From Schools to Online Spaces: Rethinking Educational Spaces and Linguistic Landscapes

Resumen

Post-lockdown measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic created major obstacles to bilingual education. The implementation of devices and virtual platforms that mediated education challenged educators to rethink and reframe the concept of educational spaces. These expanded conceptualizations call for further analytical inquiry, and one way to approach the subject is by looking at Linguistic Landscapes (LL). This article analyzes the LL of educational spaces and explores its implications for language learning and intercultural competency. It aligns the analysis with recent evolutions in the field of LL that consider elements beyond written language. Namely, it combines semiotic elements from conventional physical spaces as well as those from online environments. The data collection of this project involved visits to the school site as well as participation in virtual platforms that educators and students were a part of during two academic school years. The analysis of the educational space indicates that the participants in this study are a part of a complex LL where translingual practices, or the use of several linguistic codes and media, defy affiliation to a single named language. Particularly, this study focused on the case of one educator who used and intervened in the LL to advance students’ linguistic and cultural skills. As such, this paper argues that by taking advantage of participants’ translingual orientations, educators can use the LL as a pedagogical resource to advance students’ multilingual and intercultural competencies.