Linguistic Landscape - Volume 7, Issue 3, 2021

Abstract

The article presents data from a 2013–2019 ethnography of Zhuang language policy to support an analysis of implications for language policy research and scholarship of findings about the (in)visibility of publicly displayed Zhuang. The analysis challenges core assumptions of language policy-making, advocacy and scholarship and explicates the general implications of this challenge beyond China, particularly for minority languages. The most important assumption that this article interrogates is that a written language on display will be recognised as that language by its speakers. Further, it argues that literacy, script, and other language policies impact on display policies and must work together; they do not in the Zhuang case. In making a case for language policy informed by ethnographic research, this article reviews the foundations of socially-situated analyses of Linguistic Landscapes. To galvanise further such research and articulate it to policy-makers, the article employs the term ‘lived landscape approach’.

Abstract

Despite the wide acceptance of the contributions of linguistic landscape (LL) research to sociolinguistic analyses, models of how the LL can be exploited to practise specific features of the language system have been lacking. In this study we focus on Mandarin Chinese, an important community language, to document the development of LL-based materials to practise language-specific elements of the linguistic system (such as understanding the hierarchical organisation of characters, decoding characters, identifying tones, and distinguishing different writing systems), in addition to cultural elements. Beginning with extensive local fieldwork to compile a dataset of Chinese-language signs, materials were developed using the content of signs considered to be representative for this context. Employing a MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning) approach, materials were piloted with learners of Chinese. The results of this practical engagement are discussed, and we end with key recommendations for educationalists concerning the use of the LL as a resource for language acquisition.

Abstract

Educational institutions have a responsibility to ensure that all children receive care and equal possibilities for development, independent of their linguistic and cultural background. However, there is little knowledge about how kindergartens ensure a welcoming and inspiring place for both transnational migrants, Indigenous children, and children from the majority population. Through a semiotic landscape analysis from two kindergartens in Northern Norway, this article contributes to this knowledge gap. Our starting point is that educational spaces are social, cultural, and political places. Applying a Bakhtinian perspective on semiotic landscapes as dialogues, the analysis focuses on two discourses. The first concerns diversity as an individual or shared value, and the second concerns balancing the ordinary and the exotic. We find that diversity related to transnational migration seems to be more integrated into the semiotic landscape, while the minoritised Indigenous Sámi people is stereotypically represented in kindergartens.

This article reviews Translinguistics: Negotiating Innovation and Ordinariness9780429449918£35.09

This article reviews Multilingual Memories: Monuments, Museums and the Linguistic Landscape9781350071254