Introduction: Spatializing Language Studies in the Linguistic Landscape

Abstract

AbstractAs the assemblage of visible, audible, and otherwise textualized languages of public space, the linguistic landscape forms a rich context for understanding how material and environmental affordances affect language learning, and how language teachers can bring their L2 curricula to life. Whether it is within the four walls of a school, in a nearby neighborhood, or in virtual telecollaborative environments, the chapters of this volume illustrate how such diverse configurations of space lend themselves to language and literacy learning, while also contributing to learners’ critical cultural and historical awareness. Before inviting the reader to the volume’s nine chapters, this introduction outlines the history and significance of “space” in language teaching and learning research, a topic of significant interest and innovation in L2 education today. It then offers a framework for the spatialization of language teaching, that is, a pedagogy that is linguistically and culturally complex, geographically situated, historically informed, dialogically realized, and socially engaged. Whether one endeavors to teach in a traditional classroom, or immersed in the sights and sounds of outdoor spaces, or even from one's desktop at home, language teaching with the linguistic landscape is evaluated for its potential to extend the human, symbolic, and critical dimensions of L2 learning.