Article published In: Pedagogical Linguistics: Online-First Articles
Conceptual change and causal relations
Ontological and epistemological basic concepts within the conceptual change approach using the example of causal relations
Published online: 26 May 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.24020.wil
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.24020.wil
Abstract
Throughout the conceptual change approach, the subject-specific concepts of students, represented as ideas and knowledge structures about scientific phenomena and their changes through teaching-learning processes, are explained. Extensions related to mathematical and biological phenomena have already been made. The fact that learners also have subject-specific concepts in relation to language, which exist as assumptions, beliefs, ideas and changes, is often implicitly assumed in language didactics research but has not yet been systematically investigated as conceptual change. Thus, both the sufficient modeling of language-related concepts, as is the case in scientific research, and the empirical testing of selected language phenomena are lacking. In this article, the two perspectives dominating the (natural) scientific discourse are outlined to subsequently model conceptual change for language reflection and categorization in the context of a secondary analysis of causal relations. The focus is on the question of which basic ontological and epistemological concepts students have and how these can be operationalized. This is connected to the fundamental question of whether conceptual change can be used as a possible explanatory approach for changing subject-specific concepts in language learning processes.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Conceptual change: Coordination classes versus framework theory
- 3.Ontological and epistemological basic assumptions
- 4.Conceptual change and linguistic learning using the example of causal sentences and causal connectors
- 4.1Causality and causal connectors
- 4.2Basic ontological and epistemological concepts in language learning — an exemplary analysis of categorization tasks of sixth graders
- Ontological Basic ideas when looking at language
- Basic epistemological concepts in the observation of language
- 4.3On the connection between ontological and epistemological basic ideas in language reflection
- 4.4Attempts to operationalize student statements within the framework of the ontological and epistemological principles of the conceptual change approach
- 5.Limitations
- 6.Outlook: Conceptual change in language didactic research?
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