Language as human ecology: A new agenda for linguistic education

• In educational practices both knowledge and language are reified as external things.
• Reification results in misunderstanding the nature and function of language.
• Speech and writing constitute the domain of languaging in which humans develop.
• Languaging establishes a human ecological niche in which we evolve.
• The ideology of linguistic education must acknowledge language as human ecology.

The efficiency of linguistic education based on the code model of language is questioned. The view of written language as a representation of speech ignores the important difference between the experientially different cognitive domains of speech and writing which affect human cognitive development by establishing an extended ecology of languaging. As a consequence, functional illiteracy in societies with established literate cultures becomes a real threat. It can be avoided when it is understood that language is a kind of socially driven behavior which contributes, in a quite definitive way, to the rich context of the human ecological niche, including texts, without which it cannot be understood.