Charles A. Ferguson Fellowship
The Ferguson Fellowship was established in 1995 in honor of Charles A. Ferguson, CAL’s founder and first director, to allow senior researchers in applied linguistics to affiliate with CAL as visiting scholars, contribute to ongoing work in their area of expertise, and further their own research and writing. Previous fellows were Francis M. Hult, Bernard Spolsky, Rod Ellis, Joseph Lo Bianco, Catherine Snow, and Barbara Horvath.
Ferguson is considered a pioneer in socio- and applied linguistics, including areas of English as a global language, child language acquisition, and bilingualism. He began his career as a linguist at the U.S. Department of State, became a lecturer in linguistics at Harvard University, and served as director at the Center for Applied Linguistics until 1967. After leaving CAL, Ferguson founded the linguistics department at Stanford University, where he was a department member until 1987. He served as a CAL trustee from 1967-1982, and was awarded emeritus trustee status in 1995.
The Ferguson Fellowship is awarded periodically and is intended to assist senior level researchers in furthering their interests that are shared by CAL. Fellows spend time at CAL headquarters, where they are able to conduct research using CAL’s resources and spend time with CAL staff members. The Ferguson Fellowship is funded through private donations. For more information about the fellowship, or to make a donation, please contact CAL.
Learn more about the Ferguson Fellows.
Dr. Francis M. Hult
2016 Ferguson Fellow
Dr. Hult is known for his work at the crossroads of sociolinguistics, discourse studies, and education. His research examines multilingual language management in policy and practice, focusing on linguistic landscapes and language policy and planning through an ethnographic discourse-analytic lens. Dr. Hult’s contributions in these areas include investigating ideological dimensions of national language policies, examining how language teachers engage with educational policy discourses, studying visual language use in multilingual communities, and advancing theoretical/methodological scalar empirical approaches to these topics. He is also a leader in furthering educational linguistics as a transdisciplinary field through his own research and as founder of the Educational Linguistics list.
Dr. Hult is currently an associate professor at the Centre for Languages and Literature at Lund University, Sweden, where he is also director of studies for English. He previously held an appointment in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and he has lectured at universities and NGOs in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Spain, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has been a UNESCO senior visiting scholar, a Language Learning Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Education in Singapore and the University of Calgary Language Research Centre, and he is a member of the UNESCO International Bureau of Education network of experts. His work appears widely in major international journals, and his books include:
- Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015; with Johnson).
- Educational Linguistics in Practice: Applying the Local Globally and the Global Locally (Multilingual Matters, 2011; with King)
- Directions and Prospects for Educational Linguistics (Springer, 2010)
- Handbook of Educational Linguistics (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008; with Spolsky)
He is an advisory board member of the Language Policy Research Network (LPREN) housed at CAL for which he and Sarah Compton wrote a policy brief on language policy and Deaf education. Dr. Hult is also an editorial board member of Anthropology and Education Quarterly; Current Issues in Language Planning; Language, Culture, and Curriculum; and the International Journal of the Sociology of Language as well as editor of the Educational Linguistics book series (Springer) and the Contributions to the Sociology of Language book series (Mouton; with García).
Dr. Bernard Spolsky
2010 Ferguson Fellow
Dr. Spolsky is a leading scholar in language policy, including language education policy and language management; sociolinguistics, including language change and language maintenance; educational linguistics, including literacy and second language learning; language testing and its history; and language attitudes and identity. Dr. Spolsky was in residence at CAL during October-December 2010.
During his time at CAL, Dr. Spolsky continued to work on editing the Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy, began the editing of a collection of articles on language academies and other management agencies, and carried out research for a monograph on religious influences on language management. He also provided general consultation to CAL staff, and gave a special presentation to CAL staff and guests, “Fergie, Joshua, and the Birth of Responsible Sociolinguistics.”
Dr. Spolsky is Emeritus Professor of English at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he was also the founding director of the Language Policy Research Centre. He has taught at many diverse locations around the world including Hebrew University, McGill University, Indiana University, and the University of New Mexico. He has written and edited a dozen books and published well over 200 book chapters and journal articles. Recent publications include
- Sociolinguistics (Oxford University Press 1998)
- The Languages of Israel (with Elana Shohamy, 1999)
- Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Linguistics (Pergamon 1999)
- Language Policy (Cambridge, 2004)
- Handbook of Educational Linguistics (co-editor), and
- Language Management (Cambridge, 2009)
In addition to being the founding editor of the journal, Language Policy, Dr. Spolsky has served as President of International TESOL, Secretary of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, President of the Israeli Association of Applied Linguistics, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Applied Linguistics, and President of the International Language Testing Association. He was awarded Guggenheim and Mellon fellowships, and has been Senior Research Fellow at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington and a Visiting Research fellow at University of Auckland International Research Institute for Indigenous and Maori Education. Other awards include International Language Testing Association / University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005; Modern Language Association Kenneth W. Mildenberg Prize (for Conditions for Second Language Learning) 1989; and British Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Book Prize (for Conditions for Second Language Learning) 1990.
Dr. Rod Ellis
2008 Ferguson Fellow
Dr. Ellis is Professor in the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics, University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he teaches postgraduate courses on second language acquisition, individual differences in language learning, and task-based teaching. He is also a professor in the MA in TESOL program at Anaheim University (California) and a visiting professor at Shanghai International Studies University as part of China’s Chang Jiang Scholars Program.
He has worked in schools in Spain and Zambia and in universities in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States, and has conducted numerous consultancies and seminars throughout the world. In addition, Dr. Ellis is the editor of the journal Language Teaching Research. His published work includes articles and books on second language acquisition, language teaching, and teacher education. While in residence at CAL, Dr. Ellis consulted on projects in language learning and teaching and advised on directions for future work. His books include Understanding Second Language Acquisition (1985, BAAL Prize 1986) and The Study of Second Language Acquisition (1994, Duke of Edinburgh prize 1995), both published by Oxford University Press. More recent books, also published by Oxford University Press, include Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching (2003), Analyzing Learner Language (with Gary Barkhuizen, 2005), and a second edition of The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2008). In addition, Dr. Ellis has published several English language textbooks, including Impact Grammar (with Stephen Gaies, 1998, Pearson: Longman). He also wrote a CAL Digest, Principles of Instructed Second Language Acquisition, which can be downloaded for free from the CAL website.
Dr. Joe LoBianco
2002 Ferguson Fellow
Dr. LoBianco, a professor and researcher from the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland, Australia, is well known in linguistics circles for his contributions to research and practice concerning heritage languages and the development of national language policies. During his time in Washington, DC, Lo Bianco was able to follow up on his work on language policy debates in Congress and to investigate the impact of national security concerns on language teaching and learning, among other interests. He also focused on heritage language development in the United States, as this is one of his chief research interests. While he was in Washington, DC, Lo Bianco participated as a plenary speaker in the Second Conference on Heritage Languages in America (hosted by CAL and the National Foreign Language Center). He has been very interested in exploring the different approaches to heritage language development that the United States and Australia have adopted. Lo Bianco’s career has been marked by seminal accomplishments in fields related to CAL’s areas of focus, including research on language policy and planning, multilingualism and bilingualism in social contexts, language and conflict, and literacy policy. He founded, served as director, and currently serves on the board of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia. In 1999, he wrote the National Language Education Policy for Sri Lanka with funding from the World Bank. He was commissioned by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council to conduct work on language education policy in Scotland in 2000, and his research on language policy in Scotland was written up in local papers such as the Glasgow Herald and The Scotsman. He has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1999) and this year was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities in literacy planning.
Dr. Catherine Snow
2001 Ferguson Fellow
Catherine Snow is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from McGill and worked for several years in the linguistics department of the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include children’s language development as influenced by interaction with adults in home and preschool settings, literacy development as related to language skills and as influenced by home and school factors, and issues related to the acquisition of English oral and literacy skills by language minority children. She has co-authored books on language development and on literacy development, and published widely on these topics in refereed journals and edited volumes. She served as a board member at the Center for Applied Linguistics and a member of the National Research Council Committee on Establishing a Research Agenda on Schooling for Language Minority Children. She chaired the National Research Council Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which produced a report that has been widely adopted as a basis for reform of reading instruction and professional development. She currently serves on the NRC’s Council for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, and as president of the American Educational Research Association.
Dr. Barbara Horvath
1995 Ferguson Fellow
The first recipient of the Ferguson Fellowship was Barbara Horvath, a professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney from 1976 to 1993. Dr. Horvath has a PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University and is the author of many articles, chapters, and books, including Variation in Australian English: The Sociolects of Sydney and Sociolinguistic Profiles: A Handbook. She was president of the Australian Linguistic Society (1988-90) and has been editor of the Australian Journal of Linguistics since 1991. She was also an affiliated scholar in the summer and fall of 1991, when she was on sabbatical. Dr. Horvath spent approximately five months at CAL, continuing her sociolinguistic research on variation in Australian English and beginning work on a sociolinguistics textbook. During her residency at CAL, she worked with CAL staff and projects in an advisory capacity, particularly regarding the Australian experience in language policy, education of diverse populations, and English language teaching.
