Semantic Error Diagnosis and Contextual Task Design for Lexical Competence in Multilingual Schools
Gawhar Karamatdinova 
Abstract. This conceptual methodological study develops a diagnostic framework for teaching word meaning in multilingual general secondary classrooms. It addresses a recurrent weakness in lexical instruction: an incorrect response is often treated as a lack of vocabulary although the underlying difficulty may involve denotative knowledge, semantic relations, contextual selection, figurative interpretation, phraseological integrity, or pragmatic appropriateness. The study synthesizes research on vocabulary depth, contextual learning, lexical quality, task involvement, repeated exposure, and Karakalpak language teaching methodology. Its main result is an error to evidence to action framework that separates five diagnostic domains and links each domain to an elicitation task, an interpretation boundary, an instructional response, and a transfer check. A four phase lesson cycle is proposed: elicitation, classification, contrastive reconstruction, and transfer. The model prevents teachers from correcting only the visible word form and instead requires them to test why a learner selected an unsuitable meaning. It also distinguishes productive semantic struggle from stable misconception and recommends that diagnostic claims be based on converging evidence across more than one context. The framework is especially relevant where Karakalpak, Uzbek, Russian, and other languages coexist, because cross linguistic transfer can either support meaning construction or generate misleading equivalence. The article concludes that effective lexical instruction should combine explicit semantic explanation with varied contextual use, learner generated examples, and delayed transfer tasks. Empirical validation is required before the framework is used for high stakes assessment.
Keywords: lexical competence, word meaning, semantic error, contextual instruction, multilingual education, Karakalpak language, formative diagnosis