Iryna Ponomarets,
teacher of English,
Collegium ¹1, Pology
FORMATION OF SOÑIO-CULTURE COMPETENCE
AT THE ENGLISH LESSONS
Nowadays
when English has a predominant role in communicative sphere of the world
it has become one of the main subjects
in schools and higher educational establishments because of its international
importance. Naturally, there are still many challenges facing the language
learning and different ways are proposed to solve them at secondary and high
levels. The educational system has improved methods of studying and changed its
main objectives. As it is generally known, the leading aim of teaching English
is forming communicative skills and socio-culture competence based on
country-studies and socio-culture patterns. In Ukraine such researches as V.M.
Topalova, L.P.Holovanchuk, N.K.Sklyarenko, O.B.Tarnopolsky, L.V.Kalinina and
many others work at forming socio-culture competence at English lessons.
“Socio-culture
competence is a complex phenomenon” [ 1; 81 ] that includes such components as
linguistic, sociolinguistics and cultural. The last one is one of the most
important as we live an era of modern technologies and students has lots of
possibilities to use English for communication. They should have not only good
knowledge of lexical and grammar material but also be acquainted with national
peculiarities of native speakers. Needless to say, it is necessary for students
to know about history, literature, customs, traditions, cultural “do’s and don’ts” and what not. Of course, it’s enough to get general
information that could help them in different situations. It will be easier to
understand foreigners, recognize their values and develop love to the English
learning.
Unfortunately,
current school curriculum does not provide students with a great amount of
culture studies information while most of different state language contests,
international testing and others are requiring knowledge of it, sometimes even
the tiniest details. Most attention is focused on British culture and that’s
right because English origins from the British Isles but we should remember
that it’s the national language such leading countries as the USA and Canada.
For a pity, sometimes students can’t distinguish British traditions from
Americans though they have to know that these are different countries that are
divided by the ocean and their inhabitants have quite different mentalities
because of many factors.
One
of the main questions for English learners is spreading American English into
all spheres of communications and sometimes they have problems with
understanding. It is “ a remarkable phenomenon in cultural history -
the spread of American English with its own distinctively rich idioms and
vocabulary”[2]. In a certain extent, the difference
isn’t huge but it is. Luckily, most of the book authors give both variants of
the same word in such a way putting an accent on vocabulary. About ten years
ago it was rarely mentioned or even wasn’t at all. This is a positive tendency
that should be continued and developed.
Presently
teachers have a lot of possibilities to form socio-culture competence and
broaden students’ mind. Thanks to Internet and modern technologies they use
audio-visual methods of teaching that are the best way to inspire English
learning, either. Students do different project works looking for interesting
information, photos or videos. During the lesson children can have a mind trip
to any English-speaking country. A further advantage is international epals.
That is a great chance not only to improve English but also to exchange
knowledge about other unknown cultures and to leap over barriers.
In
a way, as we live in a period of fast changes, amazing discoveries and new
ideas much attention should be concentrated at the educational system. English language curriculum should be
redesigned because it is one of the demands of this and future generations. Students should be acquainted with
culture of other countries and that will help them to understand other nationalities.
What is more, forming socio-culture competence at the English lessons will
interest them in learning the language.
References
1.
Formation
of Socio-Cultural Competence in Foreign Language Teaching. [Åëåêòðîííèé ðåñóðñ].-Ðåæèì äîñòóïó:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814037732
2.
The
Rise of American English: Culture, Creativity, Language and Power [Åëåêòðîííèé
ðåñóðñ].-Ðåæèì äîñòóïó:
http://www.li.com/news/the-rise-of-american-english-culture-creativity-language-and-power