Sociocultural competence in pre-service foreign language teachers

Abstract

This paper presents a study carried out in relation to the development of the sociocultural competence in pre-service Foreign Language teachers at “Félix Varela” Pedagogical University. First of all, the study presents both the conceptual and operational definitions of the term, assuming a notion of competence as a complex psychological configuration. Then, it presents the essential features of a didactic model, specifically designed by the author for the development process of such competence in the particular context of a c urricular discipline named Integrated English Practice. The implementation of the model was carried out through a pedagogical pre-experiment. Different methods belonging to both the theoretical and the empirical levels of knowledge were used for the experiment. Within the empirical level the most important ones were the pedagogical test, the survey, the scientific observation, and the analysis of documents. The results of the study were essentially positive, which stimulated the development of further research on the matter pursuing improvement and efficiency.