Language Socialization Through a Linguistic Landscape Lens

This survey article looks first at the changing demands of the workplace in a globalized economy. The new work order creates a new word order, and the workforce has become a “wordforce” (Heller, in press) with new genres of language and communication. These changes have taken place at a time when global flows of people, from less wealthy and secure societies to more wealthy and secure ones, have created multilingual workplaces. Both sets of changes challenge the traditional notion of second language socialization, and this is the focus of the next section. The workplace represents a complex, dynamic setting where migrants experience a double socialization: into the hybrid discourses of the workplace, which all newcomers experience, and into the specific language and cultural practices that realize these discourses. The new language requirements of the workplace produce for migrant workers and professionals a “linguistic penalty” (Roberts & Campbell, 2006) since the communicative demands of the selection process may be greater than those of the job itself. The last section of the article is concerned with language socialization in multilingual settings where language socialization into the dominant language is only part of the story. There is a contrast between the low status multilingualism of migrant workers, and staff in globalized and international organizations who are being socialized into new lingua franca interaction. The article concludes with an example of how the complex linguistic and technical environment of a high-tech multilingual company produces radically different conditions for language socialization which challenge how this notion can be used in the 21st century.

"Chinatowns, as neighborhoods for overseas ethnic Chinese, have garnered considerable scholarly attention from linguistic landscape (LL) researchers in recent years. In this study, I put Singapore’s Chinatown under the spotlight and examined its LL practices. Informed by Blommaert and Maly’s (2014) ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis (ELLA), my LL work in Chinatown not only focuses on the synchronicity and meaning-making process of the LL items in Chinatown but also takes the diachronicity of signs and signgraphies (stories behind the LL items) into consideration. With this idea in mind, my ethnographic LL work in Chinatown set out to address the following three research questions: (1) How can the LL of present-day Chinatown best be characterized? (2) How did the LL of Chinatown evolve during the different historical stages of Singapore? (3) What are the factors that contribute to the shop owners' decisions in creating their LL texts? Drawing on photographic data of 1091 LL items, my quantitative examination reveals that in present-day Chinatown, LL during the daytime and LL during the nighttime have different presentations. More specifically, the diurnal LL is characterized by the tendency towards multilingualism and the dominance of the English language, while the nocturnal LL features the leading position of the Chinese language. Also, my analysis shows that in Chinatown, Chinese Singaporeans and new Chinese immigrants differ greatly in terms of their linguistic choices in using Chinese-language signs when projecting their respective authenticities and identities. The investigation of the diachronic aspect of the LL in Chinatown mainly relied on 76 old LL photos. My analysis shows that Chinatown’s top-down LL and bottom-up LL had different features across history respectively. For top-down signs, English monolingualism prevailed in the early stage of the colonial period. Multilingual top-down signs started to appear during the independence and development period. In the post-independence period, the use of the four-official-language formula seems to have become a default practice for some top-down signs. At the start of the new century period, multilingual signs became quite prevalent in Chinatown. For bottom-up signs, Chinese monolingualism was prevalent in Chinatown during the colonial period. During the independence and development period, while there was an increasing use of Chinese-English bilingual signs in Chinatown, Chinese monolingualism still prevailed in Chinatown’s core areas. During the post-independence period, a growing number of Chinese-English bilingual signs penetrated the core area of Chinatown. In the new century, the bottom-up LL items in Chinatown have been characterized by the strong presence of English. I adopted purposeful sampling and collected interview data to explore the factors contributing to shop owners’ decisions in creating their LL texts. My thematic analysis reveals that there is no one-size-fits-all explanation for the shop owner’s linguistic choices on the LL items. Their decision-making processes for the LL items were subject to the influence of multiple factors, which can be broadly organized into exogenous factors and endogenous factors. More specifically, the exogenous factors include the target readers’ literacy factor, the language policy factor, and socio-political factors. The endogenous factors include the expression of individual identity and the expression of collective identity. My ethnographic LL work suggests that, as a dynamic process, the LL in Singapore’s Chinatown is the joint outcome of the social construction of multiple forces, including spatiotemporal composition, demographic layers, synchronicity, diachronicity, and human agency. The study enriches the scholarly understanding of LL practices in Chinese diasporic settlements in the East, provides insights into changing linguistic situations and linguistic practices within the Chinese community in Singapore, and extends the theoretical knowledge of the conditions and motivations behind the LL creators’ linguistic choices on signs. Furthermore, the study has gone some way toward pushing the boundary of LL research by integrating nighttime space as a new dimension to examine LL and shedding light on the necessity of viewing Chinatown as one heterogeneous space through the lens of LL research."

<p>This thesis investigates natural Māori language socialisation and acquisition by two under-three-year-old children within bilingual settings in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which they were learning two languages simultaneously – te reo Māori (Māori language), the endangered indigenous heritage language, and English, a dominant world language. The thesis explores how Māori language socialisation occurred for the two children, and documents the emergence of Māori grammatical structures in their productive language. In this longitudinal, qualitative case-study, data were gathered by regularly video-recording the children while they interacted with their families. Analysis of input- and productive-language data revealed that whereas English was the principal ambient language for both children at home and in the community, the language used directly with Child 1 was predominantly Māori, and with Child 2 was predominantly English. Analysis confirmed that Child 1 chose Māori as a principal first productive language, while Child 2 chose English. Since the focus of the study was on te reo Māori, data gathered from Child 1 across 39 months were analysed from a language socialisation perspective. Wortham’s (2005) notion of “socialisation trajectory” was used to trace four “trajectories” as the child progressed towards cultural communicative practices such as the pūkana ‘wide eyes’ form of eye-talk, and towards kinship roles. She navigated, and sometimes diverged from, the expectations and guidance of her extended family (whānau), while accumulating participant roles and whānau values and responsibilities. Each trajectory was closely interwoven with the others, and also with the child’s language-acquisition trajectory, and thus contributed to her becoming an L1-Māori speaker. Linguistic analysis of the child’s “first words”, “first combinations” and “first sentences” revealed the emergence of Māori grammatical structures in her productive language, and led to a new “Phrasal acquisition of te reo Māori” hypothesis. The findings direct attention to the important contribution, not only of the language environment but also of a rich, many-faceted process of cultural socialisation, in enabling a child to become a proficient communicator within her whānau and an L1-speaker of te reo Māori. The findings therefore contribute to a deeper and broader understanding of natural socialisation and acquisition of te reo Māori, and also carry important implications for the revitalisation of this, and other, endangered languages of the world.</p>

<p>This thesis investigates natural Māori language socialisation and acquisition by two under-three-year-old children within bilingual settings in Aotearoa New Zealand, in which they were learning two languages simultaneously – te reo Māori (Māori language), the endangered indigenous heritage language, and English, a dominant world language. The thesis explores how Māori language socialisation occurred for the two children, and documents the emergence of Māori grammatical structures in their productive language. In this longitudinal, qualitative case-study, data were gathered by regularly video-recording the children while they interacted with their families. Analysis of input- and productive-language data revealed that whereas English was the principal ambient language for both children at home and in the community, the language used directly with Child 1 was predominantly Māori, and with Child 2 was predominantly English. Analysis confirmed that Child 1 chose Māori as a principal first productive language, while Child 2 chose English. Since the focus of the study was on te reo Māori, data gathered from Child 1 across 39 months were analysed from a language socialisation perspective. Wortham’s (2005) notion of “socialisation trajectory” was used to trace four “trajectories” as the child progressed towards cultural communicative practices such as the pūkana ‘wide eyes’ form of eye-talk, and towards kinship roles. She navigated, and sometimes diverged from, the expectations and guidance of her extended family (whānau), while accumulating participant roles and whānau values and responsibilities. Each trajectory was closely interwoven with the others, and also with the child’s language-acquisition trajectory, and thus contributed to her becoming an L1-Māori speaker. Linguistic analysis of the child’s “first words”, “first combinations” and “first sentences” revealed the emergence of Māori grammatical structures in her productive language, and led to a new “Phrasal acquisition of te reo Māori” hypothesis. The findings direct attention to the important contribution, not only of the language environment but also of a rich, many-faceted process of cultural socialisation, in enabling a child to become a proficient communicator within her whānau and an L1-speaker of te reo Māori. The findings therefore contribute to a deeper and broader understanding of natural socialisation and acquisition of te reo Māori, and also carry important implications for the revitalisation of this, and other, endangered languages of the world.</p>

Though a number of language socialization processes are theorized to promote children’s heritage language proficiency (HLP), little research has considered these processes in a single study and examined their prospective relations to multiple domains of HLP in school-age children. In a two-wave longitudinal study of Chinese American children of immigrant parents (N = 258, age = 7–11 years), language socialization processes (e.g. adult HL use at home, parental attitudes towards HL, child participation in HL classes or extracurricular activities) were assessed using parent reports and behavioral observation at Time 1 (1st to 2nd grade). Children’s HLP (Cantonese or Mandarin) was assessed using vocabulary and literacy tests at Time 2. Results of structural equation modeling showed that adults’ Chinese language use with children at home predicted children’s higher Chinese receptive and expressive vocabulary two years later, and children’s participation in Chinese language extra-curricular activities predicted their higher Chinese receptive and expressive vocabulary and higher Chinese word reading. By contrast, parental valuing of Chinese language and children’s exposure to Chinese media did not predict children’s Chinese proficiency. These findings provided support for the benefits of HL use at home and HL classes in promoting HL development in children in immigrant families.

Mapping sounds in the commercial linguistic landscape of Kuwait: A workable solution

Aims and objectives: This paper investigates the diffusion of English into the linguistic ecologies of Tunisia, an Expanding Outer Circle society in North Africa. It analyzes the language practices of Tunisian business operators in five commercial localities in metropolitan Tunis. The paper focuses, in particular, on the uses of English and its interaction with Tunisia’s dominant languages, the ways the resources of English are locally understood and deployed and the intersection of the emerging “language regime” (Kroskrity, 2000) with the official linguistic landscapes policies and the wider sociohistorical, political, and economic conditions of the country. Methodology and data: Detailed discourse-ethnographic analysis of 363 linguistic landscape signs collected from 5 commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis. Findings and conclusions: The findings indicated the emergence of a bottom-up English-led public signage communicating a global corporate ideology circumventing the official language policies mandating the use and visibility of Modern Standard Arabic in public signage. However, this English-led public posting is intertwined in complex ways with Tunisia’s dominant languages, resulting in translanguaging, linguistic puns, the commodification of vernacular forms of communication as well as (supra)national and aesthetic identity markers. Originality: Tunisia, a traditionally constructed Francophone country moving toward English, is very little explored in the major Global English(es) paradigms. The paper focuses on the possible ideological, economic, and cultural changes engendered by English and connects these changes to the global socioeconomic, political, and cultural transformations undergone by the country over the last decades.

Taking a multi-level perspective on language-in-public-space policy, this study investigates the way Tunisia’s dominant languages are dealt with in three independent but interrelated activities of language policy: official texts, public talk, and the actual practices of business actors in five commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis. Detailed critical discourse analysis of these policy activities indicated considerable tension between official texts’ legislations on, and public élites’ debate about public signage and “on the ground” sociolinguistic practices. While official texts and public debates base the dominant languages on monolingual, postcolonial and highly compartmentalized language ideologies, the sociolinguistic practices within these localities are marked by the emergence of an English-leaning trend in public signage. Nevertheless, this trend is heavily qualified by the concurrent use of identifiable language clusters, creative wordplay, multiscriptal practices, the commodification of heritage, national and supranational symbols, and an overall resistance to big commercial names as well as subversion of the official legislations and public debates. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the approach to multilingualism adopted in this study for illuminating the connections between Tunisia’s dominant languages, language policy and linguistic landscapes.

This study aims at investigating language choice and language attitudes among the Pondok Tinggi community, in the Kerinci region, Indonesia. The subjects of this study were two groups of informants consisting of 10 members of the older generation and 10 of the younger. A sociolinguistic questionnaire was used to explore the language choice of the informants and an interview was conducted to examine attitudes towards the languages they speak. The results of this study show that the older generation uses Pondok Tinggi in various domains and for different functions while most of the younger generation has started to leave it behind and instead uses the dominant languages, like Indonesian and Minangkabau. The language attitude of both generations towards Indonesian is very positive. It is considered to have economic value and is useful for the future. The old generation shows a neutral attitude towards Minangkabau. The attitude towards Minangkabau tends to be generally positive among the younger generation. It is considered as a social language. The younger generation expressed a negative attitude towards Pondok Tinggi, considering it unsophisticated and of no economic value. Although the older generation uses Pondok Tinggi in daily life, their attitude towards it is not positive. Parents do not transmit Pondok Tinggi to children in the home domain. When intergenerational transmission breaks down, there will be a sharp decline in the use of Pondok Tinggi. Sooner or later it will lose its speakers. Without speakers, it will die.

This study investigates the complexities of a group of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) journey to becoming novice teachers during the teaching practicum in the context of the Indonesian government’s agenda to reform national education, including reforms in the teaching profession. These reforms were a response to current concerns regarding quality education, including the perceived low standards in English Language Teaching (ELT) in Indonesia. The research project, situated in Riau University, Indonesia, involved 10 participants of between 21-22 years of age and aimed to document the important milestones in PSTs’ learning trajectory to becoming teachers through their lived experiences in the teaching practicum. It specifically attempted to answer the following research questions: a) What drives PSTs to enter the English teaching profession? b) How do PSTs experience the transition of identity from PSTs to novice in-service teachers during teaching practicum? and c) In what ways does the teaching practicum contribute to the PSTs’ professional learning and their understanding of what it means to be a professional English teacher? Data was gathered over a period of 16 weeks using in-depth interviews before and after the teaching practicum, from guided reflective journals, and from one focus group discussion. The narratives were examined and inductively analysed using NVivo. Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning and his concept of community of practice were used as the central theoretical frameworks in analysing and interpreting the data. This study reveals that the PSTs’ reasons for joining the English teaching profession varied greatly, ranging from altruistic motives or religious and social motivations, to more instrumental reasons such as financial security. The role of significant others, such as family members and school teachers during their childhood and schooling experiences and the influence of broader socio-cultural and political contexts were also found to be important factors behind their decisions to enter the profession. Some of these factors at the same time also contributed as virtual schoolbags in shaping their initial conceptualisations of the “professional English teacher” (PET) and “good English teaching” prior to the teaching practicum. The dynamics of their interaction and social relationships with members of the school community (students, mentor teachers, and school administrators) led them to reinterpret part of their understanding of these notions. In addition, deep-seated cultural norms of the Indonesian society in relation to expectations from the teaching profession had also influenced their conceptualisations in significant ways. The findings further demonstrate that the PSTs’ integration into the teachers’ community during the practicum was not a linear progression, rather it was a continuum that encompassed conflicts, challenges, and tensions, some of which had formed well before they were accepted as part of the school community. Their sense of belonging to the teachers’ community was an important marker for the construction of their novice teacher’s identity. It was built through participation in the form of complex engagement with existing members and with intricate practices during the practicum as well as with broader socio-economic and political contexts. Issues in power imbalances and cultural practices were central to the PSTs’ metamorphosis in becoming novice teachers. School students’ acceptance of the PSTs’ legitimacy as teachers, the sense of collegiality shown by incumbent teachers, support from mentor teachers, and their participation in extra-curricular activities had significantly contributed to the development of the PST’s sense of belonging to the teacher’s community. The findings also indicate that the out-of-classroom social relationships developed during their participation in the teaching practicum contribute to the construction of their professional identity in very tangible ways.

Language socialization is a theoretical and methodological paradigm that originated in the discipline of anthropology, with the goal of addressing the relationship between culture and language learning. Scholars of language socialization use methods from ethnography, field linguistics, and sociolinguistics to document and analyze patterns of language use in communities. In the 1980s, anthropologists developed the paradigm of language socialization in response to a lack of attention to the diversity of languages and cultures represented within the study of first-language acquisition. To center inquiries into language learning around cultural and linguistic diversity, language socialization attends to everyday practices of language and communication as well as to the enduring language attitudes and cultural belief systems that co-constitute language structures. Language socialization emphasizes that humans build social identities, cultural practices, and senses of belonging as they learn and use languages. While language socialization originated in the study of young children’s first-language acquisition, it has since expanded to examine broader contexts of language learning. Guided by the understanding that the structures of real-time interactions and social institutions mutually create one another, language socialization scholars have examined how our social roles in families, schools, and professions shape our language use across the lifespan. Since the 1990s, language socialization research has taken particular interest in the relationship between language and power, drawing from theories of language ideologies—or taken-for-granted beliefs about languages and their speakers—to address topics related to multilingualism, including code-mixing, second-language learning, heritage-language learning, and language shift and revitalization. In 2023, key debates in the field focus on defining learners’ identities and highlighting communicative diversity beyond spoken languages.

The linguistic landscape, or "schoolscape," in public elementary schools in Medan, Indonesia, is a relatively new area of study in linguistics. This descriptive qualitative research explores language use within the school environment, considering its social and cultural aspects. The study aims to analyze the linguistic forms, usage, and functions present in the linguistic landscape of these schools. Data from photographs capturing linguistic units was collected from four public elementary schools in Medan. This study employed systematic sampling, specifically purposive sampling, to select public elementary schools in Medan based on criteria related to the city's main areas with diverse linguistic units. The findings reveal various linguistic forms, including acronyms, words, phrases, sentences, and monolingual and bilingual texts. Language within the linguistic landscape serves informational and symbolic functions, providing information to readers and reflecting the relationship between language and power through linguistic signs associated with local leaders. While Indonesian is the dominant language used, there is a lack of representation of specific ethnic or cultural identities. The findings have global implications, revealing language's role in education and its impact on social and cultural dynamics. Understanding linguistic forms, usage, and functions provides valuable insights for education policies promoting language diversity, skills, and cultural inclusivity. The study suggests enriching the linguistic landscape by considering the use of local or minority languages existing in the region. This study contributes to understanding linguistic landscapes in Indonesian schools and highlights the importance of incorporating diverse languages to promote language proficiency and cultural preservation.

This study examines language diversity as a symbolic construction of public spaces, with a specific focus on Maroua, a city in Cameroon. The linguistic landscape characterized by the presence and visibility of different languages in public spaces, serve as a reflection of the sociolinguistic dynamics and cultural diversity of a community. This study shows how the language ideology of institutions and the community of Maroua as a whole are reflected on its landscape. The study mainly focuses on language distribution, and factors that influenced the linguistic landscape in public spaces in Maroua. The research is guided by Landry and Bourhis’ (1997) theory of Linguistic landscape. The researchers used the quantitative and qualitative research design. The data in this research were collected in the public spaces of Maroua. A total of 305 signs snapped with a digital camera constituted the primary source of information in this research. The researchers also used observation and interviews to gather data on the linguistic landscape of Maroua. Data analysis shows that the languages displayed in Maroua linguistic landscape are French, English and indigenous languages such as Fulfuldé. The findings show that French is the dominant language in the linguistic landscape of Maroua and minority languages are almost absent on the signs. The languages and signs reflect the political, social, ideological and cultural forces at work in the environment of Maroua. The linguistic landscape of Maroua is also influenced by factors such as urbanization, migration and government policy on language use. This research is an important contribution to the sociolinguistic dynamics and cultural diversity study of the Cameroonian urban communities.

The linguistic landscape is an essential aspect of determining how language materializes in our surroundings. It is especially important in multilingual communities, as it reflects their identity. The linguistic landscape changes over time due to various factors, such as changes in politics, economics, and the national minority population. Study aims to explore how language manifested in the cultural landscape of Slavonia and Baranja, how it changed over time. Linguistic signs can also reflect the spatial identity of the population in the investigated periods (and its changes). Research compares the linguistic landscape of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with the contemporary period. We used old postcards as sources for the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and conducted fieldwork for the modern period. The research involved analysing a vast corpus of linguistic signs in the cultural landscape. Research showed that the linguistic landscape, both in the past and present, is visible through various inscriptions on shops, craft stores, state institutions, and street names. Official inscriptions on public institutions in Croatia are written in the Croatian language, and in ethnically diverse areas, these inscriptions are bilingual, but not to the extent allowed by the Croatian Constitution. Homogeneity or heterogeneity of the linguistic landscape users determines its appearance. Croatian is the primary language in most of inscriptions. However, the status and dominance of other languages have changed, depending on the complex political and linguistic past of the region. The study has confirmed that the linguistic landscape reflects both the spatial identity as well as the heterogeneity and multilingualism of the linguistic landscape in urban and rural areas.

This article describes the use of linguistic landscaping as a pedagogical resource [Sayer, Peter. 2010. “Using the Linguistic Landscape as a Pedagogical Resource.” ELT Journal 64 (2): 143–154] for teaching and learning about multilingualism in a graduate course on ethnographic research methods. We present an account of a student-researcher carrying out a linguistic landscaping project as a means to document, analyze, and engage with multilingualism in Vancouver’s Chinatown. The study suggests that using the linguistic landscape as a pedagogical tool allowed for a multimodal/sensory learning experience and text-to-world connections to be made, enabling greater awareness and creative analysis around social language use [Sayer, Peter. 2010. “Using the Linguistic Landscape as a Pedagogical Resource.” ELT Journal 64 (2): 143–154]. We argue that such a connection can be made due to three key factors: engagement with local practices, researcher agency, and physical immersion within the intersection between theory and lived practice.