for possible misunderstandings and resolving them through the choice of appropriate means of verbal interaction. These means may include not just translation, but anatomical translation/interpretation; comparison and opposition of cultural realities/facts/information units, search for original and understandable metaphors, creation of vivid images, etc.;
– recognition of the right to exist of different cultural models, and therefore, the beliefs/norms of life formed on their basis;
– readiness to constructively defend one's own positions without belittling others and without falling into direct dependence on others' priorities.
General didactic principles for forming sociocultural competence: the principle of communicativeness, the principle of taking into account individual characteristics of students, the principle of considering the age characteristics of students, the principle of practical application of a foreign language, the principle of consciousness, the principle of acculturation to another culture, the principle of considering the native language, the principle of visuality. When teaching a language, it is necessary to organize the learning process in such a way that it opens a «window to another world» for the child [4].
Learning a foreign language involves developing students' foreign language communicative competence. The concept of communicative competence is defined as knowledge of psychological, cultural, social factors that determine the use of speech in accordance with social norms of behavior. In the dictionary of foreign words and expressions, it is indicated that competence (Latin competere — to achieve, correspond, fit) — knowledge, experience in a particular area. Competence is a set of specific knowledge, skills, and abilities that a person must be aware of and have practical experience in. Competence is the ability for an individual to establish a connection between knowledge and a situation, or the ability to find, discover a guiding basis for actions, procedures necessary to solve a problem in a specific situation [5].
Analysis of the works of researchers (E. M. Vereshchagina, V. G. Kostomarov, G. D. Tomakhin, V. V. Safonov, G. V. Vorobiev, V. P. Sysoev, I. L. Bim, Bogatyreva M.A, Galskova N. D., Ignatenko N. A., Elizarova G. V.) allows us to identify the following components of sociocultural competence: linguacultural component, which includes knowledge of lexical units with national-cultural semantics, the ability to apply them in intercultural communication situations. National proverbs and sayings, idioms are a reflection of the mentality of the people. They provide students with knowledge about the rules and principles of communication of representatives of a particular nation, about values, priorities; sociolinguistic component (language features of social strata, representatives of different generations, genders, social groups, dialects); socio-psychological component (mastery of socio-cultural and culturally conditioned scenarios, national-specific behavior models using communicative techniques accepted in that culture); culturological component (sociocultural, historical-cultural, ethnocultural background).
Based on the above, it can be said that in order for students to perceive language as a means of intercultural interaction, it is necessary not only to acquaint them with country-specific topics (which is important, of course), but also to find ways to involve them in an active dialogue of cultures so that they can practically learn about the functioning peculiarities of the language in a new culture for them.
Methods
The research utilized a combination of the following methods: studying and theoretical analysis of psycho-pedagogical literature; sociocultural competence of students in school; pedagogical observation, conversations; surveys, cultural tasks, reading texts of linguo-cultural content; culturological-oriented role-playing games of problem orientation, comparison, analysis.
Results and Discussions
Sociocultural competence implies involving students in the culture, traditions, and realities of the countries/country of the foreign language being studied within the framework of communication topics, spheres, and situations that correspond to the experience, interests, and psychological characteristics of primary school students at different stages; as well as developing skills to present their own country, its culture in conditions of foreign language intercultural communication [6]. However, its formation is not limited to just forming global views of the world. It permeates the entire process of learning a foreign language.
To understand how important it is not just to study another language but to know the realities of another country, let's consider the following example. Researcher A. V. Konyshova describes an experiment conducted in an English language class. The teacher handed out words to students denoting colors: «blue», «black», «white» etc., as well as nouns such as «pages», «collar», «market», «lie» etc., and asked them to compose the most commonly used and significant culturally meaningful word combinations from these words.
With the word «pages» most students named the word «white», and many did not know at all what is meant by the expression «yellow pages» (advertising directories compiled according to a list of types of household services). A similar situation was observed with the expressions «white/blue collars» [7].
Analysis of the results of this task allowed us to conclude that knowledge of background lexicon that has no equivalent in Russian is necessary not only for translators but also for anyone who wants to reach a level of independent or competent use of a foreign language. This will help avoid misunderstandings at the interpersonal communication level often caused by ignorance of sociocultural features.
Illustrating the importance of textual material for the development of sociocultural competence in fourth-grade students, because one of the main ways to obtain sociocultural information is reading.
Solovova's art of reading is an integral part of developing various academic abilities. These abilities give a person the opportunity to develop suitable ways of assimilating various information coming from everywhere in the modern world and then using it [6].
We share E. N. Solovova's viewpoint and believe that when selecting educational texts for fourth-grade students, a number of requirements regarding their themes and issues must be observed. Texts should:
1) Be aimed at developing necessary language and speech skills and abilities;
2) Correspond to the age, interests, capabilities, level of informational-analytical and cognitive skills of students;
3) Contribute to their adequate socialization in the conditions of intercultural communication.
Well-selected texts of different genres that raise interesting issues for discussion not only involve obtaining information on a wide range of topics but also contribute to the development of analytical and general philological skills.
It is also necessary to take into account the requirements of the State Educational Standard, primary general education, where fourth grade students should be familiar with various genres of texts: pragmatic, informational, scientific, artistic, poetic, prose, for example, materials from newspapers and magazines, excerpts from books about art, politics and everyday life, informative texts (materials from the Internet, advertisements, excerpts from speeches by politicians, scientists and artists, information from encyclopedias) [8].
It is emphasized that the materials offered by the teacher must be carefully selected. Along with the main themes, the material may include questions that interest elementary school students. Thus, students receive an additional source of motivation to learn a foreign language. Necessary means for studying language and culture include reading articles from original books, analyzing historical-literary sources, working with a dictionary, and preparing their own reports, which fourth-grade students are already capable of composing and presenting.
Authentic texts as products of another culture show the characteristics of the language speaker, his worldview, play a special role in learning a foreign language. These can be excerpts from newspaper articles, brochures, train and plane tickets, letters, advertisements, TV/radio programs, etc. These materials are used in real life in foreign countries unlike materials created specifically for studying the language. When working with texts to develop sociocultural competence, it is necessary to consider three stages of work: pre-textual, textual, and post-textual.
At the pre-text stage, preparation for reading is carried out, i.e. the removal of language difficulties, familiarization with the topic and socio-cultural concepts and realities mentioned in the text. An important condition for successful further work with the text is the creation of a friendly atmosphere in the classroom, therefore, the teacher at the pre–text stage should interest students, involve them in the work, thereby creating positive motivation. At this stage, the teacher can use the following methods of work: brainstorming, prediction/prediction, associations with an illustration or title of the text, identification of students' knowledge of the problems raised in the text, answers to questions, etc.
The textual stage includes tasks that students perform directly during reading. It is at this stage that communicative reading skills are developed; therefore, it is the longest stage in terms of time and may include several tasks such as filling in tables, true/false statements, matching pictures with sentences from the text, logical rearrangement of sentences, dividing the text into paragraphs, etc. These tasks allow checking understanding of the text read. The goal of the post-textual stage is to integrate reading with productive communicative skills, namely speaking and writing; students apply the knowledge gained during reading in various speech situations. Tasks such as organizing a discussion, role-playing game, presentation, conducting a survey of opinions, writing a letter, composition, summary, essay, poem can be organized [9].
It is important that the nature of the texts and the methodological apparatus allow students to work not only with the participation of the teacher but also individually, in mini-groups, in the mode of lesson and independent research work. It is obvious that when a text is used not as a means of developing reading skills, but for the development of productive skills in oral or written speech, tasks are offered after reading it. Although exercises from pre-textual and textual stages of work are very productive. Among the existing types of tasks for working with text materials, those that contribute to finding specific information are necessary. The realization of the great personal-developing potential of modern linguistic education is possible only under the condition of intensive cognitive activity of the student, his maximum creative activity and independence [10].
Such conditions for organizing educational activities using multi-genre text materials in English and tasks of a problem-solving communicative nature will contribute to the development of sociocultural competence among elementary school students.
Here is an example of a text and related tasks [11]:
Pre-text stage:
Before reading the text speak about the system of primary education in Britain. What do you know about it? Is it the same in Russia or not?
Text stage:
Read the text «Primary Schools in England»
Primary School in England begins at the age of four or five. Many boys and girls usually leave school at the age of sixteen. In England the school year begins in September, but not always on the first day of the month, as school rarely begins on Monday. The English think that Monday is not a good day to start school. Classes usually begin at nine. They have classes 5 days a week. They have classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Pupils have a break at 10:30. At one o‘clock they have lunch. Classes are over at about four o‘clock. Schools in England have names, not numbers. At the age of four or five, primary school children go to infant schools where they spend 3 years till they are seven. Their classes are quite informal. They play different games, run and jump. They sing songs, act and play a lot. They begin how to read, count, write a little too. When children are seven they go to junior schools, where they spend 4 years till they are eleven. Junior schools are real schools. Their subjects are: English, Math, History, Nature Study, Geography, Art, and Music. So in England children spend seven years in primary school.
Post-text stage:
Say whether the statements are true or false.
– In Great Britain school begins at the age of four or five.
– Many boys and girls usually leave school at the age of fourteen.
– The English think that Monday is a good day to start school.
– Schools in England have numbers.
– When children are seven they go to infant schools.
Conclusion
Thus, the formation of sociocultural competence in English language lessons cannot be overestimated. Sociocultural competence is a component of foreign language communicative competence, and considering that in the current stage of English language teaching methodology, the formation of sociocultural knowledge and skills is one of the goals of education in schools, it can be confidently stated that mastering the English language without immersing oneself in the culture and mentality of the country where the language is studied cannot be fully achieved.
The formation of sociocultural competence in fourth-grade students during foreign language lessons includes enriching the linguistic, pragmatic, aesthetic, and ethical knowledge of students about the country where the language is studied; acquainting students not only with the culture of the countries where the language is studied, but also with the peculiarities of national self-consciousness and universal values; promoting the upbringing of students in the context of intercultural dialogue. The use of authentic texts in foreign language lessons allows students to get acquainted with the culture, events happening in society, and the peculiarities of a different mentality. The use of authentic materials in the process of foreign language learning forms sociocultural competence in students, without which the study of a foreign language is ineffective.
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