The relevance of the investigated problem is stipulated by the necessity to solve a problem of multicultural humanitarian education and formation of tolerance of students to unfamiliar culture. The purpose of the article is to research educational potential of metaphorical vocabulary in different languages, such as zoomorphic naming units of a man in his social roles and functions. The leading approach to the study of this problem is a communicatively oriented approach to training highly qualified specialist, the future teacher of Russian as a foreign language or an interpreter. The study produced the following results: the possibility to use ethno-linguistic study of Russian language results is illustrated; a selection of lexical items and phraseologic--zoomorphism, which nominate people on the social roles and functions--that teacher can use in the classroom, is presented; the technique of analysis of the vocabulary in which social seme is located in different zones of the word, is presented; the necessity of the use of research results in the practice of teaching in higher school in order to ensure the formation of socio-cultural and communicative competence of students is substantiated. The results can be applied in the organization of educational process in higher educational institutions. The article may be useful to researchers in the field of pedagogy, to teachers, to post-graduate students, to graduate students and students of the following specialties: Russian as a foreign language, Russian language in the practice of interpretation.