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

Activity #2 (Pragmatic Competence)
Topic: Understanding a word – hello – beyond its dictionary meaning. 
Purpose: To understand how hello might have different social mean-
ings depending on time, space and social context; and, at the same time 
how by saying hello people transmit their intentions to the other party. 
Focus: Listening and watching a video taken from YouTube: 
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aeCxWyNAQQ; 
Pre-work: Yes. Discern the fixed meanings of hello by using a published 
English dictionary.
Activity: Individual work, interpreting, group discussion. 
Needed equipment: Laptop, projector, and speakers.
IN CLASS
1. Before watching the video, the teacher asks students to use the dic-
tionary to discern the number of meanings for the word hello. The Oxford 
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015) states three meanings of hello:
1. … Used as a GREETING when you meet somebody, when you an-
swer the telephone or when you want to attract somebody’s attention. 
2. …Used to show that you are surprised by something.
3. …Used to show that you think somebody has said something stupid 
or is not paying attention.
2. Then, the teacher asks students to listen to a conversation from You-
Tube that focuses on using the word hello without watching it and find 

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CHAPTER FOUR: PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF USING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
out what meanings of hello each situation contains. In the video there 14 
situations in which interlocutors use the word hello. Students are asked to 
write in the “Definition without a social context” column what meanings of 
hello
are used without watching the video, but listening only. Students are 
limited to discern the meanings of hello out of the three given above by The 
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
. 
3. The teacher asks students to watch (one can interpret a social con-
text) and listen to the video carefully, and see how a social context can 
give new meanings (meaning-in-use) of hello depending on time, space, 
and social context. Students will write their findings in the “Definition with 
a social context. What is the intention of the speaker?” column. See below 
for chart.