Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Alas I 17

Ve shall take the position that the positivist posture, while
discredited by vanguard thinkers in every known discipline,
continues to guide the efforts of practitioners of inquiry,
particularly in the social or human sciences. (Lincoln and
Guba,1985:15)

It has been suggested that the metaphor for the world is changing
from the 'machine* to the 'hologram', where the appearance of the object
depends on the perspective of the viewer, and complete information can be
stored in each part of the whole; this view of reality has consequences
for research, for example:

- the criterion for sample construction is radically changed from
statistical to Informational (i.e., 'its purpose is to maximize
information, not facilitate generalization'- Lincoln and Guba,1985:202).

- the criterion for transferability of findings becomes one of
ecological 'fittingness, [i.e.] the degree of congruence between sending
and receiving contexts' (ibidem, page 124).

The experience of cultural diversity in classrooms is forcing a re-
consideration of educational practice and theories; the same issue of
diversity, in a world wide perspective, might be forcing a radical search
for new paradigms in theories of knowledge.

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