Page 68 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
investigations. The development of this sub-discipline would foster the development of pedagogical science. What would distinguish linguistic pedagogy from applied linguistics would certainly be its practicality related to intervening in a specific reality, since what distinguishes pedagogy from other disciplines related to it is the orientation of pedagogical acts and actions towards persons, social groups, and/or towards the processing of socialisation environments, living environments, and diverse forms of activity of these subjects (Śliwerski, 2015, p. 29).
Research in this hybrid sub-discipline of pedagogy would naturally draw from both the social sciences and the humanities, as the object of research in the humanities is the human being and his or her social and other creations, e.g., language, literature, art, or history (Sztumski, 2005). Pedagogy is a discipline of science that formally belongs to the social sciences, but naturally also to the humanities, making the object of its research and application of their results both ideas and educational practice, the upbringing and lifelong education (teaching and learning) of people (Śliwerski, 2012).
Language pedagogy as a hybrid sub-discipline of pedagogy would refer to qualitative and quantitative research, i.e., both the positivist paradigm (causal research determining the magnitude and frequency of the studied phenomenon) and the interpretive paradigm (discovering the meanings of the studied phenomena, determining their meaning, and having the character of a searching reflection) (Tchorzewski, 2019, p. 145).
The basic methods derived from educational linguistics, from the humanities, which could be applied here102, would be empirical research, observation, educational experiment, or statistical research, which describe and explain cultural and social contexts. Naturally, research methods from social sciences would also be applicable here: the method of analysis of scientific discourse (analytical method) inspired by the principles of philosophy (hermeneutics, phenomenology), which does not examine reality directly, but through existing knowledge and language (Magier, 2012, p. 15), ethnographic research, case studies, interview (including narrative), or grounded theory. Careful attention should be paid to language as a basic tool of research, since if it is used inappropriately, it could be a source of ambiguity, leading to imprecise meanings of expressions that could hinder efforts to produce unambiguous and precise description of facts, thus causing ineffectiveness of communication due to flawed research practices (Tchorzewski, 219, p. 143).
Language pedagogy, as a hybrid applied sub-discipline of pedagogy, could be conceived as an educational discourse and practice with a practical, socially engaged character. It would be characterised by the principle of educational continuity and change (Kuzma, 2013, p. 35) and by the postmodern paradigm, seeking an answer to the question "What is the role of language in cognition of the world" and postmodern holism, as well as the parallel inclusion of elements from previous paradigms and an individualistic approach to the learner and the simultaneous operation of different methods. Consequently, it would be characterised by eclecticism based on diversity.
In language pedagogy as a sub-discipline of a science of pedagogy two modalities could be distinguished:
102 After all, a science of pedagogy emerged from philosophy and also uses humanistic methods in its basic research.
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