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

Inferences
Although the class title is “Oral Communication,” the students did not 
speak until twenty minutes into a fifty-seven minute lesson. From the out-
set Teacher X did not ask the students questions such as “How are you?” 
or “What did you do this weekend?” Instead, he reported the birth of Prof. 
Cole’s baby and had them begin their drawings. While drawing pictures, 
students sat in silence. When Sharka wanted a blue marker she stood up 
and walked over to Maria, picked it up, and returned back to her seat. How-
ever, Daniel did ask Edan to pass him a brown pen. Why would Teacher X 
not begin an “Oral Communication” class without speaking? What was he 
trying to achieve? It seems that Teacher X was taking Krashen’s silent period 
into account.
He brought the concept of the silent period, generally perceived on a 
large scale, to the everyday classroom. The silent period is probably a day 
by day concept for Teacher X who was looking at the big picture of the 
students’ day. Instead of forcing the students to speak at nine o’clock in 
the morning, realizing that they will have four more hours of English, he 
has lowered their affective filters to achieve a relaxed atmosphere through 
picture drawing. Therefore, after twenty-minutes, students would be able 
to feel more comfortable to speak English.

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CHAPTER SIX: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION, FEEDBACK, AND LANGUAGE TEACHING
Through the use of group work activities: drawing pictures, arranging 
historical facts in chronological order, and filling in the blanks, it seems that 
Teacher X is aware of Douglas Brown’s (2001) Language Ego principle (p. 
61), and he is making every effort to lower inhibitions.
Reflections (Opinions) and Applications
Teacher X’s veneration for Stephen Krashen leads me to infer that his 
teaching principles are a product of Krashen’s second language acquisition 
theory. Whether there is veracity to this statement can only be asked to 
Teacher X. If he was not following in the footsteps of Krashen, then his con-
tent-based lesson under the title “Oral Communication” can be considered 
a debacle since there were many instances where he could as Kumaravad-
ivelu (2003) describes, maximize learning opportunities (44.) For example, 
during the initial greeting and drawing sections he could have made small 
talk with the students. He could have provided them with a large amount 
of comprehensible input. Also, during the sharing and discussion phase of 
the pictures, he could have had students ask each other questions about 
their pictures. Instead he went around to each student and each person 
said a sentence or two, and then he moved on. Therefore, he missed many 
opportunities for “oral communication.”
What I will use in my language class was the listening activity with fill 
in the blanks. The activity itself is standard; however, instead of everyone 
having the same sheet, Teacher X grouped students and sheets accord-
ing to level. When the students finished listening they went back to their 
original group and one by one read a sentence. Each student was able to