MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE

The article deals with the integration of mobile technologies in the language teaching and learning process to develop the sociocultural competence. The analyzed didactic features of mobile technologies have a considerable potential for the implementation of the basic principles of the formation and development of the sociocultural competence. The mobile applications discussed in the paper (collaborative, reference, multimedia and communicative) can be used to create various types of problem-based tasks. The article continues with the description of the experiment in teaching 10-11-form students to represent Russian culture in English. The survey of the participants carried out after the experiment shows that students demonstrate a positive attitude to the use of mobile technologies in different types of problem-based tasks. In addition, conclusions are made about the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile technologies to develop the sociocultural competence in an EFL classroom. The main advantages are the opportunity of teaching students to work with information, individualization of the teaching and learning process and the use of a variety of authentic materials in the classroom. The disadvantages are generally connected with technical issues that may arise when working with mobile devices.