“I have learned a lot of things about other neighborhoods”: Secondary students as Linguistic Landscapes ethnographers

Abstract

Linguistic Landscape (LL) has been recognized as a valuable tool by foreign language teachers that allows them to incorporate the “outside” world into the classroom (Kruszynska & Dolly, 2023). In this study, secondary school students, as ethnographers, investigated LL in their neighborhoods. Utilizing their critical thinking skills, they engaged with collected data and produced news report in which reflected on their ethnographic LL projects. The project prompted students to critically examine cultural practices from their own perspectives (Roberts et al., 2000). This project empowered the participants to actively contribute to the construction of their own knowledge, rather than being passive observers. It also provided insights into the students’ perspectives on the LL-based project. The findings indicate that LL-based tasks can serve as a powerful tool to enhance students’ awareness of their surroundings’ linguistic diversity and, if effectively utilized, can cultivate their critical and higher-order thinking skills.

Keywords

• Linguistic landscape
• Students as ethnographers
• Critical thinking skills
• Higher order thinking skills
• Students’ perspective