An existential-ontological approach to education with special attention paid to language education

The article discusses the ontological foundations of language education with special attention paid to the essence of language in human existence. After briefly defining what existential philosophy means, the following issues are considered in detail: the concept of existence, being authentic or inauthentic, the problem of choice, ambiguity, curiosity and idle talk as opposed to critical, reflective thinking and finding one’s own voice. In the further part of the article, pedagogical implications arising from the ontological assumptions concerning human existence and language are presented. The guiding idea of the article is the assumption that ignoring fundamental ontological issues in the process of language education deepens the pervasive feeling of emptiness and meaningless of existence and reduces thinking about education to instrumental and pragmatic issues associated with obtaining qualifications and developing language skills.