DIFFERENT WAYS OF TEACHING ENGLISH WITHOUT BEING INFLUENCED BY THE ETHNIC BACKGROUND OF THE STUDENTS:
Keywords:
ethnically equitable pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, EFL in Uzbekistan, translanguaging, Universal Design for Learning, ethnic diversity, linguistic equity, TESOL methodology, multilingualism, bias-free instruction.Abstract
This article examines the theoretical foundations and practical
methodologies of ethnically neutral, culturally responsive English language teaching
(ELT) in the ethnically and linguistically diverse educational landscape of Uzbekistan.
While the Republic of Uzbekistan is predominantly Uzbek-speaking, its technicum
and secondary school classrooms are frequently composed of learners from multiple
ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds — including Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh,
Karakalpak, Russian, Korean, and other minority communities — each carrying
distinct linguistic schemas, culturally embedded learning styles, and historically
shaped relationships with the English language and with dominant-group schooling
cultures. This article argues that effective English language teaching in such contexts
must operate simultaneously at two levels: it must be culturally responsive —
acknowledging, validating, and strategically utilising learners' diverse cultural and
linguistic resources — while remaining ethnically non-deterministic, refusing to
reduce individual learners to cultural or ethnic stereotypes. Drawing on the theoretical
frameworks of culturally responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995),
translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014), the Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
References
The study was conducted under ethical approval from the Institutional Review
Board of Tashkent State Technical University. All participant identities have been
anonymised in accordance with standard research ethics protocols.
Funding: This research received no external funding and was conducted
independently as part of the author's doctoral research preparation.
Acknowledgements: The author gratefully acknowledges the participation of the
teachers and learners across the five participating institutions.
