Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1991 Telling Stories (Out of School) of Mother Tongue, God's Tongue, and the Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography in Canada Joan Ratzlaff Swinney Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Swinney, Joan Ratzlaff, "Telling Stories (Out of School) of Mother Tongue, God's Tongue, and the Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography in Canada" (1991). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1240. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.1239 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. TELLING STORIES (OUT OF SCHOOL) OF MOTHER TONGUE, GOD'S TONGUE, AND THE QUEEN'S TONGUE: AN ETHNOGRAPHY IN CANADA by JOAN RATZLAFF SWINNEY A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION In EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP Portland Stale University @1991 TO THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES: The members of tht! Committet! approve the disst!rtation of Joan Ratzlaff Swinney presented June 24, 1991. Strouse, Chair Robert B. Everhart William D. Grt!e~~ld APPROVED: Robert B. C. Willilllll Silvery, Vict! Provost for Gruduutt! Stutli : untl Rt!st!urch AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Joan IRatzlaff Swinney for the Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership pres.::nted June 24, 1991. Title: Telling Stories (Gut of School) of Mother TOllgue, God's TOllgue, and the Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography in Canarua APPROVED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE DISSERTATION COMMITTEE: Rohert B. Everhartl j ____ L Histories give little attention to language dominance in school ,md community -- to the fact that the past one-hundreu years of "On';! People, Ont: Language, One School" attitudes, policies, and goals in Anglo-American SdlOOJ..; and communities have brought with them the demise of Native-American languag.:s, the disapp~'lIrance of linguistic differences due to 2 immigrant origin, the disvalue or stereotype of linguistic patterns derived from regional and ethnic variation, and the insistence on Ellglish as a mark of linguistic and intellectual virtue. Tellillg Stories (0111 of School) of Mother TOllgue, God's TOllgue, alld the Queen's Tongue: An Ethnography in Callada gives attention to one such history. Told in Mennonite perspective and framed in Manitoba schools between 1890 and 1990, Tellillg Stories (Out of School) begins with tales of English-speaking Canadian insistence on and German-speaking Mennonite resistance to English-only language educ(!tion policies in puhlic and private schools serving a Mennonite speech community in southern Manitoha. The research problem links itself historically to a series of language education acts passed hy the Manitoba Legislature, adjudicated by the Manitoba Attorney General, the Canadian Supreme Court, and the British Privy Council, and enforced by the Manitoba Department of Education -- all between 1890 and 1920. These English-only policies, deemed an expedient response to the question of how to unify English­ Canadians, French-Canadians, Ahoriginals, and immigrants, ahrogated the language education rights of all linguistic minorities. Ellglish prevailed in Mllnitoha schools until the 1960s. After the mid-1960s, though, the Canadian Parliament in concert with the Manitoba Legislature, the Manitoba Department of Education, and local puhlic school districts re-affirmed Canada's English-French legacy as well as its multilingual, multicultural heritage with yet another series of language and language education acts -- the Canadian Official Languages Act of 1969, the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982, and the Canadian Multicultural Act of 1988. Today, the Canadian "Cultural Mosaic," or "Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework," dispels the "Melting Pot" myth borrowed from the United States at the tum of the century. And, the 1990 right to "language education choice" in Manitoba's syslI!m of puhlic schools denies the 1890 rule of "One People, One L<'mguage, One School." To trace historical and recent developments in a Mennonite speech community associated with these policies, and subsequently with the contact of English, High Germall, and Loll' Germall "outside the classroom," the ethnographer -- 3 an insider-outsider -- synthesizes the Hymes-type work in ethnographies of speaking LInd the MUroy-type work in language and social networks to examine the Ferguson-coined phenomenon of diglossia and the Fishman-extended relationship between societal diglossia and individual bi/i'/ilgua/ism. Interviews with fifty-seven speakers, treated as a sequence of ethno-acts and ethno-events, are guided by the general question of sociolinguistic research -- who uses what language with whom, when, where, and why? Using Hymes' mnemonic code of SPEAKING lead:s to the description of a shared history and a shared way of speaking, as well as to insights into linguistic continuity, change, and compartmentalization. Telling Stories (Our of School) endls; with tales of an ethnic revival in Mennonite schools lind community today -- with new voices speaking Low Gennan, High Germall, and English. While the present ethnography of a Menl1lonite speech community in Canada, framed in Manitoba schools between 1890 and 1990, should be regarded as impressionistic and preliminary, the fact remains -- language dominance doe:s: do something to the life of language in a community as does language education policy that atte:rnpts to "start where the child is ... linguistic'llly." ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the travel and research grant that Illade this ethnography possible, I thank the Canadian Embassy, its Canadian Studies Graduate Student Fellowship Program, and Norman London, academic officer. For their briefings on Canadian social policy and Manitoba educational policy, I am indebted to the Manitoba Department of Education and Training, especially Ed Buller, deputy minister; Eliana Handford, coordinator of languages, multiculturalism, and ESL; and Abe Peters, German language consultant. For the opportunity to see and hear about "language education choice" in practice, I thank the board members and educators with the River East, Hanover, Garden Valley, and Rhineland school divisions, noteably Robert Cross, assistant superintendent of the River East School Division, and Gilbert Unger, superintendent of the Hanover School Division. For their assistance with the collection of data, I thank the many people in the Mennonite community, particularly Heidi Ens-Harms and Di Brandt, poets; Jacob Loewen, linguist; Peter Zacharias, historian; Lawrence Klippenstein, archivist with the Mennonite Heritage Centre; Kenneth Reddig, archivist with the Centre for MB Studies in Canada; Harry Loewen, chair of Mennonite Studies, and Al Reimer, professor emeritus of English, both at the University of Winnipeg. For their scholarship and their mentorship, I remain indebted to the five exceptional people at Portland State University who served on my dissertation committee: Joan Strouse, committee chair and professor of education, who thoughtfully guided me and this interdisciplinary effort from its beginning and tirelessly read, listened to, and commented on stories; James Nattinger, head of the Department of Applied Linguistics, who caused me to rethink everything I know about language and language learning; Jerry Lansdowne, professor of urban studies, who molded my thoughts about community science and community building; William Greenfield, professor of education, who encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to iv scholarship in education; and Robert Everhart, dean of the School of Education, who influenced me and this study with engaging discussions of ethnography. Finally, on the home front, I thank Frank Swinney and Erik Swinney for cheering me on. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........1 ................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES ............. ,. viii PROLOGUE TO TELLING STORIES ~OUT OF SCHOOL) ...................... x CHAPTER MOTHER TONGUE! (!lOD'S TONGUE! ENTER THE QUEEN'S TONGUE! A TELLING STORY OF LANGUAGE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN SCHOOLING ..... I•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 1 "What! Leam English!! My Children Shall Not!": A Speech Act in a Mennonite Private School Around 1890 ............ 1 "One People, One Lan:guage, One School System": Speech Acts in the Manitoba Legislature Between 1890 and 1960 ........ 3 An English-only Stump Speech A French Appeal to the British-Canadian Tribunal A Mennonite Appeal to the British-Canadian Tribunal A Circumspect View of Events Between 1890 and 1960 "Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework": Speech Acts ilB Parliament and the Manitoba Legislature Between 1960 and 1990 ........... " .................................. 13 Trends in the Canadian Parliament Dire<:tions in IIhe Manitoba Legislature umguage EdUication "Choice" in Manitoba Public Schools A Telling Story ('., ull1iguage in Anglo-American Schooling. .. 18 II TOWARD ETHNOGRJ.\PHY AS "COMMUNITY SCIENCE": AN INTERDIISCIPLINARY MODEL OF A SPEECH COMMUNITY ... 21 A Tradition of Ethnography. 21 A Question of MOlher ITongue and God's Tongue: Ferguson's (1959) Spelech Act on "Diglossia" ................... 26 vi Ferguson's Pioneering Research on Diglossia High-Low Language Criterion and Rubrics The Issues of Origin and Stability