Mark Fettes: Current work

The linguistic ecology of education

Since 1986 I have been engaged in the struggle to develop a coherent theoretical alternative to such discursive practices, by means of which the vibrant linguistic realities of indigenous languages, pidgins and creoles, non-standard dialects, sign languages, Esperanto, and so on, might better be accommodated in linguistic policy and pedagogical practice.

A speaker-centred account of language entails radical differences in epistemology (the relation of language to knowledge) and ontology (the kind of thing language is), when compared to more familiar structuralist accounts. Some of the differences are sketched impressionistically in

(Un)Writing the Margins: Steps toward an Ecology of Language (February 1999)

and in greater detail in my paper for the Ecology of Language Acquisition Workshop at the University of Amsterdam, 11-15 January 1999:

Critical Realism and Ecological Psychology:
Foundations for a Naturalist Theory of Language Acquisition.

An earlier paper, given at the Fourth Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium at Northern Arizona University, 2-3 May 1997, explores some of the implications for language maintenance strategies in indigenous communities:

Stabilizing What? An Ecological Approach to Language Renewal

and a paper in a forthcoming issue of Language, Culture, and Curriculum (11:3, 1998, to appear mid-1999) examines

Indigenous Education and the Ecology of Community.

In my PhD dissertation, The Linguistic Ecology of Education (University of Toronto, nearing completion), these ideas are developed in greater length and detail, with particular attention being paid to their implications for the organization and administration of schooling.

Send reactions, questions, suggestions, etc. to mfettes@esperantic.org.

Previous papers

Aboriginal language policy

1992: Language Strategies for First Nations Communities (Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations).
This 36-page booklet, written on contract to the AFN, was my first attempt at applying language planning theory to the particular problems of Aboriginal communities. A modest introduction to a complex area, it strives to avoid over-simplification and maintain a holistic perspective.

1993: Taking Back the Talk: A Specialized Review of First Nations Languages and Literacies (Ottawa: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples).
I researched and wrote this with Ruth Norton, then Director of the Languages and Literacy Secretariat of the Assembly of First Nations, at eight weeks' notice. There are lots of interesting data and plenty of gaps. Some of them I managed to fill in later papers (see below).

1994: The International Context of Aboriginal Linguistic Rights (Bulletin of the Canadian Centre for Linguistic Rights, 1 (3), spring 1994, 6-11).
An interesting set of comparisons between the status of Aboriginal languages in New Zealand, Australia, Latin America, the United States, and Canada.

1995: The Nature and Extent of Maori Control of Education (unpublished OISE paper).
When I visited my family in New Zealand in 1995, I spent a week talking to researchers and officials in the areas of Maori language and education. This paper summarizes what I learned through those interviews and a two-foot stack of documents I brought back to read. A good historical introduction and up-to-date summary from an outsider's perspective.

1996: Provincial Policies in Aboriginal Language Education (unpublished OISE paper).
The decentralized nature of education policies in Canada can make it incredibly difficult to figure out what's going on across the country. I spent part of the summer of 1996 tracking down information on what nine of the ten provinces (excluding Prince Edward Island and the Territories) are doing about teaching or using Aboriginal languages in provincial schools. Potentially very useful for Aboriginal educators and policy-makers.

1997: Life on the Edge: Canada's Aboriginal Languages Under Official Bilingualism (Tom Ricento and Barbara Burnaby, eds., "Language and Politics in the U.S. and Canada: Myths and Realities", Lawrence Erlbaum).
I wrote this paper in the first half of 1995. It focuses on federal policy and on the Aboriginal Languages Agreements between the federal government and the Territories, which constitute two of the most advanced policy experiments in this area in the world. Interestingly, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon have adopted diametrically opposed strategies, the former favouring a rights-based, top-down approach, the other an organic process of identifying and responding to grassroots needs.

Other work on language policy and planning

1991: Europe's Babylon: Towards a Single European Language? (History of European Ideas 13, 201-213).
My first foray into writing about linguistic issues in English was this prize-winning entry in an essay competition sponsored by the Society for European Ideas and press baron Robert Maxwell. The essay contrasts the respective strengths and weaknesses of English and Esperanto as candidates for a "European language".

1994: Linguistic Rights in Canada: Collusions or Collisions? A Conference Report (Bulletin of the Canadian Centre for Linguistic Rights, 1 (3), spring 1994, 18-20).
This overview of the Centre's conference reflects my disconcerting discovery that many of the speakers (although not the organizers) appeared to interpret "linguistic rights" as applying exclusively to French and English.

1996: The Esperanto Community: A Quasi-Ethnic Linguistic Minority? (Language Problems and Language Planning 20 (1), 53-59).
This was my first paper in English on the sociology of Esperanto, an area which continues to fascinate me. It also inaugurated a new section of LPLP devoted to interlinguistics, the study of planned languages, under my editorship.

1996: Inside the Tower of Words: The Institutional Functions of Language at the United Nations (115-134 in Sylvie Léger, ed., Towards a Language Agenda: Futurist Outlook on the United Nations, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Linguistic Rights).
I wrote this paper in 24 hours to replace a keynote speaker at the Centre's second conference. It brings together a wide range of testimony on the dysfunctional nature of UN-type multilingualism.

1997: Esperanto and Language Policy: Exploring the Issues (Language Problems and Language Planning 21 (1), in press).
A paper inspired by the Nitobe Symposium of International Organizations which I organized in Prague in July 1996. It brought together such notables as Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (Multilingualism for All) and Robert Phillipson (Linguistic Imperialism) along with officials from the UN and Unesco to talk about Esperanto's status and prospects.

1997: Language Planning and Education (in David Corson, ed., Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Kluwer, in press).
Every academic should have to write 3000-word articles from time to time. This one helped me to put the language planning tradition in perspective.

1997: Esperanto and Language Awareness (in David Corson, ed., Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Kluwer, in press).
Esperanto has enormous potential as an educational tool, quite apart from its status as a global language. Some possibilities and some obstacles are discussed here.