Page 70 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
Chapter 4
Research foundations – designing the process of language education 4.1 Basic theoretical assumptions
In this chapter I would like to discuss the design of educational programmes, including language education. I will also refer to my own preliminary research that resulted in the creation of the evidence- based language course for university students, and the evaluation of its learning potential.
The cognitive scientific aim of this book is to describe, explain, and design language learning processes in order to go beyond the horizon of previous knowledge, practice, and experience. The cognitive concept of the research was to enrich knowledge that had been previously produced. The practical aim was to bring about changes in the field of educational practice concerning language education on the basis of existing and enriched knowledge. Both aims were interrelated, and consequently, in this part of the research I used the analytical-synthetic method. I made a conceptual analysis103 of the problem in light of the literature, trying to get to the essence of the problem, which allowed me to look at it from different sides. The synthesis made it possible to mentally combine previously separated phenomena in order to better understand their nature and to identify the most important properties of the phenomena under study. This generalisation led to the emergence of unexpected results with regard to new considerations and broad holistic approaches104. Throughout the synthesis process I tried to gain deeper, more relevant knowledge about the subject of the research in order to avoid factuality and to critically evaluate individual research activities105. During the research process I used abstraction as both a mental (operational) activity and a specific scientific method (method of concretisation)106. The essence of abstraction can be considered to be omission (elimination), disconnection, and isolation, through which certain phenomena can be brought into the scope of theoretical knowledge and consideration. Abstraction as a mental activity consists of extracting certain elements of the object of research considered to be irrelevant and taking into account other elements of research that seem relevant107. In my considerations I used a generalising abstraction to capture many phenomena and processes. I therefore isolated some features of the researched objects and then placed them into a generalisation framework.
Using this process, I tried to formulate general notions and principles concerning language education. The obtained knowledge about the object of research (at a high level of abstraction) constituted for me the basis of the second stage of research, i.e., the stage of gradual approximation. It gave me a picture of certain recurring phenomena, which I could relate to reality, apply in the form of a written language course (textbook), and subject to preliminary verification and application during classes with Polish and Spanish students. During and after the classes, some preliminary research was carried out in order to gain some preliminary knowledge that could provide the basis for further questions108. To do this I asked the students from different cultural contexts to answer a Scenario-based Assessment
103 The purpose of conceptual analysis is to gain clarity in understanding terms (concepts). Chojnacki, 2000, p. 48.
104Pytkowski, 1985, p. 114.
105Stochaj, Roman, 2013, p. 18.
106Wiśniewski, 1990. 107Okoń, 2004.
108 Nowak, 2007, p. 59.
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