Reflections on the Construction Status of Linguistic Landscapes in the Educational Field in China: A Multidimensional Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, linguistic landscape has become a hot topic in the fields of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, as well as semiotics in China. Most of the previous studies put much emphasis on the statistical analysis based on the corpus collected from commerce, tourism, and sports contexts, while less attention is paid to the study of schoolscapes both on informational and symbolic level. By investigating the situation of language use in six universities located in Hefei, a city famous for science and education in China, we initiated a multidimensional study of linguistic landscapes in the educational field in China from the following five dimensions: selection of language, type of public sign, translation of signage, cultivation of ideology and power of Western culture. Through combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, we revealed the symbolic meanings invisible behind linguistic landscapes in the educational field, such as the conscious cultivation of mainstream ideology, the global and ubiquitous presence of English as a lingua franca, as well as the strong influence of Western culture. Based on the aforesaid status, some strategies for improving the schoolscapes are also proposed from the following four aspects: making or revising language planning and policies, developing standards for the use of English in the field of education, establishing an academic research community, and providing technological support for the establishment of public sign corpus. Under the background of educational globalization, we should pay much attention to the studies of the communicative function of schoolscapes as an information carrier, as well as the instrumental function of schoolscapes as a teaching resource. Besides, much more emphasis should be put on the subtle interaction between schoolscapes and real society.