Assignment 4: Majority and Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape and / or Material Culture (Video)

 “Out of the three ingredients of multilingualism, speaker, language and environment, not all of them have been researched equally. In fact, in multilingualism studies to date, environment is mostly understood as milieu, conceptualized usually in terms of people, namely community, family, school and population. Some research pertinent to material culture has been done on ‘bilingual / multilingual classroom’ and the study of linguistic landscape is unfolding. Still, although multilingualism is replete with artefacts that represent its past and present, the aspect of material environment, this essential aspect of multilingualism, still lacks empirical and theoretical research attention. (…) Such an exploration might be profitably applied to a range of discussions relevant to language and society and in the first instance to minority languages. The position of minority languages is often weak in many domains, for example, popular culture, media and commercial life. The materialities of minority languages (signs, books, T-shirts, websites, CD’s, etc, for example, may have the important function of being a symbolic marker of linguistic vitality and equality for the minority language. For the owners or users, these material artefacts identify the vitality of the language, showing that the language has a living presence in all domains of life in the same way as languages of wider communication. (…) The minority language has a visible presence in the world of the majority language and vice versa.” (Larissa Aronin and Muiris Ó Laoire, 2012, p. 299-301)

Video assignment

We invite you to make a 5-10 minutes video about the presence of majority / minority languages in the linguistic landscape and material culture. Combine in your video pictures of linguistic signs and a spoken comment on / analysis of these signs. For example, look at shops and companies and their language display (in stores, in the office, in display windows, in advertising…), or look at public buildings, street signs and private homes. Or look at the interior of houses, material objects and artefacts. Show some of your findings in your video and comment on their meaning:

  • which linguistic signs do you see?
  • which languages are used?
  • where do you see these linguistic signs (location)?
  • who is the author and who are the recipients (audience)?
  • what is the function of the linguistics signs?
  • why, do you think, are these particular linguistic signs chosen?
  • which language ideologies or power relations are behind it?
  • can you connect these signs with specific language practices or policies?

Linguistic landscaping

This video presentation can be considered an example of linguistic landscaping (LL). LL was first introduced by Landry and Bourhis (1997) and studied the presence of language and linguistic signs in the public sphere. From then on, the method developed to study language in public space, its usage, context, and the visibility of different languages, dialects, and styles. In general, language in the public sphere is taken for granted. But if we look closely to it, it can inform us about language attitudes, language ideologies, language planning and power relations in a particular place or context. See for an example of LL in Maastricht: http://linguisticlandscapes.wikispaces.com/. Your video will become part of your blog.

Read for more information about Linguistic Landscaping and languages in the material culture:

Cenoz & Gorter (2009), Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape in E.Shohamy and D.Gorter (eds.) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery, New York/London: Routledge, pp 55-69.

 Anonin, L. and Laoire, L.O. (2012) “The Material Culture of Multilingualism” in D. Gorter, H.F. Marten and L. Van Mensel (Eds.): Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke-New York, 299-318.

Procedure, practical planning and skills training

The final video shall be short, between 5-10 minutes. You will work together in groups of two or three students (not more than three!). Each of you will take part in the comments and analysis (in one or more languages) and will be active in a presenting role in the video. It is of course nice if you discuss the topic from a different perspective and offer some variation through the different voices… Of course we will appreciate original pictures, an intelligent analysis and a nice and smooth presentation.

Of course we will offer you a specific skills training in order to allow you to be well prepared for this video task. You will receive the first video training in week 3. The filming session itself may take place in one of the followings weeks. You will probably need one or two hours for the filming per group, apart from the preparation. In week 5 or 6 you will receive a training about the editing and uploading of your video and the IT-tools you can use for it.

There are some camera’s available in the Faculty’s multimedia lab, but in general students prefer to work with their own equipment. That’s easier and helps you also to use your equipment for other purposes… Please take care of the sound quality! Immediately after the filming (and some editing), your presentations can be uploaded on the After Babel youtube channel (technical assistance will be provided in the skills training in week 3-5) and embedded in your blog. Please also give your video a title and indicate its topic in your blog. If you work with 2-3 students, please upload it on both your blogs!

Publication: between 1-22 May

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