Learning L2 Through the Linguistic Landscape

This research investigates the students’ awareness of the linguistic landscape (LL) they are exposed to in their daily life. This includes signs, posters, advertisements, billboards, etc. The researchers believe that the students are not aware of the amount of L2 available to them every day outside the classroom. As language teachers, the researchers trust that drawing students’ attention to this language, which is more authentic and contextualized (Rowland, 2013; Dumanig & David, 2019), will open doors for autonomous language learning. For this study, the students completed a questionnaire that highlights their level of awareness and draws their attention to the LL around them. Then, they were asked to take pictures of bilingual signs and posters …etc. from the landscape they are exposed to on campus. The students worked in groups to compare and discuss the pictures that they had taken using a guided task designed by the researchers. The results show that most participants notice the amount of English language available in the real world, but they are not fully aware of its learning potential. Based on these results, the researchers provide practical suggestions for the classroom.