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Description
By combining sociolinguistic research with hands-on teaching strategies, this paper discusses how the public signs that learners experience in their linguistic environment can be used to to leverage and enhance learner engagement in the classroom and serve as an impetus for contextualized instruction.
The study employed the classroom-action research cycle. It involved output, observed participation, recorded and assessed learning. To measure literacy improvement, mixed methods were used which combined both quantitative and qualitative data. Results indicate that engagement with linguistic landscape (LL) tasks enabled students to critically analyze the sociolinguistic appropriateness of public signage, fostering heightened sensitivity to context-specific language use, and developed an awareness of how linguistic choices in signage can reflect and shape sociocultural norms within diverse communities.
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
Results indicate that engagement with linguistic landscape (LL) tasks enabled students to critically analyze the sociolinguistic appropriateness of public signage, fostering heightened sensitivity to context-specific language use. Additionally, students developed an awareness of how linguistic choices in signage can reflect and shape sociocultural norms within diverse communities.
Abstract section 1: Relevance
Linguistic landscape materials provide contextualized literacy, where language is connected to real social environments. This aligns with communicative language teaching and sociolinguistic perspectives that view language as social action in context. By combining sociolinguistic research with hands-on teaching strategies, this paper discusses how the public signs that learners experience in their linguistic environment can be used to to leverage and enhance learner engagement in the classroom and serve as an impetus for contextualized instruction.
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
How does linguistic landscape-based instruction improve ESL learners' functional literacy in interpreting public signs?
How does instruction impact the students' ability to evaluate and produce linguistically appropriate and context-sensitive signs?
Abstract section 5: References
Doroja-Cadiente, G. & Valdez, P. N. (2019). Linguistic landscape analysis of Public signs after typhoon Haiyan. International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 15 (1), 33-57.
Esteron, J.J. (2021) English in the churchscape: Exploring religious linguistic landscape in the Philippines. Discourse and Interaction. 82-104.
Floralde, R., & Valdez, P.N. (2017). Linguistic landscape as resources in ELT: The case of a rural community in the Philippines. The Journal of Asia TEFL. 14 (4), 793-801.
Fabregas, I. D. (2025). Investigating the multilingual linguistic landscape of a Philippine Iiland. SUVANNABHUMI. 17(1)
Gorter, D., Cenoz, J., & Karin van der Work (2021).The linguistic landscape as a resource for language learning and raising language language awareness. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching.
Ike, S., & Hori, Y. (2024) COVID-19 discourse in linguistic landscape: Linguistic and semiotic analysis of directive signs. Australian Journal of Linguistics. 1-24.
Landry, R. & Bourhis, R. (1997). Linguistic landscape and etholinguisic vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 16, 22-49.
Santos, A. B., & Garcia, C. T. (2018). The role of linguistic landscape in teaching English as a second language in Metro Manila. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(5), 913-923
Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D., (2009). Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery. Routledge: New York.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
The study employed the classroom-action research cycle. Interventions were run for three weeks using materials and implementing lessons using linguistic landscape data. Method involved output, observed participation, recorded and assessed learning. To measure literacy improvement, mixed methods were used which combined both quantitative and qualitative data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and gain scores. Qualitative data explained student learning development gathered from student work, reactions to signs, and critiques.
| Title | Linguistic Landscape Teaching Functional Literacy |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | College and university education |