Texts and contexts: Linguistic landscapes, graffiti, film, and literature in L2 classes

Abstract

Given that societies across the globe are increasingly multicultural and multilingual, the notion of communicative competence grounded in constricting definitions of national cultures and languages reflects neither our instructional realities nor the sociolinguistic reality of the languages and cultures we teach. To foster students’ development of second language (L2) competence grounded in an awareness of the symbolic construction of language and culture as well as “tolerance for ambiguity” (Kramsch, 2006), students must create with L2, rather than just reproduce what they have learned. After briefly outlining changing conceptions of language competency, this paper first describes how public uses of language and images through signs and graffiti make up a given place's linguistic landscape (LL), defines an evolving concept, and illustrates how it can be effectively used in L2 instruction. Then it highlights how a variety of LL-based activities help language learners become cognizant of their own sociolinguistic contexts and provides concrete examples from intermediate to advanced-level classes in two distinctly different German programs. The different approaches encourage students to combine LL-based activities with visual, literary, and film analysis to develop symbolic competencies that prepare them to negotiate unpredictable and diverse cultural norms.