Multilingualism & Diversity Cross-Campus Activity
Seminar on Linguistic Landscaping
The Multilingualism and Diversity Learning Community has strong expertise in research on language in society and designed an opportunity for students to carry out a Linguistic Landscaping project, participate in cross-university collaboration and experience global connected learning despite the current disruption in mobility. The activity included a project and seminar to share and disseminate results and it offered a learning space to share ideas and to plan future activities and events.
The students had collected data during two weeks in Sweden, England, and Catalonia respectively. Using Linguistic Landscaping theories and methodologies, they worked in groups or individually to analyze one aspect of the linguistic landscape in their chosen geographic area.
During the seminar, students presented their research projects in the form of 10-min videos, which were followed by a discussion with the seminar attendees. The projects were all high-quality: the research and analysis were thorough and the findings notable. Topics ranged from street signs to food labels and highlighted the multilingual aspects of different cities and regions throughout the world.
- DATE: Feb 4th 2021
- LOCATION: Virtual event – platform: Teams
- HOST: EUTOPIA LC Multilingualism and Diversity – coordinated by Jo Angouri (UoW), Vicent Climent-Ferrando (UPF) and Tommaso M. Milani (GU)
- PARTICIPANTS: 21 UOG/UOW/UPF students
- MORE INFO: Descriptive Brief
TAKE AWAYS:
The seminar was a great opportunity for students to develop their skills and make connections, as one attendee noted: “I greatly enjoyed participating in the Cross-EUTOPIA student seminar on Linguistic Landscaping. As a first-year undergraduate, the opportunity to ask questions and have discussions with more experienced students and academics were invaluable. I really enjoyed learning about the linguistic landscaping projects carried out around Europe, and the seminar has provided me with a broader insight into how linguistic landscaping can be used in different language situations.”
Given the high quality of the research projects, students were invited to produce blogs based on their presentation during the seminar and the feedback given by attendees. Written in several languages, the blogs span a range of fascinating topics such as: graffiti in El Pla, Berga, and the district of Sant Martí, languages spoken in Gavà Mar, Manresa, and Barcelona, commercial signs in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona, food labels in Catalonia, signs and billboards in Umeå, shop and restaurant signs in Malmö, and the representation of pagan identities in commercial signs in Glastonbury. The blogs will be showcased on our webpage:
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/mitn/events/llseminar/.
