TESOL Talk

Cultivating spatial literacies in multilingual teaching through the linguistic landscape

Please join us on Tuesday, September 26 for a TESOL talk with SJSU Assistant Professor, David Malinowski. The talk will be from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Follow this link to register to attend virtually.

Abstract

Among its few silver linings, the current era of health and environmental crises has reminded us of the importance of movement, mobility, and place in the learning of languages and literacies—spatial elements of communication that make immersive educational opportunities like community-based learning and study abroad so powerful. Accordingly, this talk takes up the challenge of cultivating spatial literacies, which help learners to contextualize, synthesize, and evaluate their embodied encounters with language in their everyday experiences. It does so through the medium of linguistic landscape, an area of sociolinguistic research that investigates issues of representation and power in the visible languages of public space. Drawing from approaches and activities already in use in the field, I will offer a three-part framework for designing language learning activities in the linguistic landscape. The talk will conclude with a discussion of applications to the educational settings in which participants currently or will teach.