The article relates to teaching non-equivalent vocabulary in the English classroom: the contradiction between the importance of studying this type of lexical units for the formation of foreign language socio-cultural competence and insufficient attention to them in professional training of future foreign language teachers justifies the research relevance. The above contradiction led to uncovering the problem, the essence of which is which methods of teaching non-equivalent vocabulary are the most effective for the formation of foreign-language socio-cultural competence of future foreign language teachers.

Structural and comparative approaches to the theoretical analysis of studies enabled to consider non-equivalent lexical units as a separate group of the vocabulary loaded with socio-cultural connotations. Non-equivalent vocabulary is seen as lexical units of one language having neither full nor partial equivalents among the lexical units of another language. These are words or expressions that cannot be accurately translated or understood within another cultural or linguistic system. They are sometimes referred to as culture-bound words as this lack of equivalence is associated with unique cultural features, customs, or concepts within a particular language, and therefore it is not always possible to fully convey or translate such units into another language.

The research ascertaining assessment showed that the lack of a direct equivalent in another language creates difficulties for students. However, the generalization of existing experience of working with non-equivalent vocabulary for the purpose of developing socio-cultural competence enabled to meaningfully reveal a complex of methods that help to effectively master such words: the use of context and comparison with similar concepts in the native language, associations and mnemonic techniques, contextual exercises that help students improve the process of understanding and using non-equivalent vocabulary in writing and speech. The specificity of the tasks of the complex lies in the fact that they all carry a socio-cultural commentary, since additional explanations and work with context are necessary. The following stages are highlighted: vocabulary introduction, vocabulary activation, vocabulary actualization and control. Each stage corresponds to certain actions of the teacher and tasks performed by the students. Each stage has its own vector of development: cognitive, communicative and motivational-reflexive.

The effectiveness of the elaborated complex is confirmed by the data of the conducted empirical study, which showed the forced need to provide systematic and constant practice of non-equivalent vocabulary as a factor in the development of foreign language socio-cultural competence.

Keywords: Teaching non-equivalent vocabulary, culture-bound words, socio-cultural competence, a foreign language teacher, foreign language teachers’ professional training, methods of teaching vocabulary.