Utilization of Linguistic Landscape: A Cross-Disciplinary Investigation of Informal English Learning of Iranian University Students

19billboards, 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" (Landry & Bourhis, 1997, p. 25).Despite the fact that it is difficult to separate the impact of LLs on language learning from the influence of other kinds of input (such as formal instruction), it is now well established that exposure to a foreign language can occur in a variety of settings outside the classroom, especially when English is used as the target language (Cenoz & Gorter, 2008).Linguistic Landscape studies are a relatively new branch of sociolinguistics that makes an effort to create thorough and precise inventories of urban multilingualism (Blommaert & Maly, 2016).Since all learning according to sociocultural theories originates from the social world, engagement in culturally structured activities, such as exposure to and learning from LLs, is crucial for learning to occur (Lantolf et al., 2015).According to sociocultural views, social interaction with other people, objects, and events leads to the development of human cognition (Wang et al., 2011).As Vygotsky explains, sociocultural contexts have a major role in the growth of higher mental activities as they help voluntary attention, intentional memory, rational thinking, making plans, and problem-solving (Fahim & Haghani, 2012), leading to the acquisition of higher order thinking skills.Since LLs provide great opportunities for learning through real-life and contextualized input, they can be useful for developing pragmatic competence, language awareness, and linguistic variety (Cenoz & Gorter, 2008), some of the skills that are often difficult to achieve through formal teaching, such as in classrooms.While self-regulated learning outside the classroom is extremely important for learners to develop their L2 competence, Yabukoshi (2020) recently pointed out that researchers have not sufficiently focused on this issue.Self-regulation is a key motivating component for increasing students' self-efficacy and success (Kang, 2022).Activating metacognition is also integral to self-regulation enhancement (Kobayashi, 2016).Through the use of metacognition, language learners are able to monitor their cognitive processes (Haque, 2019).The final goal of any language learning is autonomy (Haque, 2019) since entirely autonomous students can regulate their own education without the aid of books, educators, or classrooms (Khaerudin & Chik, 2021).As learning beyond the classroom has an enormous impact on both language learning and learners' autonomy (Chan, 2016), various educational tools such as LLs can be useful for learners to move towards self-regulated learning and promote their language proficiency autonomously.A large number of scholars believe that learners' exposure to the range of discourses in a second or foreign language classroom is constrained (Krashen, 1982).Learners may not be able to obtain advanced levels of language competence if they merely receive input from a small number of weekly classes, based solely on textbooks (Ellis, 2005), especially if these are based on a structured syllabus.Despite the fact that LLs can help students become more aware of their surroundings and play a significant role in learning L2 (Ferrarotti, 2017), they have just recently begun to be investigated from an educational standpoint and be recognized as acceptable inputs for language learning (Roos & Nicholas, 2019).According to Qi et al. (2020), a large number of research studies have been conducted to show that LLs are legitimate resources to improve language learning However, these studies were still conducted in classrooms with learners receiving systematic and structured language training.Although numerous studies attempted to demonstrate a link between LLs and language learning and the advantages that teaching can derive from the school environment, Ying (2019) reports that only a few studies have specifically concentrated on the perspectives of learners and in the broader context of outside the classroom.The present research aims thus to understand the need for extra-curricular activities such as LLs to be utilized as authentic teaching resources to supplement to formal English learning.Specifically, it explores how Iranian university students take notice of LLs in public places, their attitudes towards LLs as forms of authentic input and how they utilize these to enhance their language learning.This research intends to provide answers to the following questions:1. How do Iranian university students pay attention to LLs in public places?2. What are their attitudes towards LLs as authentic input in language learning?3. How do Iranian university students utilize LLs to improve their language proficiency?