Slides |

Exploring Linguistic Landscapes in the Sacred Spaces of a Shinto Shrine

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Exploring Linguistic Landscapes in the Sacred Spaces of a Shinto Shrine

Agenda

How can the LL show us what a community finds sacred?
How does the LL express sacredness and other shared values in a community?
Who are these sacred spaces for?

LL in Sacred Spaces

Alsaif, R. A. S., & Starks, D. (2019). Medium and domains in the linguistic landscapes of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(1), 14–31. Coluzzi, P., & Kitade, R. (2015). The languages of places of worship in the Kuala Lumpur area: A study on the “religious” linguistic landscape in Malaysia. Linguistic Landscape. An International Journal, 1(3), 243–267. Esteron, J. J. (2021). English in the churchscape: Exploring a religious linguistic landscape in the Philippines. Discourse and Interaction, 14(2), 82–104. Inya, B. T. (2019). Linguistic landscape of religious signboards in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria: Culture, identity and globalisation. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 9(9), 1146. Perera, N. (2016). Tamil in the temples – Language and religious maintenance beyond the first generation. Multilingua, 35(5). Wafa, A., & Wijayanti, S. (2018). Signs of multilingualism at religious places in Surabaya: A linguistic landscape study. Proceedings of the International Conference on Language Phenomena in Multimodal Communication (KLUA 2018). Woldemariam, H., & Lanza, E. (2012). Religious wars in the linguistic landscape of an African capital. In C. Hélot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism and social change (pp. 169–184). Peter Lang. Yusuf, K., & Putrie, Y. E. (2022). The linguistic landscape of mosques in Indonesia: Materiality ‎and identity representation. International Journal of Society Culture and Language, Online First.

		church, Chinese temple, Hindu temple, Sikh gurdwara	Other languages only used to highlight ethnicities
Esteron (2021)	Manaoag,	Catholic church	English is the dominant language;
	Pangasinan,		Filipino secondary, and Pangasinan is minimally used
	Philippines
————————-	————–	—————————————————–	——————————————————
Alsaif & Starks (2021)	Mecca,	Grand Mosque	Arabic: sacred domains;
	Saudi Arabia		English, Urdu, Farsi, etc. for banal domains
————————-	————–	—————————————————–	——————————————————
Inya (2019)	Ado Ekiti,	Christianity, Islam, and	Christianity: English; Islam: English,
	Nigeria	African Traditional Religion (ATR)	Arabic; ATR: Yoruba (English)
————————-	————–	—————————————————–	——————————————————

Sacred LL studies in Japan

Hiramatsu (2021): Nikko, home to Shrines and Temples of Nikk_ UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as National Treasures of Japan and Important Cultural Properties
Doering (2021): development of an ancient pilgrimage route, the preference for and tensions with lower-impact, independent Western tourists in rural Wakayama

Religion in Japan

(Agency for Cultural Affairs, December 2023)

Population of Japan: 125.1 million
神道系	仏教系	キリスト教系	諸教	小計
————–	————–	————–	————-	—————
83,964,368人	70,759,447人	1,262,924人	7,004,560人	162,991,299人
————–	————–	————–	————-	—————

IRL in Language/Culture Learning

Bhandari, A., & Humphreys, L. (2023). The best thing on Twitch today was a bike messenger: Experiencing metropolis, mobility and place through live-streaming.

Shinto

神道 Shintō: “the way of the gods”
“a folk belief emerging from natural spiritual behavior, for which reason it has no creeds nor scriptures” (Melikian, 2001)
indigenous religion of Japan: origins in prehistory, no founder, tightly wound with Japanese people, imperial family, history, and customs.
Venerates 神 kami or divine spirits: cycles of nature, thunder, wind, rocks, trees, some animals, ancestral spirits, guardian spirits, national heroes.

神社 jinja Shinto Shrines

~100,000 shrines in Japan.
“spontaneous manifestation of the people’s faith in the kami, and shrine rites and festivals are the highest expression of that faith” (Ono, 1962, p. 20)
significant natural beauty: forest, boulder, waterfall, hilltop
Prayer: to pass entrance exams, success in business, protection for a safe childbirth, prevention of automobile accidents, to avoid calamities during “unlucky” years.
Celebration: New Year, first visit, weddings, matsuri

Exploring the Potential of IRL Streaming for Language Learning

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Exploring the Potential of In Real Life (IRL) Streaming for Language Learning: A Participant Observation Study of Japanese University Students

Profile

EFL, Faculty of Economics, Nagoya Gakuin University, Japan
Doctorate: Literacy, Culture & Language Education at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA)
Interests: Linguistic Landscape, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Peer Evaluation

Agenda

What Happens when Students Use IRL Streams for Language Learning?
What Are the Pedagogical Implications and Challenges?

In-Real-Life Livestreaming

[]{#irl}

Live-streaming

{style=“float:right;” width=“200px; margin:20px;”}

Justin.tv “lifecasting” (Sirius, 2007)
interactive, participatory social media
broadcast in real-time
typically interacting with viewers thru synchronous, built-in chat
rapid growth since 2011
common genres: Let's Play, Just Chatting, Coding, Music, Makers

In-Real-Life Livestreaming

2016: Twitch announced a new streaming category called “In Real Life” (IRL)
a genre of live streaming that allowed users to share, “their everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions with their communities”
authentic engagement with viewers

⠀

IRL in Language/Culture Learning

Bhandari, A., & Humphreys, L. (2023). The best thing on Twitch today was a bike messenger: Experiencing metropolis, mobility and place through live-streaming.

⠀

IRL streams reinforce the centrality of movement and mobility
mediated/“platformed” placemaking
digital wayfaring
emphasis on the social construction of space

⠀

{height=“600px”}

Literature Review

Hilvert-Bruce et al. (2018) motivations: social interaction, sense of community, meeting new people, entertainment, information seeking, lack of external support in real life Chen et al. (2019) instant feedback and increased engagement Samat et al. (2019) authentic learning experiences and opportunities for real-life communication/interactivity Magasic (2017) authentic language, verbal language features, paralinguistic features, motivational appeal

Methodology: Participant Observation

A qualitative method where the researcher observes and participates in a group/community to gain a deep understanding of their behaviors and practices (Jorgensen, 2020)

immerse in real-life language contexts
observe language learners in action
gain insights into the complexities of language acquisition in authentic settings

Participants

⠀

Recruited through snowball sampling
Native Japanese speakers
2nd year university students
Sports majors
Ages 19–20
CFER English level: A1
unfamiliar with IRL and livestreaming platforms in general

Process

Brief discussion on theme
Watch a stream together
Brief discussion on stream in relation to theme
Have participants choose stream
Participants share their findings

Data Collection

Five 90-minute sessions over a five-week period

Themes:

Introduction to livestreaming and IRL
Exploring IRL streams
Use of IRL for learning authentic language, culture; gaining motivation
Challenges of IRL for language learning
Interaction with IRL streamers

Results

How Participants Found Their Streams

I look at number of followers.
A few viewers.
Read the comments.
Look at cute.
Looks easiest to understand.

⠀

Solo Stream Busan

EXBC https://www.twitch.tv/exbc

Description: A Korean man is taking a walk in Busan. The girl looks cute.
I learned some things about Korea. Of course, it's cold!
It was interesting to watch them eat so much.
He was making noises while eating.
I was able to listen to a lot of English.

⠀

Thailand Trip

Reydempto https://www.twitch.tv/exbc

I chose it because he response to comments quickly.
Walking around the port at night

⠀

Tokaido Day 1

Sensei-Martian

Description: He is walking Tokaido. He walked along the Tama River
He seems to like Japan
He answer my questions
There are few viewers
"Nice stash"

Pedagogical Implications and Challenges

Authentic Language Exposure

(Chat) Internet acronyms (BRB, JK, OMW)
Slang: Nice stash, ingest offline, "no way," tipsy

⠀

Interactive Learning Opportunities

Communicating with streamer
Communicating with chat

Language Proficiency Requirements

Can’t rewind stream.
Streamer is talking fast.
Not used to hearing new words.
When I was in high school, I had no desire to learn English, so don’t have the ability to listen.

Quality/Reliability

Quality/reliability of livestreamed content varies, and learners need to navigate through the vast array of available channels to find suitable and reliable sources of language input.

There was a streamer I wanted to watch, but I couldn't see it because of the time difference.
I'm looking for a streamer, but I can't find one in English.
I can't find the person I want to see.
I cannot find what I want because there are so many streamers.

Lack of Structure

"nontent"
No speaking streamer
Can't concentrate
I don't like the relaxed delivery

Inappropriate Content

Streamer says bad things
Bad manners
Adult content

Ethical Considerations

consent
privacy norms
local customs/regulations

Conclusion

Benefits

authentic language exposure
cultural immersion
interactive learning opportunities
vocabulary expansion

Challenges

language proficiency requirements
content quality
lack of structure
inappropriate content

Future Directions

Working with a dedicated streamer rather than through random streams, e.g., tour guide
Mediated discourse analysis/nexus analysis (chat, interaction with streamer, parasocial relationships)

References

Bhandari, A., & Humphreys, L. (2023). The best thing on Twitch today was a bike messenger: Experiencing metropolis, mobility and place through live-streaming. In A. Parini & F. Yus (Eds.), The discursive construction of place in the digital age (pp. 33–46). Routledge.

Chen, D., Freeman, D., & Balakrishnan, R. (2019). Integrating multimedia tools to enrich interactions in live streaming for language learning. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–14.

Hilvert-Bruce, Z., Neill, J. T., Sjöblom, M., & Hamari, J. (2018). Social motivations of live-streaming viewer engagement on Twitch. Computers in Human Behavior, 84 , 58–67.

Jorgensen, D. L. (2020). Principles, approaches and issues in participant observation. Routledge.

Magasic, M. (2017). Learning through watching: Streaming video in L2 English. The JALT CALL Journal, 13 (3), 199–209.

Samat, N. A. A., Hashim, H., & Yunus, M. Md. (2019). Live streaming: A new platform for ESL learning. Creative Education, 10 (12), 2899–2906.

Thank you!

Exploring the Potential of In Real Life (IRL) Streaming for Language Learning: A Participant Observation Study of Japanese University Students

ThaiTESOL

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 13:55:17 +0900

EFL Learning Using the Linguistic Landscape of Sacred Spaces

Profile

Doctoral candidate, Literacy, Culture & Language Education at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA)
Faculty of Economics, Nagoya Gakuin University, Japan
Interests: Linguistic Landscape, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Peer Evaluation

Agenda

Linguistic Landscape

publicly displayed signs, billboards, street names, and other forms of symbolic
putting the place first: ``any (public) space with visible inscription made through deliberate human intervention and meaning making” (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 2)
“authentic, dynamic, public mega-text” that represents “society at a micro-level” (Rowland, 2013, p. 503)

Focus of Original Studies

language policy
language vitality

Recent Trends

Semiotic landscapes
Transgressive LLs
Soundscapes
Smellscapes

The LL of Religious Spaces

What is sacred to a community?

What (non-commercial) values are represented here?

Who is this sacred space for?

Little research has been done in linguistic landscapes of sacred spaces (religioscapes/churchscapes, mosquescapes, etc.)

Linguistic Landscape in Sacred Spaces

proselytizing billboards around Addis Abeba, Ethiopia (Woldemariam & Lanza, 2012)
LLs of sacred spaces themselves: multilingual signs of holy places in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, English was found to be a neutral language that operates across inter-ethnic communication, despite the official prevalence of Bahasa Malay as an official language (Coluzzi & Kitade, 2015)
English played the dominant role in a Philippine church, supported by the indigenous Filipino and Pangasinan languages (Esteron, 2021)
role of English in language choice was also a theme in multi-religious areas of Nigeria (Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religion) (Inya, 2019).

Atsuta Shrine

One of the three most sacred shrines in Shinto
2000 years old
Open 24/7/365
9 million visitors a year
190,000m2

The LL of Atsuta Shrine

The Linguistic Landscape as applied to language learning

Environmental Print

“Reading the Environment”: Environmental Print

Early research (e.g., Adams, 1990; Dewitz & Stammer, 1980; Goodman & Altwerger,1981; Masonheimer et al., 1984) in language development can be found in children’s engaging with environmental print—“surrounding non-continuous print (e.g. words, letters, numerals and symbols) that is encountered in a particular context and fulfils real-life functions” (Neumann et al., 2012, p. 232).
Child logos, community logos, household logos (Horner, 2005)

Bringing the Outside In

Hudelson (1984): environmental print in developing reading and writing skills in children learning English as a Second Language.
Utilizing “students’ lives and living environments for literacy experience” (p. 235) building on their own funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992)

Additional Source of Input

incidental learning
pragmatic competence
multimodal literacy skills
multicompetence
symbolic/emotional power of language.

(Cenoz & Gorter, 2008)

Early Studies: “In the Real World”

Sayer (2010): Why do people in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico use English in public places?
Student learning from a constructivist perspective, ``bottom up'' from their own exploration
an authentic activity for exposure/practice where EFL opportunities are limited
Social meanings that the symbolic use of English conveyed to the community:
- Fashion
- Sophistication
- "Coolness"
- Sex
- Love
- Subversive identities
Shifted identities from language learners to sociolinguists & create their own inductive theories of language.

Pedagogical benefits of EFL learning in the LL

vocabulary learning
increasing familiarity with the language of English
spelling
English language structure (Dumanig & David, 2019)
student choice in learning
opportunity to critically engage with the LL in their language learning (Barrs, 2020)

The linguistic landscape can provide a clear mirror of society (Shohamy, 2018; Trumper-Hecht, 2010)
can be a critical resource to learn about the culture of the target language “by focusing on diversity, discrimination, exclusion, controversies, ideologies and justice” (Shohamy, 2018, p. 32).
Students have learned which languages are privileged and which are marginalized (Brown, 2007)
Where groups of people, e.g., newly arrived immigrants and refugees, live and why they live there (Dagenais et al., 2009)
and who has a voice to participate and why (Huyer, 2019).
Teacher trainees have also been taught to examine their own attitudes about multilingualism in the linguistic landscape (Hancock, 2012).
If society is unjust, “[C]an [a linguistic landscape] be changed and used to transform societies, cities and neighbourhoods?” (Shohamy 2018, p. 32).I
Exposing learners to the silences within and related to texts of the LL, in order that they become active participants in meaning making and negotiation (Richardson, 2020)

Affordances

With a digital camera, student-researchers are able to quickly learn to collect LL data ontheir own.
By going out and collecting images of the LL, finding sources of authentic input becomes simpler and more straightforward than collecting other forms of authentic material, especially in locales where the target language is not often encountered in daily life
Finding situated language may be easier to make sense of than decontextualized speech acts or written words that may be beyond the student’s ability
“the opportunity to consider their own affective responses and ethical stance toward the people and places around them” (Malinowski et al., 2020, p. 2)
uses the public space to create more social and political consciousness through language awareness, linguistic activism, and self-conceptions of citizenship (Malinowski et al., 2020).

The Study in Question

The purpose of this pilot study is to describe ways that Japanese EFL university students interacted with the multilingual linguistic landscape of an important Shinto shrine to construct their second language learning.

How do Japanese university EFL students use the multilingual linguistic landscape in their language learning?
What language learning practices does the teacher perceive as beneficial in general language learning?
What professional teacher practices contribute to EFL students’ language learning in this context?

Methodology

Participants: Seven females and six male first-year students majoring in Commerce from at a nearby university voluntarily took part in the study.
Participants were recruited through snowball sampling.
All were native Japanese speakers and were aged 18–19 years old.
All had similarly low English language proficiency.
Some were somewhat familiar with the shrine, but this was their first visit to the shrine.

Methodology

Data Collection

Following a brief introduction to linguistic landscape and its basic concepts, I guided the participants on an approximately 10-minute walk from the university to the shrine, and had students take pictures of the multilingual LL and fill out a brief survey.
“commented walks” (Stroud & Jegels, 2014)—an embodied, transmodal practice in the interaction of signs and bodies. There is “the importance of social action for the making of space” (Mondada, 2011, p. 291) in the linguistic landscape.
Spatial practices, namely walking, “highlighting both a praxeological construal of local place and an understanding of locality in terms of mobility” (p. 183). The signage in and around the shrine was read and incorporated into the spatial narratives of the participants as they moved through it. I took field notes as I interacted with students
participant-generated photographs of signs in the area were also collected.
Questionnaire

Results

How do Japanese university EFL students use the multilingual linguistic landscape in their language learning?

Initial familiarity: “[In my hometown], there are many signboards around the station and the cultural center. Those signs have Japanese text on the top, Chinese text in the middle, and English text on the bottom.”
Authentic input: “I was able to visualize what kind of English there is in everyday life,”
Learning in a local environment::“opportunities to come into contact with the language I was learning,”
Motivation:“Since I can touch English in my daily life, I would like to continue using it as an efficient way to study English.”

How do Japanese university EFL students use the multilingual linguistic landscape in their language learning?

The first surprise in this study was that although some texts were multilingual, the participants did not immediately associate it as such.
Were both the speaker and audience are assumed to be Japanese—even if communicating through English words?
English words are often used a decorative rather than communicative function in Japan, and although the information may be relayed in English, the participants did not see it as a “foreign language.”
Additionally, although Japanese and Chinese share many of the same written language and the four-Chinese characters phrase can be parsed together by a Japanese speaker, the Chinese phrase is not commonly used in Japanese
It was surprising to see that three languages on this sign were perceived to be only in Japanese.

What professional teacher practices contribute to EFL students’ language learning in this context?

Although one student, in his first exposure to LL studies, saw “cross cultural understanding,” it may benefit students to encourage critical thinking about the sign.
Four languages: Japanese, English, Chinese (Traditional), and Korean.
examining the materiality: English word “sacred” has been modified. It may be useful to have students discuss their findings with each other as well as to analyze modifications to signs.

What language learning practices does the teacher perceive as beneficial in general language learning?

code preference is Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese.
Students may take a critical view here on the inclusion and exclusion of languages as well as the choices of Simplified and Traditional Chinese scripts.
The code preference (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) gives Japanese the top-billing and may indicate some power relations as the dominant authority (Ben-Rafael, 2008).

Conclusion

This paper has described ways that Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students interacted with the multilingual linguistic landscape of an important Shinto shrine to construct their second language learning.
affordances of using the LL
Pedagogical possibilities of language order in a sacred space
The positive attitude of learners connecting the target language to their daily lives
participant difficulty finding foreign languages—occasionally mistaking English as Japanese communication, and traditional Japanese language for a foreign language.

Thank you!

Ryan Barnes

Nagoya Gakuin University

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Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

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Slides |

Exploring Linguistic Landscapes in the Sacred Spaces of a Shinto Shrine

Exploring Linguistic Landscapes in the Sacred Spaces of a Shinto Shrine

Agenda

LL in Sacred Spaces

Sacred LL studies in Japan

Religion in Japan

IRL in Language/Culture Learning

Shinto

神社 jinja Shinto Shrines

Exploring the Potential of IRL Streaming for Language Learning

Exploring the Potential of In Real Life (IRL) Streaming for Language Learning: A Participant Observation Study of Japanese University Students

Profile

Agenda

In-Real-Life Livestreaming

Live-streaming

In-Real-Life Livestreaming

⠀

IRL in Language/Culture Learning

⠀

⠀

Literature Review

Methodology: Participant Observation

Participants

⠀

Process

Data Collection

Results

How Participants Found Their Streams

⠀

Solo Stream Busan

⠀

Thailand Trip

⠀

Tokaido Day 1

Pedagogical Implications and Challenges

Authentic Language Exposure

⠀

Interactive Learning Opportunities

Language Proficiency Requirements

Quality/Reliability

Lack of Structure

Inappropriate Content

Ethical Considerations

Conclusion

Benefits

Challenges

Future Directions

References

Thank you!

ThaiTESOL

EFL Learning Using the Linguistic Landscape of Sacred Spaces

Profile

Agenda

Linguistic Landscape

Focus of Original Studies

Recent Trends

The LL of Religious Spaces

Linguistic Landscape in Sacred Spaces

Atsuta Shrine

The LL of Atsuta Shrine

The Linguistic Landscape as applied to language learning

Environmental Print

“Reading the Environment”: Environmental Print

Bringing the Outside In

Additional Source of Input

Early Studies: “In the Real World”

Pedagogical benefits of EFL learning in the LL

The Linguistic Landscape as a Means for Learning about Social, Economic, and Political Issues

Affordances

The Study in Question

Methodology

Methodology

Data Collection

Results

How do Japanese university EFL students use the multilingual linguistic landscape in their language learning?

How do Japanese university EFL students use the multilingual linguistic landscape in their language learning?

What professional teacher practices contribute to EFL students’ language learning in this context?

What language learning practices does the teacher perceive as beneficial in general language learning?

Conclusion