Linguistic landscape, critical language awareness and critical thinking: promoting learner agency in discourses about language

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH

There is now increased awareness of the need to challenge ‘common sense’ ideologies of language in education, turning language classrooms into spaces of analysis and liberation. Key to achieving this goal is equipping students with the skills needed to navigate diverse, complex discourses about language (critical thinking), as well as fostering an agentive disposition among them (critical language awareness). This article reports on research which examined how these qualities can be developed by involving language learners in analysis of public signs (linguistic landscape). 33 undergraduate students at a public university in Bhutan were recruited to participate in an extra-curricular activity in which they were asked to independently collect examples of public signs from the capital Thimphu and engage in guided analysis and discussion of the linguistic and visual features of the signs. Analysis of video recordings of learner interaction as well as of the textual data produced during and after the activity indicated that critical thinking processes were activated with relative regularity. In combination with pre- and post-activity interviews, these data also indicated that activating critical thinking through the activity also allowed several of the learners to take up a more agentive position in discourses about language in Bhutan.

ABSTRACT IN DZONGKHA

ད རེས ནངས པར ཁ སྐད རིག རྩལ དང ལྷག པར སློབ སྟོན སློབ སྦྱོང གི སྐབས ཁ སྐད འབད སྤྱོད གཏང ནི དང ཁ སྐད དེ བསམ དཔྱད འབད ནི གི དོན ལུ བསྟར སྤྱོད འབད ནི ལུ ཁག ཆེཝ ཨིནམ མི དམངས ལུ གོ དོན དང གདོང ལེན བསམ དཔྱད འབད དགོཔ དེ ཧ ཅང གི ཁག ཆེཝ སྦེ འགྱོ སྟེ ཡོདཔ ཨིན། དེ བཟུམ སྦེ འབད ཚུགས པའི ཐབས ལམ དྲག ཤོས དེ ར སློབ ཕྲུག ཚུ ལུ གོ བ བརྡ དོན སྤྲོད ལེན འབད བའི སྐབས ཞིབ བརྟག རིག པ དང ཁ སྐད ཚུ འདྲ མིན སྣ ཚོགས ཀྱི ཐོག ལས ལག ལེན འཐབ སྟེ ལག ལེན པ ཚུ གི ནང འཁོད སྤྱིར གྱི རིག པ བརྗེ སོར འབད ནི ལུ བརྩོན ནི དེ ཨིན མས། རྩོམ ཤོག དེ གིས ཁ སྐད ལྷབ མི ཚུ གི ནང འཁོད བརྡ བྱང ཚུ ལྷག སྟེ ཡི གེ གི སྡེབ དང ཁ སྐད མ འདྲཝ ཐོག ལག ལེན འཐབ མི ཚུ དབྱེ དཔྱད འབད ཐོག རིག རྩལ ཚུ ག དེ སྦེ ཡར རྒྱས གཏང ནི ཨིན ན ཚུ གི སྐོར ལས ཁོང ར གིས གྲོས བསྡུར འབད ཡོདཔ དང དེ གི གནད བསྡུད དེ ཡང བརྡ བྱང ཚུ དབྱེ དཔྱད མ འབད བའི ཧེ མ དྲིས ལན གཅིག དང ལས སྣ འབད ཚར བའི ཤུལ ལས དྲིས ལན གཅིག འབད ཐོག བསྡུ ལེན འབད དེ ཡོདཔ ཨིན། བསྡུ ལེན འབད ནི གི དོན ལུ བཅའ མར གཏོགས མི ཡང གཙུག ལག གཞི རིམ གྱི སློབ སློབ ཕྲུག ༣༣ དེ ཅིག ཨིནམ དང སློབ ཕྲུག ཚུ གིས ཐིམ ཕུག ནང འཁོད ལས ཁོང ར གང འདོད ཀྱི མི དམངས བརྡ བྱང ཚུ བསྡུ སྒྲིག འབད དེ དེ ཚུ གི དགོས མཁོ དང ཁ སྐད དེ ལས མཐོང ཚུལ སྣ ཚོགས ཚུ དབྱེ དཔྱད འབད དེ ཡོདཔ ཨིན། གནད བསྡུ པ ཚུ གིས བསམ དཔྱད འབད མི ཚུ གློག བརྙན སྒྲ བཟུང འབད མི ཚུ དབྱེ དཔྱད འབད བལྟཝ ད བསམ དཔྱད རིག པ དེ དུས རྒྱན ཡར རྒྱས འགྱོ ཡོདཔ སྦེ མངོན གསལ བྱུང ཡི། གནད བསྡུ ཚུ ཡང ཞིབ འཚོལ པ རང གིས སློབ ཕྲུག ཚུ ལས སྣ མ འབད བའི ཧེ མ དང འབད ཚར བའི ཤུལ ལས དྲི ལན འབད དེ དབྱེ དཔྱད འབད དེ ཡོདཔ ཨིན། དེ གི སྐབས ལས སྣ དེ གིས སློབ སྦྱོང པ ཚུ གི རྒྱུད ལུ བསམ དཔྱད ཀྱི རིག པ ཡར རྒྱས གཏང བཅུག ཚུགས ཡོད སྦེ མངོན གསལ བྱུང ཡི།

Plan language summary

While teaching language historically involved focussing on teaching students what the basic elements of a language are (sounds, words, grammar) and how to use them, the view has more recently developed that it is equally valuable to teach learners how to understand and analyse the place language has in society. In this way, it is hoped, students will not only learn how to use a language but become more aware of its connection to power, more able to analyse language independently, and generally more adept at thinking critically. In this study, we examined how these types of abilities can be developed by getting students to analyse the way language is used on signs in public spaces (linguistic landscape). Our participants were 33 undergraduate students from Bhutan, a society with many languages, a complex history and highly distinct identity. Our findings indicate that on many occasions as they worked together to analyse the use of language on signs in public spaces, the students exhibited processes of critical thinking and also became much more aware of the relationship between power and the different languages around them.

Keywords:

• Critical language awareness
• critical thinking
• linguistic landscape
• multilingualism
• language ideology
• Bhutan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We are supremely grateful to the participants in this research, without whose excellent responses, this article would not exist. We are also indebted to the editor, Masatoshi Sato, and the anonymous reviewers for the many ways in which they helped improve this article. Any remaining inaccuracies remain our responsibility.

2 Informed consent was obtained from all participants before data collection. Data collection procedures were approved by Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board, Prince of Songkla University.

3 It must be pointed out that this differentiation is to an extent a misconception: while Dzongkha is spoken in some rural areas, it is also spoken in the capital city Thimphu and is the national lingua franca.

4 We note with gratitude the comment of our reviewer that this may be a reflection of the interview setting, in which participants faced an interviewer of higher status, and may thus have been more careful about what opinions they voiced.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Thailand International Cooperation Agency.

Notes on contributors

Jigme Wangdi

Jigme Wangdi is a lecturer in the Department of English at the College of Language and Culture Studies, Bhutan. Mr. Wangdi’s research focuses on sociolinguistics, second language education, teaching English as a second language, and SLA.

Kristof Savski

Kristof Savski is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand, and previously studied and taught part-time at Lancaster University, UK. His research explores connections between sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, critical discourse studies and language policy, with regard to, for instance, the globalization of language standards and transnational migration of teachers of English.