Foreign Language Influence: A Case Study of English on Shop Signs in Taif City of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study investigates the presence of English as the business language in Taif, Saudi Arabia. It also explores the influence and familiarity of English in the business sector. Linguistic landscape of 162 photos of commercial shops and interview of seven shop owners were employed to analyze the language use of shop signs in the Taif market. The study results were classified into three major categories, bilingual, transliteration and monolingual signs. The research has revealed that English is used as a prestigious language that is necessary to attract customers. However, Arabic presence is inevitably needed because of the linguistic background of the customers. The study concluded that in relation to the extent of using English in shop signs, and the frequent use of English words, whether on the bilingual signs or the transliteration ones, there is a need of policy formulation and implementation for lexical assimilation of borrowed words of English.