Reconceptualizing language teaching: an in-service teacher education course in uzbekistan

Sociolinguistic competence – being aware of how culture(s) and the 
variables such as gender, age, social status, shared norms and rules, and 

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RECONCEPTUALIZING LANGUAGE TEACHING
ideologies affect the way we describe and/or interpret objects and pro-
cesses. As such, different cultures interpret the same objects and processes 
differently. Each culture and the variables carry within themselves shared 
practices, experiences, rules and norms, shortly called shared knowledge. 
Shared knowledge is prior knowledge that has been constructed during 
previous experiences among interlocutors. Such knowledge is key in secur-
ing common interpretations of objects and processes. Even though people 
talk the same language and use grammatically correct sentences (form/
semantics), they may not understand each other because of knowledge 
that is not shared. Myths, proverbs, music, poems, tales, publications car-
ry within themselves certain shared knowledge, which is activated in and 
through language itself. For example, there is a difference between shared 
knowledge in Uzbekistan and the United States with regard to how teach-
ers start lessons. Read the dialogue between a teacher and student and 
explain how shared knowledge and practices in university education are 
materialized in and through language. T=teacher; Ss=students.
In Uzbekistan:
T: Who is absent today?
Ss: Student B is absent, but he has a good excuse for not coming.
T: But, he did not take my permission. 
Ss: We do not know B said that he/she had asked your permission.
T: No! Be calm! Let’s start our lesson. 
In the United States:
T: Good morning, everyone. I hope you are doing well. Today we will be 
addressing three main
content areas: X, Y, and Z. Before we begin, I would just like to make 
sure I know who is not here today.
Ss: Student B is absent today.
T: Thanks for letting me know. (Teacher takes note on a piece of paper.) 
Would anyone like to take notes for Student B and let him know about the 
content for the day? Also, please let him know that if he wants the Pow-
erPoint for the lesson, he will need to contact me after class to my email 
because the PPT is not on our course Moodle. 
Ss: Ok. Will do!

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49
CHAPTER ONE: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
T: Great – let’s begin.
As we can see from the examples given above, different cultures car-
ry within themselves different shared knowledge and practices about the 
same social phenomenon, i.e. staring class at universities. In the cultural 
context of Uzbekistan, the university teacher shows his or her authority 
and control over students at the beginning of the class (Duff, 2010, p. 
430); while in the United States the focus is not about showing authority, 
but about making sure the student who is absent receives the necessary 
information from the class. Thus, through communication, people in dif-
ferent cultures materialize again and again what they share. It is within 
these shared practices and knowledge that language and people who 
use it get their significance, social role, identities. As such, “... dialogue im-
poses itself as the way in which men achieve significance as men” (Janks, 
2010, p. 42). Consequently, sociolinguistic competence examines how 
culture (shared knowledge/practices) affects what we say and think ap-
propriate to say in a social situation. What is appropriate/sayable in Uz-
bekistan to start the class at universities may be inappropriate/unsayable 
in the United States.