ISSN 0798 1015 HOME Revista ESPACIOS ! ÍNDICES ! A LOS AUTORES ! Vol. 38 (Nº 45) Año 2017. Pág. 34 Sociocultural competence as one of the core competencies of the individual Competencia sociocultural como una de las competencias centrales del individuo Alina E. RAKHIMOVA 1 Recibido: 02/08/2017 • Aprobado: 05/08/2017 Contents 1. Introducction 2. Methodology 3. Results 4. Discussion 5. Conclusions Bibliographic references ABSTRACT: RESUMEN: In present study the author examines the problem of En el presente estudio el autor examina el problema del development of social competence as a key competence desarrollo de la competencia social como una of the person. There is a growing role of intercultural competencia clave de la persona. Hay un papel cada contacts, so the sociocultural problem becomes more vez mayor de los contactos interculturales, por lo que el urgent. In particular the article addresses to the problema sociocultural se vuelve más urgente. En problem of sociocultural knowledge formation and its particular, el artículo aborda el problema de la cultural, linguacultural, socio-psychological, formación de conocimientos socioculturales y sus sociolinguistic, linguistic, informational and aspectos culturales, linguacultural, socio-psicológicos, communicational aspects as maturity of sociocultural sociolingüísticas, lingüísticos, informativos y knowledge indicates the development of social comunicacionales como madurez de los conocimientos competence. An experiment was conducted during the socioculturales indica el desarrollo de la competencia study. It was concluded that sociocultural knowledge social. Durante el estudio se realizó un experimento. Se makes the development of social competence possible. concluye que el conocimiento sociocultural hace posible Keywords Sociocultural knowledge, sociocultural el desarrollo de la competencia social. competence, dialogue of cultures, linguistic identity Palabras clave conocimiento sociocultural, competencia sociocultural, diálogo de culturas, identidad lingüística 1. Introduction In recent years the problem of integration of cultural components in the process of training and education with the help of foreign languages has attracted teachers’ attention. The increasing intensity of contacts between nations and countries determines the change in the sociocultural priorities of language education. The task is to teach a foreign language not only as a means of communication but also to shape linguistic identity. This fact causes the appearance of new concepts in the field of foreign language teaching. They are concepts of intercultural communication and sociocultural training. Since the main objective of any interactive process is the desire to be understood by communication partner the efficiency of communication is directly related to the achieved level of mutual understanding between communicants. In order to achieve mutual understanding partners should have willingness and ability for communication and participation in the dialogue of cultures that implies the presence of their sociocultural competence. Sociocultural education and sociocultural competence gradually became an important aspect of modern educational concepts. This is especially true for foreign language classes. The problems of sociocultural competence were studied by E. Hexelschneider, V.V. Safonova, S.V. Serebryakova, J. Bolten, F. Herbrand and V.N. Dulganova. The sociocultural concept of training and education comes from the fact that daily contact with foreign languages and cultures reflects people’s everyday life around the world. Therefore a lesson of foreign language should encourage learners to have appropriate free communication in foreign languages and foreign cultures and make them capable of cross-cultural communication. Intercultural communication provides a high level of knowledge about own culture and culture of the country of studied language. There is the following definition of language where it is understood as a mirror (reflection) of reality in the minds of certain linguistic and cultural community. Therefore the language cannot be taught and learned without studying the society where native speakers live. This means that trainees need information about natural environment and live of members of another culture and political system, economic and cultural development. Only discussions about cultural characteristics of the country where the language is spoken, as well as familiarity with the problems of everyday life can awaken interest to the unknown culture and language, and deeper understanding of it (Vartanov, 2003). In general, there are two trends in contemporary sociocultural training: First trend: the need to have knowledge that gives learners the opportunity to use a foreign language as a means of communication. Second trend: lessons of foreign language and culture assist for deeper understanding of another country and its people. At the same time it is necessary to encourage learners to study their own language and their own culture. Knowledge of a foreign language have some value only if it is associated with cultural knowledge, values, norms, behavior, perceptions and stereotypes of native speakers. Connection between the use of language and social relations plays a crucial role. Hence the important goal of foreign language classes is achieving language activity competence that is often described as the ability of discourse (Thomas, 2003). The aim of foreign language classes is to achieve broad activity competence which is not limited to grammatical and lexical knowledge but is committed to an integrated language and cultural knowledge. Such competence cannot be monocultural i.e. cannot be directed to only one culture. It should have a cross-cultural expression. True interculturality embraces not only its own action in a foreign language and cultural society, but also the actions of representative of another culture in a foreign language and cultural society (Meijer, 1998). Despite the willingness of both sides to communicate, cross-cultural misunderstandings can always happen, since the communication partners do not have certain knowledge about traditions, religious peculiarities, taboos, norms and values or extra-linguistic rules of another culture. It should be noted that the farther distant is from each other's culture the greater is the likelihood of cross-cultural misunderstandings. Thus, sociocultural competence covers the following aspects: -achieving competence in a foreign culture and at the same time the formation of this competence; -reflections of own culture and the ability to talk about it in a foreign language; -achieving intercultural understanding, which leads to respect for others and tolerance (Thomas, 2003). 2. Methodology During the study we used our traditional teaching methods: theoretical and empirical. We applied theoretical analysis of the literature, analysis of basic concepts and research terms of study, construction of experimental hypotheses as theoretical methods. Empirical methods are intended for creating, collecting and organizing empirical material. These include questioning, the method of measurement and control, pedagogical experiment. Formation of social competence, by which we mean the complex knowledge of values, beliefs, behavioral patterns, customs, traditions, language and cultural achievements, characteristic of a particular society and its characteristics, occurs in the framework of sociocultural education and training, that is in the process of familiarizing the individual to cultural and national traditions of the country of studied language (Safonova, 1996). It is impossible to form a socio-cultural competence without acquisition of sociocultural knowledge, since the sociocultural knowledge is necessary not only as a means of communication with representatives of the foreign language culture, but also as a means to enrich the spiritual world of the individual on the basis of the knowledge about the culture of the target language country. Sociocultural knowledge includes knowledge of social and cultural life, the knowledge and experience of own and foreign language culture, the possession of own and foreign language, the ability to recognize and analyze the situation, to give it an adequate assessment, to find ways of solving problems and achieve set goals (Herbrand, 2008). Sociocultural competence makes cross-cultural communication possible in the context of socio- pedagogical foundations of civil peace and accordance that combines the idea of world globalization, humanization, cultural studies, social and ecological objectives and content of training. Therefore the presence of sociocultural competence is the paramount of socio- pedagogical concept of foreign language teaching in the spirit of the world, in the context of the dialogue of cultures. We agree with V.V. Safonova that the basic provisions of social competence are the following: - The need for a preliminary study of the sociocultural situation in the country and national environment before learning foreign languages; - Develop bicultural language education by changing its content, socialization, humanization, education, education for peace, and respect for human rights; - Mandatory sociocultural components are linguacultural, regional studies, socio-linguistic and general cultural. This opens up opportunities for vocational training and humanitarian youth- participants in the dialogue of cultures. It should form the cultural and historical identity, able to combine the