An introduction to the field of Linguistic Landscape and how the languages of public spaces can become a resource for language learning. Presented in Intermediate Spanish II classes, Columbia University, March 29, 2016

1. Language Learning in the
Linguistic Landscape
David Malinowski
Center for Language Study
Yale University
david.malinowski@yale.edu
@tildensky
An introduction for language students
Presented to:
Intermediate Spanish II
Columbia University
March 29, 2016

2. Structure of this slideshow
1. What is the “linguistic landscape” and why is
it important?
2. Language learning motivations: What can
focusing on the linguistic landscape do for
your language learning?
3. LL in practice: Language learning activities
and approaches

3. 1. Definitions
What is “linguistic landscape”?

5. “The language of public road signs, advertising
billboards, street names, place names,
commercial shop signs, and public signs on
government building combines to form the
linguistic landscape of a given territory, region or
urban agglomeration”
Landry & Bourhis (1997)
What is linguistic landscape?
(older definition)

6. “a far more dynamic account of space, text and
interaction [is needed in linguistic landscape
studies]: readers and writers are part of the fluid,
urban semiotic space and produce meaning as they
move, write, read and travel” (Pennycook 2009,
309)
“attention needs to be paid to how constructs of
space are constrained by material conditions of
production, and informed by associated
phenomenological sensibilities of mobility and
gaze.” (Stroud & Mpendukana 2009, 364-5 )
What is linguistic landscape?
(newer definitions)

7. Urban sociolinguistics Globalization and transnational
(strong Fr. tradition) flows of people, products, info
Language policy
Urban studies Language planning
Cultural geography
Environmental
psychology
Multimodal, spatial,
material “turns” in social Proliferation of image,
theory & discourse studies geospatial technologies
Some origins of “linguistic landscape”
Social semiotics
Geosemiotics
Nexus analysis

8. A sampling: Research in linguistic landscape

9. Why is LL important?
“Language Takes Place”
But it doesn’t speak for everyone

11. Languagingthenation

12. January 10, 2004: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/10/nyregion/ethnic-friction-
over-signs-that-lack-translations.html
Languagingethnicandculturalidentity

13. August 14, 2007: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-
york/queens/give-sign-article-1.235771
Languagingethnicandculturalidentity

14. Prior to Japanese internment in World War II, USA
Languagingrace

15. Wall Street, New Haven (Yale campus area)
Languaging(andimaging)disability

16. Wall Street, New Haven (Yale campus area)
Languaginggender

17. • LL is an “independent variable” contributing to a
group’s “ethnolinguistic vitality” (Landry & Bourhis,
1997)
• The LL “signals what languages are prominent and
valued in public and private spaces and indexes the
social positioning of people who identify with
particular languages (Dagenais et al., 2009, p. 254)
• Linguistic landscape reveals much about the culture,
history, and politics of people in places
• Linguistic landscape is one way that people mark
territory, actively including some people while
excluding others
So, why is linguistic landscape important?

18. 2. Language learning motivations
What can focusing on the linguistic
landscape do for your language learning?

19. ACTFL National Standards for
Foreign Language Education
Three of the American Council for the Teaching of
Foreign Language’s “Five Cs” for language learning:
• Connections - “reinforce and further knowledge of
other disciplines through the foreign language”;
• Comparisons - “demonstrate understanding of the
nature of language and culture through
comparisons”
• Communities - “use the language both within and
beyond the school setting”

20. …linguistic
…pragmatic
…intercultural
…multimodal, multiliterate
…critical, sociocultural, reflective
LL as opportunity to cultivate…
New vocab, new meanings & uses for “old” vocab
Grammar, metaphor, other “structures” of meaning
Analyze how language is used to do things,
and make/invite/suggest people do things
many competences
Cultivate new ways of looking at, questioning
and challenging “the ordinary”

21. 3. LL in practice
Language learning activities
and approaches

22. Possible activities in and with the LL
• Walking, observation, note-taking on different dimensions of the LL
including the geographical situation and significance, social values,
linguistic aspects (and relate these together)
• Photograph instances of the target language in everyday environments,
record interviews and conversations about LL
• Print, discuss, and classify photos in class according to purpose
Neighborhood descriptions and exchange of narrative texts with partner
schools in other cities/regions
• Drawings of familiar or favorite places, with reflection about the
languages seen and heard in these places
• Hand-drawn or digital mapping activities
• Discussion, writing activities on questions of legitimacy and illegitimacy,
power and representation in neighborhood spaces
• Classroom, school, community, and/or civic-based art projects, exhibits,
installations, etc. (e.g., designing & painting a new mural)

23. How to connect them?

24. Try using the language you’re learning to understand the linguistic
landscape in (at least) three different ways…
1.2.
3.

25. Through realities that are…
1.2.
3.

26. Through realities that are “conceived”

27. Think of tools and
techniques to facilitate…
• contextualizing
• historicizing
• mapping
• categorizing
…and discussing, debating,
representing, sharing these
Through realities that are “conceived”

28. Through realities that are “perceived”

29. Think of tools and
techniques to facilitate…
• observation
• listening
• sensing
• recording
…and discussing, debating,
representing, sharing these
Through realities that are “perceived”

30. Through realities that are “lived”

31. Think of tools and techniques to facilitate
drawing, imagining, interviewing, designing, storytelling,
creating, protesting, enacting, etc…
…and discussing, debating, representing, sharing these

32. And use
each to
understand
the others

33. Think of tools and techniques to facilitate
drawing, imagining, interviewing, designing, storytelling,
creating, protesting, enacting, etc…
…and discussing, debating, representing, sharing these
Think of tools and
techniques to facilitate…
• observation
• listening
• sensing
• recording
…and discussing, debating,
representing, sharing these
Think of tools and
techniques to facilitate…
• contextualizing
• historicizing
• mapping
• categorizing
…and discussing, debating,
representing, sharing these

34. Example 1: Learning from the LL on or near your campus

35. Example 1: Learning from the LL on or near your campus

36. Example 1: Learning from the LL on or near your campus

37. Example 1: Learning from the LL on or near your campus

38. Example 1: Learning from the LL on or near your campus

39. Example 2: Reading boundaries in your city

40. Example 2: Reading boundaries in your city

41. Example 2: Reading boundaries in your city

42. Example 2: Reading boundaries in your city

43. Example 2: Reading boundaries in your city

44. Application: Translate Your City
The language(s) you see and hear around you in public places convey powerful
messages about what histories, cultures, and identities are valued right where
you are. Yet things didn’t and don’t necessarily have to look and sound the way
they do now. What would your building, your neighborhood, or your city look,
sound, and feel like if things were expressed differently, in the language you’re
learning? (and are there any limits beyond which it’s hard to imagine?)
Pick a place, a theme, a kind of text, or some elements of the linguistic
landscape that you might like to change or create anew, and:
• Tweet or Instagram your ideas for translating signs, marking spaces, or
otherwise transforming a locale. Translations don’t have to be ‘correct’. And
you can use your posts as spaces for commenting, remembering, imagining,
exploring or thinking out loud—all this is part of the larger process of
translation. When possible, use geo-referenced hashtags like #translateNHV
(“translate”+city code) to make your posts findable, and add your location
(see this page for Twitter).
• Design a larger translation project like a mural or other artistic reimagining of
a place, a map or visitor’s guide in the language you’re learning, a blog or
website to chronicle your explorations, or…

45. Thank you!
David Malinowski
Center for Language Study
Yale University
david.malinowski@yale.edu
@tildensky