ABSTRACT
The ecology of language as a concept has existed for quite some time (e.g., Trim 1959; Voegelin and Voegelin 1964; Haugen 1972), becoming diverse in its intellectual trajectory (e.g., Fill and Mühlhäusler 2001) and somewhat controversial in nature (e.g., Edwards 2002; Pennycook 2004). Nonetheless, the ecology of language has emerged as a useful conceptual orientation in that it brings together the micro-and macro-level streams of sociolinguistic research that are necessary to fully grasp all aspects of the social mechanisms involved in multilingualism (e.g., Hornberger 2002; Skutnabb-Kangas 2002). Still, the full potential of the ecology of language in this regard has yet to be realized.
