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In:60 Years of Applied Linguistics: Toward more engaged research
Edited by Grégory Miras, Isabel Colón de Carvajal, Nathalie Blanc and Shona Whyte
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 22] 2026
► pp. 97–115

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Chapter 6
Research in language education, implications of present-day changes

ORCiD logo with link | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 9 March 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.22.06nar
Abstract
This paper reflects a personal journey as a researcher in Language Education. It emphasizes the need for empirical data based on sensory experience and observation and for a transdisciplinary approach. A theoretical framework based on a vast array of scientific domains highlights embodied mind and cognition, and the construct of free won’t which alters conceptions of agency. It leads to an epistemological position that questions the validity of positivist constructs and common-sense representations. As this may increase the distance between commonly held positions concerning knowledge, society, language and culture, it runs the risk of isolating researchers from the public at large. In order to bridge that gap the construct of detached involvement proves pertinent to implement renewed research and project procedures based on a bottom-up approach in which a common initial discourse will be constructed.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical arguments
    • 2.1The two-way system between discourse and thought
    • 2.2Action and discourse
    • 2.3Agency revisited
    • 2.4Summary of my theoretical position
  • 3.Epistemological arguments
    • 3.1Ontological illusion in language teaching
    • 3.2Tackling the problems
    • 3.3Concepts and constructs: The limitations of empirical knowledge
    • 3.4Managing uncertainty
    • 3.5Detachment
    • 3.6Summary of this epistemological position
  • 4.Present-day problems
    • 4.1The way to detached-involvement
    • 4.2Involvement requires empowerment
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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