As we walk down the streets of our own communities, cycle to work, and wander along the paths of our campus, our daily journeys expose us to a multitude of written language(s) in signs, be they traffic signs, billboards, commercial advertisements, flyers, building names, or even graffiti. This displayed, written language is referred to as the linguistic landscape (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). At times, we can become desensitized to this constant visual input, and signs—as well as the language(s) used in them—can become invisible to us. The burgeoning field of Linguistic Landscape Studies encourages us to think critically about the ideological, economic, and political implications and effects of the presence (or absence) of the languages of public space.  

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In the Fall of 2023, I designed a new course regarding the linguistic landscape that has a focus on global and local (Bay Area and California) Spanish. This class offers students the opportunity to take their learning outside of the classroom in order to critically engage with the use of Spanish in the public space via site visits in which they observe the linguistic landscape of campus and (Spanish-speaking) Bay Area neighborhoods such as Fruitvale, Richmond, and the San Francisco Mission.

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As this is such a new field of study (less than 30 years since the seminal article was published in 1997), there are currently very few courses dedicated to Linguistic Landscape Studies around the world. While writing my dissertation, no linguistic landscape classes were available, and everything I learned was from reading publications. Today I am aware of other individuals like me that are excited to develop a linguistic landscape course, despite not having ever taken one themselves. However, many of us have felt as if we are reinventing the wheel since there isn’t much collaboration or materials shared online.

 

In the 2023-2024 academic year I was selected as a fellow at the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of California, Berkeley to build teaching and learning tools, templates, and resources related to the linguistic landscape for my own course, but also for the broader campus community and my colleagues around the world. Below you will find this repository of pedagogical content which includes curated readings, class activities, assignments, and guidelines for field trips/site visits off campus. These materials have been crafted in order to support student learning and provide class participants with the opportunity to reflect on course topics in innovative ways.​​​ Finally, these resources related to the linguistic landscape are easily adaptable for use not only in different language and linguistics classrooms, but also courses in other fields such as political science, sociology, geography, history, and global studies.  ​​​​​​