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Article published In:
Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 9:1/2 (2020) ► pp.182–206

Defining linguistic reasoning

Transposing and grounding a model for historical reasoning to the linguistic domain

ORCID logo | Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
| Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Until recently, throughout the world, linguistic theory was virtually absent in secondary education, mostly limited to grammar teaching still based on 19th century linguistic theory. There is a growing call, however, for enriching grammar teaching with modern linguistic insights, integrating higher order critical thinking skills, like reasoning. This study tries to lay the groundwork for a model of linguistic reasoning in particular.

Based on a well-established model for historical reasoning (Van Boxtel & Van Drie, 2018), a linguistic model is developed in two steps. First, the components of the historical model are theoretically analysed and transposed to the linguistic domain, and second, the model is applied in qualitative analysis of linguistic experts’ reasoning.

It is found that the model fits linguistic reasoning fairy well: all central components can be observed, and are evenly distributed over different experts. It is concluded that the linguistic reasoning model can be used in the development of a new grammar pedagogy.

Keywords: subject-specific versus general critical thinking, historical reasoning, linguistic reasoning, L1 grammar teaching, linguistic repertoire
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Linguistic reasoning and critical thinking
    • 1.2Historical reasoning
  • 2.Method
  • 3.Transposing the historical model to a linguistic model
    • 3.1Components
      • 3.1.1Asking historical questions
        • Transfer to linguistic reasoning
      • 3.1.2Using historical sources
        • Transfer to linguistic reasoning
      • 3.1.3Using historical concepts and using historical meta-concepts
        • Transfer to linguistic reasoning
      • 3.1.4Providing (counter)arguments
        • Transfer to linguistic reasoning
      • 3.1.5Historical contextualization
        • Transfer to linguistic reasoning
    • 3.2Types of reasoning
    • 3.3Individual resources
    • 3.4Sociocultural resources
    • 3.5Summary
  • 4.Applying the model to linguistic reasoning
  • 5.Conclusions and discussion
  • Note
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 8 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dujal.19038.die
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