Language Ecology Research Articles

Concepts underpinning innovations to second language proficiency scales inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners: a dynamic process in progress

This paper discusses the concepts underlying two proficiency scale innovations which include and describe the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners of Standard Australian English (SAE). Both scales, developed in Queensland, are adaptations of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia (NLLIA) ESL Bandscales (McKay, Hudson, & Sapuppo, 1994). The revisions attempt to describe very complex terrain: the development of SAE by cohorts of Indigenous students, whose first languages are for the most part generated by language contact (English-lexified creoles or related varieties) in a range of language ecologies (second or foreign language or dialect learning situations), and who are undertaking their schooling in whole-class, mainstream curriculum contexts with SAE as the medium of instruction (Angelo, 2013). This work is of both national and international significance due to the growing awareness of the need for more valid language assessment of the diverse cohorts of students who have complex language backgrounds in relation to a standard language of education, such as non-standard dialects, contact languages, or ‘long-term’ language learners from indigenous or ethnic communities undergoing language shift. The concepts discussed suggest ways to capture students’ learning trajectories which are otherwise not visible in standardised L1 (literacy) assessments nor in typical L2 proficiency tools.

Considering heteroglossia in language and development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Countries throughout the Sub-Saharan (SSA) region have a complex linguistic heritage having their origins in opportunistic boundary changes effected by Western colonial powers at the Berlin Conference 1884–1885. Postcolonial language-in-education policies valorizing ex-colonial languages have contributed at least in part to underachievement in education and thus the underdevelopment of human resources in SSA countries. This situation is not likely to improve whilst unresolved questions concerning the choice of language(s) that would best support social and economic development remain. Whilst policy attempts to develop local languages have been discussed within the framework of the African Union, and some countries have experimented with models of multilingual education during the past decade, the goalposts have already changed as a result of migration and trade. This article argues that language policy makers need to be cognizant of changing language ecologies and their relationship with emerging linguistic and economic markets. The concept of language, within such a framework, has to be viewed in relation to the multiplicity of language markets within the shifting landscapes of people, culture, economics and the geo-politics of the 21st century. Whilst, on the one hand, this refers to the hegemony of dominant powerful languages and the social relations of disempowerment, on the other hand, it also refers to existing and evolving social spaces and local language capabilities and choices. Within this framework the article argues that socially constructed dominant macro language markets need to be viewed also in relation to other, self-defined, community meso- and individual micro-language markets and their possibilities for social, economic and political development. It is through pursuing this argument that this article assesses the validity of Omoniyi's argument in this issue, for the need to focus on the concept of language capital within multilingual contexts in the SSA region as compared to Bourdieu's concept of linguistic capital.

The ecology of science and its consequences for the ecology of language

Beginning with three preliminary considerations – on the factual role of prejudices (Section 1), on the relation of nature and culture (Section 2) and on the importance of logic (Section 3) – I compare the logical point of view with the ecological point of view for a new understanding of the philosophy of science (Section 4), the core of which is a theory of knowledge. In this view science is an evolutionarily late type of the Batesonian ecosystems of the mind that nevertheless follow many of the old systemic structures developed in the earlier ecosystems of matter. A problem is that in the past decades we have become used to the Kuhnian description of sciences as paradigmatic or longing for a paradigm-change. This entails the mistake of replacing the overall important value of truth by the concept of power (Section 5) which is unacceptable for an ecological point of view. In the ecological view we gain a new criterion for the dependency of science from the surrounding systems (as politics or economics) by judging its relative intactness in pursuing its scientific goals (Section 6). Language is a most important means for structuring human knowledge and science, but linguistics has not yet contributed much to its theory because of the deficits of the language sciences (Section 7). The ecology of language could repair that by resuming and developing ideas of the Humboldtian tradition (Section 8) which have been lost by the Saussurian and Chomskyan schools, especially that of restoring the environments of the language-systems to its important rights. Unfortunately, many ecolinguists do not recognize the importance of the ecological ideas for a progress in the theory of language and even grammar (Section 9). Therefore the power of change that is included in the ecolinguistic perspective – not only to supply a growing core of linguistic knowledge by some ecological additions but to replace it by a better linguistics (Section 10) – is often underrated.

From the analysis of ecological discourse to the ecological analysis of discourse

This article consists of a theoretical consideration of ecolinguistics, starting off with a working definition and then using this to look at two principal trends within the emerging discipline. The two trends considered are ‘the analysis of ecological discourse’ and the metaphorical ‘language ecology’. The conclusion is that ecolinguistics is more than just the analysis of texts which happen to be explicitly about the environment, and is more than just a metaphorical way of thinking about language contact. Instead, ecolinguistics is, primarily, the ‘ecological analysis of discourse’.

Language rules and language ecology

A growing theoretical and research literature is challenging the presupposition, common to both ‘descriptive’ and ‘prescriptive’ linguistics, that rules are constitutive of language. This paper briefly surveys some of the arguments, and adopts a position that excludes rule-governedness as an inherent property of language. Nevertheless, rules exist, and the large and continuing demand for ‘authorities’ such as grammars and dictionaries attests to the fact that they play an important role in the ecology of language. The paper explores some ways in which this role can be appropriately understood. A starting-point is the distinction between first-order languaging and second-order language: rules, as a socio-cultural imposition on language, relate to the latter. They are not defining characteristics of language, but are manifestations of a human need to create them. The rules (or ‘formulae’) are, in fact, the outcomes of a continual process of formulation. Equally important to understanding the ecological role of formulae is implementation, which is also an on-going process. Implementation, however, has received limited attention from linguists. Three areas in which the societal and social-psychological impetus for the implementation of formulae are examined. They are: the confidence in predictability that underpins human attempts to communicate; the belief in a standard language; and the desire to intervene and enhance linguistic behaviour in language pedagogy and other fields of applied linguistics. The paper presents the starting-point of a systematic treatment of the topic, and is intended to stimulate further academic discussion and research.

Ecolinguistics: the state of the art and future horizons

In this article we do two things: in the first half, we trace the emergence and development of ecological linguistics, or ecolinguistics, from the early 1970s. Having contrasted the ecological endeavour with the form-based traditions of 20th century linguistics, we discern four particular ways in which the ecology of language has been conceptualised: as a symbolic ecology (Section 2), a natural ecology (Section 3), a sociocultural ecology (Section 4), and a cognitive ecology (Section 5). These four approaches are described and discussed in detail. In the second half of the state of the art, we outline future horizons for the discipline. The foundation for this outline is our plea for a unified ecological language science (Section 6). This unified program pursues a naturalised agenda in the language sciences by exploring the ecological embeddedness of language and linguistic interaction (Section 7). In particular, this section presents the extended ecology hypothesis as one possible way of understanding ecolinguistics as a naturalised science of language. Having presented this view, we argue that it can place the four different traditions mentioned within a unified ecolinguistic framework (Section 8). This framework includes a naturalised foundation for those concerns that characterise the ecolinguistic enterprise, e.g. the exploitation of natural resources, empowerment of marginalized social groups, and the peaceful coexistence of languages and cultures in multicultural communities. In the conclusion (Section 9), we call for further interaction between ecological schools and traditions.

IDENTIDADE E LINGUAGENS ESPECIAIS: UMA PERSPECTIVA ECOLINGUÍSTICA

Tendo como base que um ecossistema linguístico funciona de acordo com o tripé da Ecologia fundamental da língua (EFL), em que Língua, Povo e Território procuram formar uma unidade, temos como objetivo principal neste texto discutir a questão das ecologias linguísticas complexas e,como as linguagens especiais se constituem e formam a identidade de seu falante, na perspectiva ecolinguística. Para isso, tomamos como principal fundamentação teórica, entre outros autores, Couto (2007), o qual forma a base deste artigo no âmbito da Ecolinguística, Cabello (2002), relacionando-o especificamente com as linguagens especiais e Hall (2007) que trata da formação da identidade no contexto pós-moderno. Assim, teremos como resultado das interações entre ecossistemas linguísticos, a formação de diferentes EFLs que poderão convergir em linguagens especiais como os jargões e as gírias. Além disso, as linguagens especiais constituem diferentes identidades a fim de representarem os sujeitos de determinado grupo social e linguístico.

Una Acustemología de la Selva Tropical

This text has the purpose of giving a voice to a sort of alternating reality, to a kind of resonant sensibility I have found by way of anthropological research of the ecology of language, of music and acoustics. My hope is that when granting spaces to marginalized voices from where they can speak out, scream and sing, therefore anthropology could in certain measure counteract the rooted arrogance of colonial and imperial authority, the same of history written in just one tongue, history with one voice as if unique and possible narrative. https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X79

The return of Hawaiian: language networks of the revival movement

Some 40 years ago, language transmission in Hawai‘i was interrupted among Hawaiians across all islands with the sole exception of language maintenance among a small community on the tiny, isolated Ni‘ihau Island. Today, Hawaiian has returned as spoken and written medium with some 5000–7000 new speakers. The present paper provides an up-to-date account of the sociolinguistic situation in Hawai‘i, and depicts the language ecological environment which allows for language revival in order to analyze how language revitalization differs from language revival. While language revitalization may happen in very different language ecologies, the revival of a no longer spoken language occurs only in late modern societies. The regaining of domains in language revival, i.e. once all domains had been lost, requires very different approaches than revitalization efforts. In Hawai'i, language revival is realized through networks and members of the language revival network use Hawaiian in all domains. The main objective of this network is to establish and maintain a Hawaiian-speaking environment and to produce new native speakers of Hawaiian.

CMC as Written Conversation

This article proposes a model for a critical social-constructivist (CS-C) approach to the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in language/culture education. CS-C theories emphasize a critical approach to social interactions, interpersonal relations, communication, and the influence that these activities have on learning. I will use the model to explore the extent to which CS-C approaches, especially in relation to the principles of connectivism, impact postsecondary language and culture education and its effects on identities within the constraints of a CMC institutional setting. Readers will participate in an exploration of new ways of thinking, learning, and teaching that emerge from the ecology of second language and culture classrooms integrated with CMC. There I have found the life experiences of learners and my own experiences as a teacher to be highly relevant to the learning processes at hand. I develop these explorations using global qualitative discourse-based analyses of selections from learner data produced in asynchronous CMC contexts over the course of 3 years. My focus is on the learning of culture rather than on second language acquisition in a narrow sense. Language learning and even language attrition are thematized in the learning ecologies that are my focus. This study does not, however, make any claims about language acquisition that are not mentioned in learners' own reflections. The data include written conversations produced in both English (often as the second language of the participants) and German (most often as a foreign language for the participants) using various platforms for asynchronous CMC interactions.

Identification and assessment contexts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners of Standard Australian English: Challenges for the language testing community

The paper discusses the contexts of language backgrounds, language learning, policy and assessment relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) students who are learning Standard Australian English (SAE) as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) in the state of Queensland. Complexities surrounding this cohort’s language situations and their language learning are explained in order to reveal why existing processes are not reliably identifying nor assessing those Indigenous students who are indeed EAL/D learners. In particular, it is argued, EAL/D processes and assessment instruments need to acknowledge and respond to the challenges posed by the rich and varied Indigenous language ecologies generated through language contact. System-level data does not disaggregate Indigenous EAL/D learners, nor correlate their levels of second language SAE proficiency with their academic performance data. Indigenous students are, however, over-represented in Queensland’s National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) under-performance data and raising their performance is a national priority and targeted through many government initiatives. Indigenous students comprise a highly heterogeneous group in terms of their cultural, linguistic and schooling backgrounds, and Indigenous EAL/D learners, too, represent a diverse grouping which has only been included relatively recently in Australian second language assessment tools, and around which there has been little extensive discussion, despite significant complexity surrounding this cohort. This paper explores the background contextual issues involved in identifying and assessing Indigenous EAL/D learners equitably and reliably.

Everywhere and nowhere

The language ecologies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Queensland are characterised by widespread language shift to contact language varieties, yet they remain largely invisible in discourses involving Indigenous languages and education. This invisibility – its various causes and its many implications – are explored through a discussion of two creoles which developed in Queensland: Yumplatok (formerly Torres Strait Creole) and Yarrie Lingo. Although both are English-lexified and originate in Queensland, they represent different histories and different trajectories of awareness and recognition. The Yumplatok discussion emphasises issues arising from speakers’ own attitudes, including Sellwood’s own lived experiences. The Yarrie Lingo discussion highlights issues arising from its creole–lexifier relationship with (Standard Australian) English. Finally, this paper examines a recently published government language report, highlighting the ways that Indigenous creoles are marginalised: this marginalisation exacerbates their invisibility in mainstream discourse.

Towards a national policy for languages in education: the case of Ireland

This article presents an approach for the development of national policies for education in foreign languages and applies it to the case of Ireland. The approach proposes an analysis of the language ecology and language ideology of a state in a particular socio-economic context in order to create a basis for the identification of the optimum linguistic situation. This mode of investigation facilitates the identification of policy decisions and initiatives that can shape the creation of such a linguistic landscape. The results show that it is necessary for Ireland to implement a series of measures to ensure that foreign-language competence is encouraged throughout the educational system. These include the introduction of foreign languages creatively as mandatory elements in primary school and their retention at secondary level as a prerequisite for university. In addition, there is need for university language policies and an awareness campaign for improved foreign-language skills in Ireland.

English As An International Language: An Overview

As indicated in the title, this paper provides a brief overview of English as an International Language (EIL) by elaborating it as a paradigm and discussing concepts that are closely related to it. In doing so, the paper covers sections of English in relation to globalisation, linguistic imperialism, other languages, identity, its varieties, language ecology, and its impacts. Prominent theories and previous research results are presented throughout the paper. In general, EIL as a paradigm suggests that the spread of English is no longer a simple result of migration or colonisation rather it involves multiple reasons, backgrounds, and issues. In the context of communication, EIL requires appropriateness and negotiation in the use and function of English among other languages, which would ideally lead to a “contemporary global linguistic ecology” (Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas, p. 20).

The Ecology of First Language Acquisition Nativism and Empiricism: An Appraisal and a Compromise

Contrary to the common belief that nativism and empiricism are two distinct theories of first language acquisition, both have some contribution to our understanding of the process of language acquisition; however, Neither of them is able to provide testable accounts of the details of language acquisition. As a result, Emergentism is proposed as an alternative with a wider scope to cover more of the realities about language acquisition. According to this paradigm, “formal structures of language emerge from the interaction of social patterns, patterns implicit in the input, and pressures arising from the biology of the cognitive system” (MacWhiney, 1998, P. 200). In this paper, it is attempted to match the picture of the first language acquisition with the metaphor of “the ecology of language” proposed by Brown (2000) for second language acquisition. The picture shows that genetic, physiological, cognitive, developmental and environmental factors before and after birth are at work, and language acquisition, in fact, is the consequence of interactions among all these factors.

The dynamics of linguistic diversity: egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages

The Torres and Banks Islands, two small archipelagos of northern Vanuatu, are home to 9400 inhabitants and to 17 distinct languages. With an average of 550 speakers per language, this region constitutes an extreme case of the linguistic fragmentation which is typically observed throughout Melanesia. This study presents the linguistic diversity of that area, examines its social underpinnings and outlines its historical dynamics. These islands form an integrated network where a variety of social forces interact, sometimes in conflicting ways. A long lasting bias toward cultural differentiation of local communities has led historically to the linguistic mosaic observable today. This traditional fostering of diversity was correlated with a principle of egalitarian multilingualism. But while these ancient social attitudes have survived to this day, the linguistic diversity of northern Vanuatu has already begun to erode, due to various recent social changes. These changes have reshaped the language ecology of the region and already resulted in the partial loss of earlier linguistic diversity. While northern Vanuatu is still linguistically diverse today, the increased imbalance of power among languages potentially makes the weaker varieties vulnerable in the decades to come.

A framework for language endangerment dynamics: the effects of contact and social change on language ecologies and language diversity

This paper argues for a new perspective on the study of language endangerment dynamics where diversity serves not only as a yardstick for assessing equality, but represents the very basis of equality. To this end, we propose a unified framework accounting for the ecology of languages and language diversity loss. Different ways of economically organizing communities result in power differentials. In cases of contact between them, the language ecologies of the less powerful communities are disrupted through language shift and attrition processes. While these processes have taken place in all competitive language ecologies across time and space, two major waves of language diversity loss can be attested. The first wave began 11,000 years ago following the Neolithic revolution when agrarian societies expanded into the territories of hunter-gatherer communities. The second wave was initiated by the French Revolution when dynastic realms transformed into modern states. The promotion of linguistic nationalism and social mobility in societies imagined to be linguistically homogenous undermined the value and utility of minority languages. Two basic possibilities exist for maintaining linguistic diversity: one is limiting contact to dominating communities; another is finding ways of regulating inter-community relations by mechanisms that do not rely on power alone. Ongoing processes in glocalizing societies suggest that a combination of both options may become a viable way to halt language diversity loss.

English in Ghana: Growth, Tensions, and Trends

<strong><strong></strong></strong><p align="LEFT">T<span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: small;">his paper provides snapshots of the growth of English in Ghana by reviewing </span></span>the debates that have characterised its usage, recapitulating the distinctive features of Ghanaian English (GhaE), and examining current directions of its growth. From its fi rst implantation in Ghana, then the Gold Coast, in the early part of the 16 <span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: xx-small;">th </span></span><span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: DejaVuSerifCondensed; font-size: small;">century to date, English in Ghana, like in other West African countries </span></span>has shown formidable resilience as the language of formal education, and a medium for cross-ethnic communication in a predominantly multilingual environment. The tensions attendant upon which language to use as a medium of instruction at the lower levels of education appear to be yielding to the logic of complementarities and bilingualism within the local language ecology. English in Ghana, as an outercircle phenomenon, has been travelling the delicate expansionist path of innovation, adaptation, and maintenance of standards over the years. The distinctive Ghanaian linguistic and cultural colouration continues to permeate the English language on all levels, including vocabulary, idiomatic usage, and pronunciation.</p>

Ecology of Language / Language of Ecology ---Kokugo, Dialect, and Globalization---

Ecology of Language / Language of Ecology ---Kokugo, Dialect, and Globalization---

Dynamics and Languaging: Toward an Ecology of Language

We introduce the second of 2 special issues of Ecological Psychology that present papers from a conference, “Grounding Language in Perception and (Inter)action,” held at Gordon College in June 2009. The articles in this issue situate the study of language use in two kinds of context that are central to an understanding of “languaging” activities in the social settings in which they occur. The first is the context of dynamical systems theory. Wallot and Van Orden show how a dynamical systems approach can illuminate language use as the intentional and creative activity that it is. Cowley and Thibault illustrate the distributed language approach. Cowley follows Gibson (1979/1986) in comparing language understanding to picture perception. Thibault illustrates the wholly embedded nature of language use in an evocative example of 2 boys offering a description of aliens they have learned about in a story. All of the contributors emphasize language as embodied social action deeply embedded in the social contexts of talking. The articles in this issue and its predecessor, Ecological Psychology 22(4), offer valuable insights for development of an ecological theory of language use.