The linguistic landscape: enhancing multiliteracies through decoding signs in public spaces

What is it? The Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new field
 which draws from several disciplines such as applied linguistics,
 sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and cultural
 geography. According to Landry and Bourhis (1997), “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
 linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration”
 (p. 25). More recently, the type of signs that can be found in the public
 space has broadened to include the language on T-shirts, stamp machines,
 football banners, postcards, menus, products, tattoos, and graffiti. Despite
 this wider variety of signs, Landry and Bourhis’s (1997) definition still
 captures the essence of the LL, which is multimodal (signs combine visual,
 written, and sometimes audible data) and can also incorporate the use of
 multiple languages (multilingual).

essence of the LL, which is multimodal (signs combine visual, written, and sometimes audible data) and can also incorporate the use of multiple languages (multilingual).
The LL signals what languages are prominent and valued in public and private spaces, and can reveal the social position of people who identify with particular languages (Dagenais et al., 2009, p. 254). Social actors (i.e. anyone who engages in intentional action) contribute to shape this space and construct their own identities in their interaction with it. The LL is also authentic input found in the social context which makes it an easily accessible and readily available resource for language and intercultural learning.
Incorporating critical explorations of the LL into the foreign language classroom can have important benefits for students' linguistic, pragmatic, intercultural, multimodal, multi-literate, critical, and reflective competences. For this reason, a particularly well-suited approach to underpin these explorations is a multiliteracies pedagogy (The New London Group, 1996), which requires, in line with Kozdras, Joseph, and Kozdras (2015), the consideration of visual, aural, gestural, spatial, and tactile modalities as equally important in a digital world that includes multiple modes of communication in a globalised world. Inclusion, diversity, and celebration of difference are central objectives in this practice that aims to prepare students for citizenship in the 21st century.

Example
The LL has been integrated in the Virtual Exchanges (VE) organised between fourth-year undergraduate students of English at Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain, and second-year undergraduate students of Spanish at Columbia University in New York, USA, over the last three years (Vinagre & Llopis-García, in press). The exchange takes place in the first semester of the academic year and lasts for six weeks. During this time, students work in small groups (pairs and trios) carrying out tasks jointly.
The VE follows a progressive method approach (O'Dowd & Lewis, 2016), in which students from both universities first exchange information on WordPress about themselves (introductions) and four topics, one per week, relating to their cultures (stereotypes, history, and politics of their countries, slang and colloquial expressions, literature, cinema, and music).
In week five they meet their partners online in order to discuss, in a bilingual conversation, what they have learned from comparing aspects of both cultures in the previous four weeks. After the conversation has taken place, the students are asked to explore the LL of their respective cities in order to increase awareness of the prominence and value of the foreign language in the public spaces (English in Madrid and Spanish in New York). For this task, the students take and upload photos onto Padlet to create a visual representation of the presence of the foreign language in their urban environments. Then, they tag the photos by adding a short description and the location. After all photos have been uploaded, they are asked to categorise them by analysing official, public lettering (top-down) as well as commercial or private signs and posters (bottom-up) following Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, Hasan Amara, and Trumper-Hecht (2006). After this analysis, the students have to reflect and critically think of the why, who, and for whom of the signs: Why are these signs here? Who makes these signs and decides on their language choice? Who are these signs for? Who is the target audience?
In order to facilitate engagement with difference, the students' categorisation of signs, as well as the answers to the questions above, are discussed in the in-class sessions with the teacher and their classmates. Then, students are asked to write a joint bilingual essay with their partners in which they discuss the findings of their analyses and reflect on issues of power, majority versus minorities, discrimination, identity, community markers, and interest in benefits attached to language use in their cities. Finally, students create self-reflection videos in which they elaborate on what they have learned through this experience. Students' comments in the self-reflection videos corroborate the potential of this activity to raise cultural awareness and facilitate the use of language in authentic contexts. Students also describe the experience as a 'confidence booster', since they realise they can communicate effectively in the foreign language with a partner from another culture.

Benefits
By integrating the LL into the foreign language classroom, students are exposed to language use in authentic cultural and social contexts, which enhances their communicative competence and helps them develop positive attitudes and emotions towards the 'other'. The LL also provides students with a 'third space' in which diversity can be explored, identities can be negotiated, and social representation can be contested. This space is not a physical, " fixed space, but rather a fluid, dialogic space which is constantly constructed and reconstructed by participants who actively engage in dialogue and negotiate identities, not only through self-expression but also through mindful listening and the co-construction of meanings" (Helm, Guth, & Farrah, 2012, p. 107).
In this space there are multiple possibilities for interpretation, and differences "are not hidden or minimised but acknowledged and valued" (Helm et al., 2012, p. 107).

Potential issues
Despite the steady growth of studies in this field, the pedagogical applications of the LL in the foreign language classroom are vastly under-explored and therefore many are unaware of its possibilities. One potential issue relates to some students remaining superficial in their explorations and reflections. In order to minimise this, regular guidance from the teacher in the form of questions for reflection and in-class discussions can help them move from their comfort zones into deep explorations of 'otherness'.

Looking to the future
The use of the LL as a pedagogical resource offers educators an excellent opportunity to create meaningful experiences for learners, since the use of public texts places literacy in a broader social context and connects learning to students' neighbourhoods and communities (Hewitt-Bradshaw, 2014, p. 158). In this context, the students can develop multiliteracies at the time they increase their awareness of, and appreciation for, diversity and difference. As this practice becomes more extended, practitioners will question the 'real value' of multilingualism and consider our duty to adopt a critical stance, one that involves connecting language with issues of inequality, oppression, and understanding.