Research on characteristics and strategies for sociocultural competence development in high school

EFL teaching is focused primarily on developing four basic skills such as reading, speaking, listening and writing that compile speech competence. As a rule, other competencies (language, sociocultural, strategic and discursive) are ignored or accorded very low priority in the EFL classroom. We believe that socio-cultural skills help to sufficiently interact in the world community. In our opinion, the study of cultural diversity should be a mandatory part of EFL university courses. During the first year of university study, it is desirable to develop general socio-cultural skills, the next period of study should be focused on developing sociocultural competence in a professional context. The present paper addresses cross-cultural, linguacultural and sociolinguistic aspects of sociocultural competence. The experience in integrating different in-class activities to improve socio-cultural skills was considered. The results of the study revealed that the basic requirement for textbooks and training exercises is authenticity. The language instructors are convinced that cultural context role-plays, games and project work can enhance the developing sociocultural competence. Few studies deal with acquiring sociocultural skills through technology. The major focus of these research papers is on E-mail, chat, blogs, and video-conferencing as effective tools for sociocultural learning. We, in turn, recommend integrating podcasting technology into the socio-cultural study. Such characteristics of podcasts as authenticity, cultural context materials and the possibility to communicate with native speakers through podcast chats make it an efficient technology to be incorporated into EFL learning and teaching. Further study will consider the issue of developing and improving socio-cultural skills with the help of technology.