Sociocultural competence became an integral part of the process of foreign language teaching. Relevant knowledge of the culture and social realities of collocutors helps maintain contacts and promotes a successful interaction. The objective of the article is to further study the concept “students’ sociocultural competence” as well as the ways of its formation during extra-curricular activities. To complete this task a number of methods were applied: theoretical – to survey, analyse the problem under study and empirical ones (observation, interview) to study the peculiarities of the academic process. Various factors that influence the formation of the competence were analyzed. The author also investigated the efficiency of S. Krashen’s hypotheses (the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the input hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the affective filter hypothesis) in the process of foreign language and culture learning not only during in-class but also out-of-class activities. Special attention is paid to the affective factors which influence this process - self-esteem, inhibition, risk-taking, anxiety and motivation. The author dwells upon the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic types of motives, and upon the importance of an integrative type as compared to an instrumental type of motivation in the process of sociocultural competence formation. Different examples of individual, group ad mass extra-curricular activities conducted at the Department of English aiming at fostering students’ communicative competence are provided. The author came to the conclusion that extra-curricular activities, together with in-class work, stimulate the formation of students’ sociocultural compet