Exploring Multimodal Literacies through the Linguistic Landscape in the L2 Classroom

Presented by Sébastien Dubreil, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Second Language Acquisition and Technology-Enhanced Learning at Carnegie Mellon University.

Linguistic Landscape (LL) studies have grown as a field and has led to a keen interest in using the linguistic landscape to foster second language (L2) learning. LL researchers and L2 educators have specifically focused on the linguistic and sociolinguistic benefits to L2 learners who engage the linguistic landscape (e.g., Cenoz & Gorter, 2008; Rowland, 2013; Sayer, 2010). Increasingly, however, L2 educators have gravitated to using the LL to engage with a more comprehensive and sophisticated understanding of the potential of LL studies in the L2 classroom to engage with issues of form and content. In particular, this has led to engaging with the multimodal nature of the LL as well as issues of power and ideology, diversity and inclusion.

In this workshop, participants become familiar with the fundamentals of work in the linguistic landscape and will examine how it can be leveraged to address several of the perennial challenges faced by L2 classroom instructors. Indeed, the LL is a site that necessitates attention to meaning, form, use, and cultural interpretation (meaning learners engage with both “language” and “content” simultaneously). Second, through judicious use of the physical environment and instructional technology, teaching the LL can make the second language and culture present and alive for the learners. Third, LL projects also have the potential to engage L2 learners with their own communities. Last, as an inherently interdisciplinary field LL-based pedagogies afford L2 instruction the opportunity to establish connections beyond language studies. Examples of such work are provided and participants are guided to envision how these principles can be adapted in their own practice to enhance language and culture learning.

This event is one in a two-part webinar series on multi-modal literacies in second language classrooms.  The other webinar is presented by Kristen Michelson.

Download the presentation slides here.

Bio:

Dr. Sébastien Dubreil is Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Technology-Enhanced Learning at Carnegie Mellon University. Specializing in Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Second Language Acquisition, his research interests include the definition of culture in the L2 classroom, its place in the curriculum, the assessment of culture learning, and the use of instructional technology in setting up effective language learning environments (e.g., multimedia technology, telecollaboration) to foster transcultural learning. Most recently, Sébastien’s research has led him to investigate the notion of social pedagogies, social justice linguistic landscapes, and game-based language learning. His gaming project, Bonne Chance, developed with Cary Staples and a team of graduate and undergraduate students was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Reimagine Education conference.

Professor Dubreil has published in the Modern Language Journal and the CALICO Journal, the International Journal of Personal and Virtual Learning Environment, and the L2 Journal among others, and has given presentations at numerous national and international conferences. Alongside Dr. Heather Willis Allen he co-authored Alliages culturels: La société française en transformation (Cengage Learning in 2014). He also co-edited Engaging the World: Social Pedagogies and Language Learning (2017, Cengage) with Dr. Steven L. Thorne. His most recent publications are Language Teaching in the Linguistic Landscape: Mobilizing Pedagogy in Public Space (Springer Educational Linguistics Series, Vol. 49, 2020), co-edited with David Malinowski and Hiram Maxim, and a co-edited special issue of the CALICO Journal, entitled Innovation & Creation: The Maker Movement (2021), with Gillian Lord.