Abstract:

The development of a sociocultural competence as a systemic aspect of communicative foreign language competence in teaching foreign languages plays a key role since students can be integrated into a foreign culture, traditions and realia. One of the main components of sociocultural competence is country studies competence which presupposes students’ knowledge about the geographical position, history, demography and economy of the target language country.

Numerous geographic names are greatly needed for deep knowledge about the language and immersion into the target language culture. Тoponymy is a branch of onomastics. It studies geographic names and stimulates the interest in language learning. The main feature of the toponymic nominations is their stability and vitality, which make them the earliest preserved testimony penetrating into the depth of the human history, language and culture. The stability of toponymic nominations helps us in teaching Russian as a foreign language detect those language elements which have long disappeared from the modern vocabulary. Analyzing toponyms during Russian as a foreign language classes international students detect foreign language elements and observe peculiar phenomena in the field of historical lexicology, syntax and phonetics.

The article considers the ways of understanding a foreign language culture with the help of toponymic vocabulary while teaching Russian as а foreign language: the methods of introducing the South Ural toponymic vocabulary into the structure of a lesson; the functioning of the South Ural toponyms and reading skills building through toponymic texts.

Keywords:

Toponymy, South Ural toponyms, Russian as a Foreign Language classes, sociocultural competence.