INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND LITERACY RESEARCH: EPISTEMOLOGICAL, THEORETICAL, AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Abstract

The paper discusses three aspects in New Literacies Studies research in Brazil, as developed by researchers from an Applied Linguistics perspective. This perspective contributes to determine epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues in literacy research, as well as ethical issues in regard to the relationships established with the groups who participate in the research. Taking examples from our research group, known as Teacher Literacy Research Group (created in 1991), we discuss transdisciplinary relationships built between Literacy and Dialogism as developed by Bakhtin and his Circle. Another intersecting point between Applied Linguistics and Literacy Research discussed in the paper is the relation between ethics and research in the two fields; a third one has to do with the methods adopted: as in several other studies in Applied Linguistics, in literacy studies, ethnography has been the preferred methodology. We conclude pointing out that an approach that conceives its object in a transdisciplinary manner and adopts ethical criteria as a research validation element favors the development of critical studies about writing in which the choice of problems and research contexts support the social goals of the investigated groups.