Science, didactics, technologies: the language of interwoven games

Abstract

This paper reflects on the characteristics that distinguish the world of science
and the world of school, in terms of speech acts. Both are a manifestation
of special language games and, in pursuing their respective aims,
they make use of and favour different linguistic functions, on a pragmatic
level. In an attempt to objectify the world, preaching its truth, science
makes used of a purified language, free from ambiguities; school, on the
other hand, is called upon to teach the new generations the knowledge
produced by science itself and, for this precise reason, must reshape the
scientific message, following communication methods that are, in some
way, familiar to the students. From this perspective, digital technologies are
indicated as the linguistic world that is most suited to students. Considering
the internet and related tools as “forms of communication” teaching actions
can be built based on the model of so-called reasoning “by analogy
and by metaphor”.