Opening spaces of learning in the linguistic landscape

In the context of increasing interest in the linguistic landscape as a site of language and literacy learning, this paper outlines a conceptual framework for joining recent innovations in LL theory and methodology with pedagogical practice in second and foreign language education. After a review of current approaches to teaching the linguistic forms, cultural messages, and political actions realized in the linguistic landscape, a spatialized perspective based upon the principle of thirdness is proposed as a way for learners to explore, contrast, and reflect upon multiple meanings in the LL. Specifically, the paper adapts methodological innovations in Trumper-Hecht (2010) and other recent research by reinterpreting Henri Lefebvre’s triadic paradigm of conceived, perceived, and lived spaces for the language classroom, such that teachers and learners can design nuanced, multilayered investigations of discourses in place. As qualitative methods cast new light on questions of subjectivity, materiality, and change in the linguistic landscape, it is argued, linguistic landscape research offers valuable tools for pedagogical application, even as language learners open up new interpretive spaces for research.