Language Formation in Linguistic Landscape and Teachers’ Views on Its Use for Elt Pedagogy

Abstract

The study entitled Language Formation in Linguistic Landscape and Teachers’ Views on its use for ELT Pedagogy was conducted to find out the language formation system on linguistic landscapes in terms of number of languages used, priority in the selection of language, transliteration, translation, code-mixing and non-standard structures. Similarly, English language teachers’ views on linguistic landscapes in relation to ELT pedagogy were explored throughout the study. The study followed the explanatory sequential mixed-method design. The population for the research consisted of two different areas. For quantitative part of the study, the photos of one hundred nongovernmental linguistic landscapes (LLs) from three areas of Kathmandu district including Kirtipur, Bagbazar and Thamel were the population of the study. Among one hundred linguistic landscapes, forty four were selected as sample for the study through purposive non-random sampling strategy. In the same way, for qualitative part of the study, secondary level English language teachers from Kathmandu district were the population. Five teachers from different five schools were selected as sample of study in purposive non-random sampling strategy. As per the objectives of the study, the checklist was used to find out the language formation system, and semi-structure questions were used to conduct interview with teachers. In the first part of study, the data were analyzed and interpreted using simple statistical tools such as frequency and percentile. The facts were presented in tables. In second part of the study, the data were transcribed in written form from recorded device and interpreted through descriptive analysis under different thematic topics. The study found that there were altogether seven languages used on the linguistic landscapes of three different areas of Kathmandu district including English, Nepali, Newari, Urdu, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Among these, English, Nepali and Newari languages were found in Kirtipur area, English, Nepali, Newari, Japanese, and Urdu languages in Bagbazar area while English, Nepali, Newari, Chinese, Urdu and Korean languages were found in Thamel area. The English language was given most priority. Likewise, the cases of transliteration, translation and code-mixing were found on viii linguistic landscapes. Furthermore, the study found that teachers had positive views towards linguistic landscape in relation to ELT pedagogy. They viewed that linguistic landscapes could be useful to warm up students. Three English language skills (Reading, Speaking and Writing) can be taught by using linguistic landscapes in classroom. Moreover, they viewed that the transliteration, translation, code-mixing and multilingualism could be taught effectively to students through different linguistic landscapes.