Page 53 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

transmission (Hockett, 1958). Reversibility assumes that linguistic changes are reversible in nature (Mańczak, 1970). Consequently, it can be assumed that it is possible to inhibit linguistic change. This property, according to Rittel, could also apply to linguistic errors, which, under correction, can regress. Shifting, according to J. M. Tortos (1986), is a feedback loop occurring between transmitting and receiving performance. This means that the recognition of passive vocabulary influences the development of active vocabulary. Rittel believed that this property also applied to the transition from transitional linguistic competence (child grammar) to proximal competence (student grammar) and target competence (adult grammar). The coupling of grammatical structures is the last feature of language learnability and, according to Gawronski (1984), refers to the correlation of pairs, for example questions with answers, affirmations with negations, active with passive. Rittel believed that it means the correlation of didactic actions in the course of language acquisition and formation.
The topic that the author touches upon in her 1992 work is of great interest. Rittel used a theoretical and methodological perspective that changed views of language education. Linguistic pedagogy, as described by the researcher, treats the object of research from a perspective in which a science of pedagogy (Polish: pedagogika) sets the research objectives and linguistics interacts with them41. This orientation is, in a way, an application of linguistics in a science of pedagogy and also reflects the orientation of my scientific research.
In Rittel's subsequent work from 1994, one can observe how she shifts from the notion of linguistic pedagogy to that of educational linguistics42 and begins to draw more from applied linguistics than from pedagogy, probably following the example of Western researchers such as, for example, Chomsky (1975), Rogers (1988), and Aitchison (1991). In the second half of the 20th century in Poland, applied linguistics was mainly associated with foreign language didactics and methodology (Rzeszutko-Iwan, 2018, p. 136).
In the 1970s in Poland, there was still a widespread discussion about whether psychology (because of the issue of interference), general pedagogy (because of teaching methods), or philology (because of the issue of foreign language teaching) was the appropriate discipline for language didactics. However, there was also a clear desire to reflect on the process of teaching and learning (Komorowska, 2017, p. 38). The dominant direction in 20th-century linguistic research was structuralism43. The assumptions of structuralism included distinguishing language as an abstract and social creation from speaking, which is an individual and concrete process (Gawrońska-Garstka, 2010, p. 42). One of the most eminent linguists of the 20th century, not only in Poland, but also worldwide, was Jan Baudouin de Courtenay44, who was the first to distinguish between the concept of language as an abstract set of elements and speech described as the implementation of this system by individuals. He developed research on phonemes and was the first to take an interest in children's speech. He was the founder of the Kazan
41 This is because linguistics itself cannot be characterised by a pedagogical point of view.
42 Teodozja Rittel is the founder of Polish educational linguistics (lingwistyki edukacyjnej).
43 Structuralism was in present in world linguistics from 1930 to 1960.
44 Jan Ignacy Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay (1845–1929), selected works. Source: Encyklopedia PWN https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Bau-douin-de-Courtenay-Jan-Ignacy-Niecislaw%3B3875120.html.
It is worth adding that Baudouin de Courtenay was an independent thinker, a pacifist, involved in sociopolitical activity. He publicly spoke out against war, violence, discrimination, and racism. He stood up for national minorities, which, incidentally, led to him becoming a presidential candidate in 1922.
38