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

By the end of this section, you will be able to...

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CHAPTER FOUR: PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF USING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
A) understand how listening is a social act through which non-linguis-
tic factors such as shared knowledge, prior knowledge, and accepted truth 
within a section of society contribute to comprehending a spoken mean-
ing (sociolinguistic competence); 
B) understand how listening is a social act through which the intention 
of speakers is transmitted through form and semantics (pragmatic compe-
tence); and,
C) organize a class that targets developing students’ sociolinguistic, as 
well as pragmatic, competencies.
TASK IN CLASS
Activity #1 (Sociolinguistic Competence)
Topic: The person you really need to marry. 
Background: Ted Talk. A talk by Tracy McMillan, a television writer from 
the United States.
Purpose: To understand how the idea of whom one should marry is 
meaningful from the viewpoint of an American cultural perspective, as well 
as how one should understand “The person you really need to marry” in its 
social context (i.e., beliefs, norms, and traditions).
Focus: Listening and watching a video taken from YouTube on June 15, 
2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3fIZuW9P_M&t=194s 
Pre-work: Yes. The teacher asks the students to watch and listen to the 
video carefully and find out why McMillan’s talk is meaningful to the au-
dience by answering the following questions: (1) What is the meaning of 
really
in her talk title? (2) Why does the audience applaud when she said 
she had married three times? (3) What are those social conditions (beliefs, 
norms, etc.) that make “The person you really need to marry” meaningful 
and successful in American society? (4) What is the meaning of the “The 
person you really need to marry” in Uzbek culture? These are questions lis-
teners would have to find an answer to while listening and comprehend-
ing the video. 
Activity: Individual work, interpreting, group discussion. 
Needed equipment: Laptop, projector and speakers.
In class
1. While listening, students try to answer the questions mentioned in 

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RECONCEPTUALIZING LANGUAGE TEACHING
the pre-work section above by taking brief notes. (Learning how to take 
notes can be and should be taught prior to this lesson.)
2. After listening to the TED Talk, the teacher asks students to talk in 
pairs and/or groups about the answers to the four questions. Students dis-
cuss the answers. The teacher conducts a full class discussion and asks for 
volunteers from each group to talk on behalf of the group. Students are 
not expected to understand everything, but key ideas that make McMillan’s 
speech meaningful and successful to the audience.
3. The teacher can extend the activity to include a speaking compo-
nent. The teacher asks students to make a speech on the same topic that 
he or she thinks is relevant and socially acceptable in Uzbek culture. 
TASK IN CLASS