Linguistic Landscape &

Language Awareness

SLS 408
Michael Mierop
3/17/2015

What is a linguistic landscape?

The language of public road signs,advertising billboards, street names,
place names, commercial shop signs,and public signs on government
buildings combines to form the LL of a given territory, region, or urban
agglomeration(Landry and Bourhis 1997:25).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjwhD5Udclk

Whats your initial impression?

Language Awareness

Language education which goes beyond those topics usually covered in first or
second language instruction in order to promote greater understanding of the ways
in which language functions in society including :

Ecology
Sociology
Psychology
Anthropology

Language awareness has been defined as "a person's sensitivity to and conscious
awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life"(Wolfram, 1998).

Childrens role in the linguistic landscape

Children construct their own identities by interactions with the sum of

identities that are represented in the linguistic landscape in their
surroundings. Researchers examine children's interpretation of the LL
and hypothesize what is implied from a child's perspective to help
educators.
The data from this research is used as a tool to increase the students
observation of texts, multilingualism, and language diversity.
Most of the research about LL has been done in Europe and Canada.

Multilingual Cities
The diverse languages printed in the LL
provide information about the population of a
neighborhood, it displays the languages that
are the majority or minorities, social
positions, valued languages to a community,
and the multi-culturalism in a neighborhood.

Cities as Texts
A useful metaphor that is applied to the LL in
metropolitan areas as the citizens must decipher,
read, and interpret the city as a literary text.

Drawbacks
Not accessible to all citizens.
Citizens must be culturally and linguistically
able to understand the meanings.
Texts define readers by being directed to a
specific audience.

Critical thinking
Children are encouraged to ask: What are the interests of the writers and
readers of texts? What is at stake for them in producing and decoding texts?
Who has power to determine what languages appear in texts?
.
These critical activities encourage students to think deeply about the texts in
terms of power and the issue of privileges. As a whole this approach is known
as critical pedagogies where teachers that pursue this pedagogy target
language as a way to pursue equity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtjl3TqwB4
Paulo Freires Pedagogy of the oppressed

Applications in the
Classroom
Discussions on multilingualism
Manipulating texts
Audio recordings & videos in multiple languages that
are new to the students
Observing how languages are valued or devalued
Examining stereotypes of language diversity

Objective of Study
The purpose of Dagenais et al. study is to
document students contact with different
languages in their neighborhoods with the goal
of changing pedagogical methods. Paired
elementary classes from VanCouver and
Montreal together were examined to see how
languages are being used in all aspects.

Activities

In the classroom neighborhood descriptions

were exchanged with partner schools.
Teacher asked students to draw favorite
places
Students observe photos taken by
researchers
Students took notes as they went on field
trip to see LL
Students take photos of their hood
Mapping Activity
Class debate about power and the
representation in the neighborhood

Think about it...

Get into groups of 3 and discuss
What purposes are there for LL in the classroom? In
your current or future teaching context, how would
you make use of LL in your classroom?
In the public space in Hawaii who is included, and who
is excluded from being represented?
What can be done about the excluded groups in
Hawaii?

Group Activity
Split up into 4 groups.
Create a relevant sign that can be useful to
Hawaiis Language groups. Make sure to cover
all language groups you assume are in Hawaii
including minorities. Use of mobile devices
and google translation are permitted.

Explain its relevance

in Hawaii.
Who is being
targeted?
In terms of
location, where
would your sign
have the best
impact?

Bibliography
Landry, Rodrigue & Bourhis, Richard Y. (1997) Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: an empirical study.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1): 2349.
Linguistic Landscape. (2014, October 16). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjwhD5Udclk
Menacker, T. (1998, January 1). Active critical language awareness: An innovative approach to language pedagogy.
Retrieved March 12, 2015
Webber, A. (2014, April 13). Pedagogy of the Oppressed - A 5-10 Minute Tour. Retrieved March 12, 2015, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtjl3TqwB4
Wolfram, W. (1998). Dialect awareness and the study of language. In Egan-Robertson & Bloome (Eds.).