Lingustic Landscapes, Societies, and Language Policy

Lecture is sponsered by FAHSS
Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 11:30-12:30
Location: Wang Center Lecture Hall 2

Watch: Linguistic Landscapes, Societies, and Language Policy

Lecture Abstract

Linguistic landscape (LL) is an emerging and dynamic field of research which focuses on languages as they are
displayed in public spaces. LL research identifies patterns that are then interpreted within different disciplines
such as politics, ideology, economics, education, geography, law and justice. It helps us interpret societies in
terms of globalization, localization, trans-languaging, inclusion, exclusions, conflicts and justice. It also yields
findings about multilingualism, literacy, identity, language learning, language policy and language justice. This
talk will describe several LL studies which problematize, expand and validate new views of language policy
from tools used to manage languages in nations reflecting ideologies and political interests for enforcing
‘desired’ linguistic realities to the development of language policies which reflect realities, involve people and
their everyday language experiences with the aim of correcting injustices and negotiating community needs.

About the Speaker: Elana Shohamy

Elana Shohamy is a professor of Language Education at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Her work in language testing focuses on the power and the misuses of tests in education and society, classroom assessment, fair testing for immigrants and minority groups, and multilingual assessment. Elana also researches Linguistic Landscape (LL) referring to the diversity of languages in public spaces with a focus on conflicts, contestation and social justice. Her books include: The Languages of Israel: Policy, ideology and practice (w/ B. Spolsky, 1999); The power of tests: A critical perspective of the uses of language tests (2001); Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches (2006); Linguistic landscape: expanding the scenery, (ed. w/ Durk Gurter, 2009); and Linguistic landscape in the city (ed. w/ Ben Rafael and Barni, 2010). Elana is the editor of the journal Language Policy and the new and upcoming journal Linguistic Landscape. Elana is the winner of the 2010 lifetime achievement award granted by the International Language Testing Association (ILTA), in Cambridge, UK.