ERIC Number: EJ1089381
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1554-480X
EISSN: N/A
Word on the Street: Investigating Linguistic Landscapes with Urban Canadian Youth
Burwell, Catherine; Lenters, Kimberly
Pedagogies: An International Journal, v10 n3 p201-221 2015
This article reports on a case study inspired by the concept of "linguistic landscapes." We collaborated with a group of Humanities teachers to design and implement the "Word on the Street" project, in which Grade 10 students took on the role of researchers to explore the linguistic, visual and spatial texts of their neighbourhood. We show how the concept of linguistic landscapes fits especially well with a pedagogy of multiliteracies by encouraging the critical study of multimodality and linguistic diversity in context. We then describe the design and implementation of the project, which combined visual analysis with the production of place-based documentaries. Reading two of the documentaries, we illustrate ways that students used the project to identify and investigate the gap between how their community is represented, and how they experience it in their daily lives. In the end, we argue that linguistic landscape analysis provides a unique pedagogical tool for recognizing the complexity of meaning-making in urban landscapes, one with the potential to confront the inequities that shape the lives of many youth living in contemporary global cities.
Descriptors: Urban Areas, Grade 10, Neighborhoods, Adolescents, Student Projects, Student Diversity, Student Research, Language Usage, Foreign Countries, Photography, Documentaries, Multilingualism, Cultural Pluralism, Cultural Differences, Industry, High School Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 10; Secondary Education; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Calgary)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A