‘Once you step out of the school, it’s different’: How disparities between schoolscapes and publicscapes shape students’ language attitudes and practices in the Yi Autonomy Prefecture

Abstract

This research explores how the disparities in the linguistic landscapes on and off campus (i. e., schoolscape and publicscape) shape students’ language attitudes and practices. Data, including 309 photographs and 3 focus-group interviews, was collected through fieldwork in a Yi Autonomous Prefecture in China. The analysis of the data reveals significant discrepancies between the schoolscape and publicscape. The Yi language is highly visible in the school, where teachers have intentionally crafted a niche for it. In contrast, the Yi language is marginalized on the publicscape. This disparity has led students to doubt the pragmatic value of Yi and lose motivation to learn it. The findings imply that linguistic landscapes on and off the campus constitute a complex network that collectively shapes students’ language attitudes and practices. The greater magnitude of the publicscape tends to relativize and undermine the language policy promoted by school when there is a significant divergence. The findings necessitate concerted efforts from both educational institutions and the wider public that bridge the gap between schoolscapes and publicscapes to support minority languages like Yi.