Linguistic Landscape in Beginning Language Learning: A Look at the Language in Images of Québec in French Textbooks in the US
Sep 29, 2017 — 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL) warmly invites you to its next research forum about Linguistic Landscape in Beginning Language Learning: A Look at the Language in Images of Québec in French Textbooks in the US presented by Carol A. Chapelle, Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.
Abstract:
The language of public spaces has served for years as data for applied linguists studying local language policy, the spread of English, the use of minority languages, and identity expression, for example. Inspired by such linguistic landscape research, language teachers and researchers are now exploring the affordances of spatialized approaches to learning in virtual spaces and target language contexts. Of course, interest in the language of public spaces in Canada predates current international linguistic landscape research, but has the linguistic landscape in Canada been used pedagogically in French courses in the United States? I will address this question with results from an analysis of linguistic landscape images of Québec in beginning-level French textbooks in the United States from 1960 through 2010. I introduce the study as a textbook analysis, research that serves as a basis for critical reflection and action directed toward improving language learning materials (Gray, 2013; Weninger & Kiss, 2015). After explaining the pedagogical interest in linguistic landscape images of Québec, I will outline the quantitative and qualitative methods used to find the images in the 65 textbooks in the sample, interpret the role of the language in constructing meaning in the 29 linguistic landscape images identified, and assess their role in the pedagogical tasks in the textbooks. The study reveals how language used in LL images can contribute to meaning and pedagogy as well as illustrating how a systematic textbook analysis can reveal knowledge and practices in the field as a first step toward improving them.
Carol A. Chapelle
Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University
Carol A. Chapelle is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University. She is editor of the Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (Wiley, 2013) as well as co-editor of the journal Language Testing and the Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series of books. She is past president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and former editor of TESOL Quarterly. Her research investigates the use of technology and evaluation methods for language learning and assessment, the topics of many of her books and research articles.