The Role of English Fictional Literature in Developing Students’ Socio-Cultural Competence

Abstract

In the present article author examines the problem of development of University student’s socio-cultural competence by reading English fictional literature. The place of literature in intercultural communication in the teaching of foreign languages: that it is a source of information about nature, built on the basis of social and cultural realities, and through it they can know alternative cultural norms and at the same time compare their beliefs and attitudes. In addition, it is also source of developing the cognitive and emotional knowledge of students and through it they can find an easy solution to all the complexities of life. All analyzes was made on the example of fictions by E.Hemingway, Ch.Dickens, S.Mougham, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O.Henry, M.Twain, J.London, T.Morrison, P.John Dos and the approach to using historical facts in developing socio-cultural competence is revealed being supplemented with a number of pre-reading and post-reading activities suggested to students learning English as a second foreign language.