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

Pragmatic/discourse competence – an ability to interpret and con-
vey meaning in context. To understand a dynamic meaning depends on 
time, space, and social context. While communicating people not only ex-
change meaningful structures and semantics but they transfer intentions. 
An utterance carries within itself such intentions of a speaker. This intention 
is tied to time, space, and social context. To able to interpret these inten-
tions in communications is to possess a pragmatic/discourse competence.

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CHAPTER ONE: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Sociolinguistic competence – being aware of how culture(s), shared 
social rules and norms affect the way we describe things, objects, and pro-
cesses within a society. Sociolinguistic competence targets at develop-
ing students’ ability to understand how different cultures choice different 
grammar, syntax, semantic, stylistics in describing the same objects, sub-
jects, and processes. It also tries to understand how something is spoken 
appropriately in a social context.
Strategic competence – while lacking knowledge in linguistic, socio-
linguistic, and pragmatic competences, strategic competence is being able 
to overcome such a shortage of knowledge by delivering a message from 
one language into another one with the help of means other than those 
in linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic competencies. While communi-
cating with different people in a foreign language we are not always aware 
of certain words. To be able to deliver the meaning of these unknown 
words without using these words themselves implies the possession of 
strategic competence.
ACTION
Read the following reflection – in its original – by an Uzbek university 
language teacher who has some thoughts about teaching communicative 
competencies from a CLT perspective. Then, explain if you agree or disagree 
with the teacher. Please write a brief plan about how you would integrate 
communicative competences in your own class. 
There are many approaches and methods for language teaching 
and learning. In the last decade, in Uzbekistan, CLT has become popular. 
This term is closely associated with CEFR. I would like to associate CLT 
with learning through practice, real-life situations, where each single el-
ement of the language is trialed. Exploring the world through speaking 
orally and explaining in a written form. I think it is most important for 
us language teachers to not think of our language teaching as a con-
tent area of knowledge. I think we should enable our learners to be 
competent communicators. Language is therefore a tool for real com-
munication and not a thing to be studied. I think we should think about 
communicative competencies and how to better organize a class, in 
which a teacher enhances students’ four competencies simultaneously. 
At the beginning of the year a very good example I usually provide for 
my students is car: I say to them: imagine you are learning to drive a car. 

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28
RECONCEPTUALIZING LANGUAGE TEACHING
Do you think that just being literate on the theory of driving is enough to 
drive? Or, do you agree that one can drive if only there is enough knowl-
edge? Of course, ability is important here, that is: to be a good driver one 
should be able to cope with driving in various real-life situations, even 
risky. And it can be achieved only by practice. So, the student driver is 
sitting in the driver seat while the instructor is sitting next to him. The 
instructor does not drive for him, but assists with instructions and direc-
tions. The same is in language learning where learners are trained to be 
able to communicate in the target language in different situations being 
aware of culture, social context, etc.
SUMMARY
CLT is a topic that needs to be integrated in teaching foreign languages 
in Uzbekistan. Such integration should take place by distinguishing from a 
traditional language teaching (GTM) and arriving at the key principles of 
CLT. Below is a comparative table of GTM and CLT.