The article considers the problem of foreign language teacher's roles for students of linguistic and cultural studies in the process of teaching a foreign language at a university in the light of the current sociocultural situation, which has a higher interest in building students' individual routes of learning and overall development and self-development. Nowadays the role of the university in a person's life is not limited to the transfer of a certain amount of knowledge and skills necessary for a particular profession. Due to the fact that knowledge becomes obsolete quite soon in view of the permanent flow of new information and the emergence of new technologies, today it is necessary, above all, to develop the student as a person, to shape his creative critical thinking, to teach him to learn and improve himself, continuously remaining in education and self-education. The article analyzes effective technologies of teaching a foreign language aimed at developing the intercultural competence of students, developing the subject's position of trainees, stimulating their self-organization, independent management of the learning process, reflection. The roles and functions of foreign language teachers for students of humanities in a modern university are analyzed, as the result of which students’ personal and professional growth and productive foreign language education in modern higher school are realized. The article is intended for all those interested in the role and functions of a foreign language teacher in contemporary higher education, the problems of higher education and the teaching of a foreign language at universities.