387
opportunities, enhances interpersonal relationships, and promotes cross-cultural understanding.
Therefore, investing in teaching speaking skills is not only beneficial for individual learners but also
crucial for building a more connected and inclusive global community.
REFERENCES
1.
British
Council
BBC.
2008.
Productive
Skills
retrieved
from
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/productive-skills
2.
Hinkel, E. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching the four skills. TESOL Quarterly,
40(1), 109–131
IMPLEMENTING COGNITIVE APPROACH INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LEARNING CLASSES
Tajieva Aliya Utebaevna- Nukus State Pedagogical Institute, Candidate of pedagogical
sciences, associate professor
Nurniyazov Nursultan – Nukus State Pedagogical Institute, 4 year student of English
Language and Literature Department.
Cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge through our thoughts, experiences, and senses.
The term cognition, or mental activity, refers to the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of
knowledge [6;9].Learning involves acquiring knowledge through experience, study, and information
being taught. Cognition refers to mental activity including thinking, remembering, learning and using
language. When we apply a cognitive approach to learning and teaching, we focus on the
understanding of information and concepts. If we are able to understand the connections between
concepts, break down information and rebuild with logical connections, then our rention of material
and understanding will increase.
Cognitive approaches to learning are concerned with how information is processed by learners.
Cognitive theories view students as active in “an internal learning process that involves memory,
thinking, reflection, abstraction, motivation, and meta-cognition” [1;17].Ertmer and Newby note that
“learning is a change in the state of knowledge, and is a mental activity where an active learner
internally codes and structures knowledge” [3;58]. Cognitive learning is a way of learning that helps
students use their brains more effectively. This method of learning is active, constructive, and long-
lasting. It encourages students to fully engage in the learning process so learning, thinking, and
remembering get easier.
Observation and study of the experience of foreign language learning and teaching in higher
educational universities in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan allow us to conclude that students experience
certain difficulties in understanding the connections between concepts, break down information and
rebuild with logical connections. In particular, the students are not active in an internal learning
process that involves memory, thinking, reflection, abstraction, motivation, and meta-cognition.
Students need to be taught to organize old knowledge, scripts, and schema, find relationships, and
link new information to old ones, as learning is a change in the state of knowledge. So, in our classes
we, teachers should organize lessons according to real focus of the cognitive approach which is on
changing the learner by encouraging him to use appropriate learning strategies.
In order to learn the amount of attitude towards using cognitive approach to learning in local
context we analyzed the syllabus of the subject “Foreign language” which is aimed to teach the
students of bachelor degree students, who will not be English language professionals and course
books used in this subject. So, the syllabus of the subject “Foreign language”designed by G.Bakieva,
B.Samatov, M.Tursunov, et all.and adopted by the Ministry of Higher and secondary special
education on 14 June, 2018 depicts the value of the subject in higher education and points out that
the purpose of the subject is aimed at developing (academic) language skills,language competencies
to be used in future professional activities.The aim of the subject is to prepare specialists who can
use the foreign languages in their everyday lives, professional and scientific (academic) field. One of
the aims is to develop learners’ logical thinking skills while dealing with the issues on concerning to
their professional field and everyday life [4].While learning the subject students have opportunities
388
to develop general, academic and career-oriented language skills and competencies appropriate to B2
level.Self study learning is directed to the formation of motivation to acquire skills and abilities to
use the foreign language. The syllabus provides a detailed description of required competencies, the
graduates of B2 level should acquire in the subject “Foreign language” according to State Educational
Standards. They are the followings:
Linguistic competence, where students should be able to listen and understand the essence of
comprehensive speech or a statement of a series of complex ideas, lectures, detailed instructions,
scientific and professional presentations, inquiries and opinions; complex authentic speech in familiar
and unfamiliar contexts; to be able to take part in lively discussion and debate without prior
preparation, clearly express their views and opinions in a formal discussion; substantiate their
opinions in discussions, interpret and change correction; draw a clear generalized conclusion from an
article, report, or discussion; distinguish relevant information from articles and reports in their
professional fields; To write well-organized essays and reports in the right form and content;
Sociolinguistic competence, which includes deeper understanding of intercultural
communication including communication features like greetings, forms of address, courtesy
comparing English and Uzbek cultures.
Pragmatic competences where students should be able to use language accordingly in different
social, educational and professional circles;to be able to divide speech in the process of
communication, to add clarity, to interpret differently, use correction, completion, and other
strategies, and to apply in practice [4;3].
In order to develop the above mentioned competencies the role of cognitive approach is
significant. As cognition deals with the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses it is important to pay attention in the
development of these competencies. Dealing with the tasks like clearly expressing views and
opinions in a formal discussion; substantiating opinions in discussions, interpreting and changing,
distinguishing relevant information from articles and reports in their professional fields scientific and
professional presentations, inquiries and opinions; deeper understanding of intercultural
communication, using language accordingly in different social, educational and professional circles
students need cognition i.e. thinking, understanding , evaluating and changing skills.So in this plan
we appreciate the requirements of the syllabus of the subject “Foreign language”.
In language teaching, input refers to the linguistic content of a course. It seems logical to assume
that before we teach the language, we need to decide what linguistic content to include. Once content
has been selected, it then, needs to be organized into teachable and learnable units as well as arranged
in a rational sequence. The result is a syllabus, which essentially covers the content of teaching and
learning.
So, the next document we analysed was the action syllabus. (it is called in our local place
“ishshidastur, Rabochayaprogramma”) which was designed by the Nukus State Pedagogical Institute
English language teachersfor the second year students of all bachelor degrees of the Institute. The
aim and objectives and requirements on learners’ achievement and outcomes are the same as in the
syllabus of the subject “Foregn language”. There are 34 practical lessons and 18 self studytasks
planned in the action syllabus. 17 topics are devoted to general themes like food, health, shopping,
daily activities, appearance and etc, 3 topics are devoted to professional field and in their third year
of study students have 5 and 6 professional topics[5]. According to syllabus students learn
vocabulary, grammar concerning to topics, develop their reading, listening, speaking and writing
skills. We like the idea of including skill based approach into the syllabus as they give opportunity to
develop students’ cognition.
Here, we’d like to mention several activities which we appreciate as appropriate activities for
developing cognition. So, in the topic “Career responsibility” students read the text “Career
responsibility is one of the leading stages of promotion”, they discuss causes and consequences of
career responsibilities, learn to write a letter of application. This kind of activities let learners think,
evaluate and foresee the situation, develop ability to plan their life and career development, solve the
problem, avoid the problematic situations and be polite. In the topic “Environment” students should
389
interview people about environmental issues and write opinion essay about environmental problems.
It is also one of the beneficial tasks, as it is not an easy thing to interview others. In order to fulfill
this task students have to design questionnaires where they should take into account the logicality of
questions, their influence on respondents, difficulty of questions, outcome of the question and many
other factors. And this requires some thinking, planning, rethinking, evaluating, which is essential in
cognition as well as creates understanding, tolerance, friendship and cooperation among people. In
the topic “My first experiment” students speak about their first chemical experiment, which develop
their reflective skills. But we’d like this kind of tasks to be more, as they relevant to our learners’ life,
interests and abilities, learners have opportunities to acquire skills and experiences to solve real life
problems.
And these tasks give us opportunity to reach the cognitive aims, the behavioural aims and the
emotional aims. In this plan we liked the content and objectives of the syllabus.
In order to get a full impression on organizing English courses directed to developing learner
cognition we thoroughly analyzed the course books suggested for this subject, which is “Scale up”.
Students book. 2course. T. 2015, by Bokieva G, Rashidova F[2]. We designed checklist for ourselves
in order to clarify the points, which included the questions like:
1.Are all four skills adequately covered, and are they helpful for the development of cognition?
2.Are materials for spoken English well designed to equip learners for real-life interactions?
3. Are writing activities suitable in terms of cognition development?
4.Are the topics helpful in expanding students’ world knowledge and cognition?
Answers to these questions gave the following results. In all units relevance of skills aspect
toward course book are covered, but not all skills in one lesson. For example Unit 1is entitled “Global
problems and solutions” and consists of 3 lessons. Lesson 1 is called “Problem cause”, the tasks are
mostly directed to reading, We think that as it is the first lesson of the unit and it aimed to supply
learners with necessary information on the topic. Tasks look as following: Read the quotes and
discuss them; Read the anecdotes and write down their problem cause types; Read the text. Match
the sentence parts a-f and the paragraphs 1-6. Lesson 2 is called “Unintended consequences” and task
3 is for developing listening skill.“ Listen to the tape and fill in the blanks with appropriate words and
phrases”. More attention is given to reading tasks. Among 13 tasks of the lesson 5 tasks are aimed to
develop reading, 3- for writing, 4 for speaking and 1 for listening. Lesson 3 is entitled “Solution”,
where there are 14 tasks and 4 reading tasks, 4 writing tasks, 5 speaking tasks and 1 listening task.
We should mention that most of the tasks are helpful to develop learner cognition. For example: Task
1 of lesson 1. What problems do people have as a child, teenager, adolescent, adult and aged? What
are root causes of personal problems? Task 1 of lesson 2.p.10. Think and write some inventions or
discoveries of humanity in history which brought unintended consequences. Task 10. P. 13. Do you
agree or disagree with the statement “If any invention has a negative unintended consequences then
only the inventor is guilty”. Task 5 p. 15. Look back and think when you faced either an academic or
personal life problem. Use the phrases in Exercise 5 to express your emotional state. Tell the whole
group how you overcome the situation. All of these tasks lead the learner to think, evaluate the
situation, create possible solutions, reflect their life experiences.
2.Are materials for spoken English well designed to equip learners for real-life interactions? In
order to answer this question we investigated whether the material was accompanied by background
information, were the questions and tasks lead to discussion and interaction, are they easy to produce
their points and experiences. The analysis of spoken tasks show that the tasks though a little bit
difficult, but interesting and motivating. They make learners speak and interact. Reading quotes like
“Every problem is a gift- without problems we would not grow” (Anthony Robbins) or “ The difficult
problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small” ( Lao Tzu).
Lesson observations make us sure that students are interested in the task and tried to say at least one
point and sometimes they quarreled and shouted, which means they are motivated.
3.Are writing activities suitable in terms of cognition development? There are not so many
writing activities in the course book, just 16 tasks for writing. We liked the tasks as they are suitable
390
for the topics learned and can arouse learner interest. But we should mention they are much more
difficult for the ESP students, which were proved by students’ products. Students found difficult to
write opinion essays, cause and effect essay, problem solving essays. But the tasks are quite helpful
for developing cognition.
4.Are the topics helpful in expanding students’ world knowledge and cognition? The task here
is to identify whether the topics will help to expand students‟ world knowledge and cognition. We
should mention that this course book covers the information about problems, problem solving and
research issues and there are a great number of information which may enlarge students’ world
knowledge. For example, listening to the text “Unintended consequences ” students learn about Great
Sparrow War which happened in 1958 in China by the order of Chinese leader Mao Zedong. And
the task 5 on page 11 which includes the questions like “Can you remember any other human deeds
which brought to tragic but unintended consequences?” may the learners think, reflect their learning,
search the knowledge and find answers. In this way they gain knowledge and develop their cognition.
Another example is the text about Thomas Edison on page 35, which gives students opportunity to
learn about his inventions. And the task 1 on page 34. Matching the inventions and the inventors
arouses learner motivation to learn more about the issue and this leads to get more world knowledge.
We should mention that this kind of tasks are few, just only two or three unfortunately.
Analyzing the above mentioned materials on teaching and learning English we came to the
conclusion that the government is paying attention to the cognitive development of our learners, that’s
why educators should change their attitude to teaching. Learning elementary English in the classes,
repeating the words learners already know, paying more attention to the grammar of the English may
demotivate learners. Teachers should think of developing learners higher order thing skills, problem
solving skills, cognition and evaluation skills. The teachers of higher educational establishments are
expected to be creative in teaching process, they should present the materials in such interesting and
challenging ways, so the students get enthusiastic in their study.Our classes should be the places of
discussions and debates, our lessons should give opportunities for learners to create, to imagine, to
investigate. This is the desire of our learners. In order to bring up harmoniously developed, highly
educated, modern-thinking young generation teachers should improve the methodology of teaching
English, and in this wayprepare a good language learner, who is able to find their own way of learning,
can organize information about the language, make their own opportunities for practice.
REFERENCE
1.Ally, M. (2008). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In T. Anderson
(Ed.)
Theory and practice of online learning
Retrieved February 11, 2009, pp. 15-43.
from http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120146
2.Bokieva G, Rashidova F. Scale up. Students book. 2 course. T. 2015.
3.Ertmer, P. and Newby, T. Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical
features from an instructional design perspective.
Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6
(4),
(1993). 50-72.
4.Syllabus of the subject “Foreign language”, designed by G.Bakieva, B.Samatov, M.Tursunov,
et all.and adopted by the Ministry of Higher and secondary special education on 14 June, 2018.
5. Syllabus.of the subject “The English language”,designed byKurbaniyazova S., Jumamurativa
G. Nukus. 2023.
6.ThomasA.Farmer. Cognition. California State University, Fullerton. 2019.
THE ROLE OF LISTENING IN LEARNING ENGLISH
Teacher of the NSPI named after Ajiniyaz
PhD. Docent Tajieva A.U.
The 1
st
year student –Qaypnazarova S.
In this thesis we will investigate the role of the listening in learning languages and resources
for teaching listening comprehension. Listening is one of the important activities like other skills
reading, speaking and writing.
