Abstract:

In multilingual societies, the inclusion of information related to the visual language use apparent in various signage and informational displays (the so-called ‘linguistic landscape’) into education can play a key role. The arrangement and linguistic quality of signage can be indicative of many things as the visual signs in a given area reflect the customs in language use, and the status and local prestige of different languages. Signage also indicates the linguistic power of minorities in a given municipality or community; it shows the relationship between minority and majority; it telegraphs the linguistic ideology of a given institution. The prestige of a minority language is markedly influenced by its prevalence in various public signage, and whether its use is constrained only to speech. For language teaching, transferring knowledge about the visual display of the language in question is particularly important. Including the linguistic landscape in the curriculum requires a multidisciplinary outlook as its credible study is only possible by providing an overview of the visual linguistic situation in a given territory using the research results and tools of semiotics, legal studies, onomastics, demography, history, geography, anthropology, and economics. This paper presents specific school exercises to illustrate the multidisciplinary approach to the linguistic landscape with regard to the Hungarian language. These exercises point out possibilities for analyzing signage to be seen in public places of a given region in grammar classes, and for decoding and interpreting their underlying messages, references, and extra-linguistic factors. By providing an overview of the linguistic landscape, these curriculum elements clarify the roles of, and differences between, the visual display of Hungarian language in majority (Hungary) and in minority situations (Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Austria) as well as related language policy, ideological, and linguistic planning aspects. Applying this plan provides an opportunity to guide learning processes and to improve basic learning skills.

Keywords:

Multilingualism, linguistic landscape, multidisciplinarity, Hungarian language, minority, majority, curriculum development.