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

Cultural metaphors – figurative utterances that represent a nation’s 
culture, ideology and social institutions. As such, figurative utterances carry 
within themselves the ways of doing things and seeing the world. Thus, 
these utterances are active in a sense that they construct the world we live 
in; they determine our valuing of things (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Lakoff 
(2004) asserts that “As a result [utterances contain within themselves shared 
practices, and thus] they shape the goals we seek, the plans we make, the 
way we act, and what counts as good or bad outcomes of our actions” 
(Janks, 2010, p. 57). The everyday utterances in the English-speaking coun-
tries connected with concept of time is spoken via the metaphor time is 
money
, you’re wasting my time, I’ve invested a lot of time in her. Following 

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CHAPTER ONE: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
these metaphorical utterances Lakoff & Johnson conclude (1980, pp.7-8):
Time in our culture is a valuable commodity. It is a limited resource that we 
use to accomplish our goals. Because of the way that the concept of work 
has developed in modern Western culture, where work is typically associ-
ated with the time it takes and time is precisely quantified, it has become 
customary to pay people by the hour, week, or year. 
Table 3. Textbook Comparison
Topics
Kid’s English (2015)
English World (2009)
Pictures 
from Real 
Life vs. 
drawn Pic-
tures
English is framed in this 
cover as something that 
is imposed onto Uzbeki-
stan (the helicopter of the 
English kids on coming 
down onto Uzbekistan. The 
kids and the country are 
drawn, which show a type 
of unrealistic conceptual-
ization of the purpose of 
the language. Kids English 
in Uzbekistan is meant to 
be limited to the Uzbek 
context. Real life pictures 
(page 75) are only done to 
show the power of Uzbeki-
stan – e.g., Samarkand.
The Cover – a combination 
of Real and Drawn. English is 
framed as World Englishes or an 
international language (inclusive) 
of all humans. The language 
is conceived as enjoyable and 
exciting. Real pictures are meant 
to make connections that English 
has a true and substantial use in 
their life. 
Real pictures are used through-
out the book (e.g., Grammar in 
Conversation). Real pics are used 
to bring life to the book and 
to show the connection from 
English language to culture. Thus, 
English is a LIVING thing…