Page 65 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

them in Polish as a foreign language. However, teachers of non-language subjects, educating in Polish, are also in a similar situation. Certainly, these teachers could draw on the experience and knowledge of teachers and researchers of minority languages, modern languages, as well as bilingual and multilingual, literacy and pluriliteracies, and educators (including critical language educators) specialising in intercultural and equality education.
Methods and techniques in language education have been discussed since the 1950s 96. Since then, 70 years have passed, and currently teachers have a wide range of methods, approaches, and techniques in language teaching and learning to choose from. However, as I mentioned earlier, as long as we think about each subject separately, about languages individually, we will not change much in education. I believe that multilingual education, intercultural education, and (critical) pluriliteracy can answer the question of how to influence the language education of learners in our country in a theoretical and practical way, so that these changes not only affect the language itself, but also foster diversity and encourage critical thinking, reflection, and action on the way to better understanding of oneself and others and becoming aware of social diversity. This can allow for a better understanding of the complexity of the world, as well as a better understanding of oneself when confronted with the challenges of today. Focusing only on language skills (the perspective of educational linguistics and applied linguistics) in language education loses its priority in today's world in favour of supporting education in linguistically diverse educational contexts and combining critical pedagogy together with educational linguistics, where criticism refers to systematic and constructive criticism based on empirical and theoretical research of society, language, and the person. Language, on the other hand, is understood broadly as having both structural and functional dimensions, and being socially engaged (Crookes, 2012). Hence, in my view, it is crucial for research teams from different disciplines and inter- subjective teaching teams to work together, because, as Śliwerski (2019, p. 36) argues, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach blurs the exclusivity of research within only a particular sub-discipline. Interdisciplinarity is a dialectical system of parts (disciplines) and wholes (humanities) to overcome the one-sidedness of individual sciences (Maliszewski, 2016, p. 23).
The professionalisation of education calls for a new reflection on the teaching profession. Teachers must be prepared to meet emerging challenges, which certainly include various languages entering the educational space. Therefore, we should join forces and draw on the diversity of researchers, teachers, and learners. This means drawing on different perspectives, thus creating a new field of understanding and setting new orientations. In my view, we should encourage collaboration between linguists and researchers from pedagogical sciences, as well as subject teachers and language teachers. We should collaborate with people who come from different backgrounds and have different experiences. It is cognitive diversity that increases innovation (Page, 2008, p. 48). I believe that current language education, which in Poland is located in the didactics of foreign languages, draws mainly from applied linguistics and focuses mainly on the scope of language material to be mastered, methods of education, and treating education, and thus students and teachers, instrumentally.
It seems that language education has lost sight of the humanistic perspective, the philosophical vision of perceiving man and the world, the way of thinking and asking questions about man and about education, about educational environments, and systems of educational institutions (social perspective). Education has a direct impact on those who participate in it. It should therefore be
96 When the first methods of teaching English began to be developed in the United States. 50