LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AS A BRIDGE TOWARDS PEACE

Dr Brigitta R. Schvarcz 1 Anastasia Khawaja 2
1Afeka College of Engineering
2University of South Florida

This talk provides a practical approach for using the concept of Linguistic Landscape (LL) to introduce and develop materials and activities for peace education for ESL/EFL teachers in the Israel-Palestine region. While most LL studies explore the symbolic function of languages through signage (Backus, 2006; Huebner, 2006; Ben-Rafael et al. 2006), few show how the LL comes together to break the binary understanding of the conflict and use it for cross-cultural education and a crucial step towards understanding and peace (c.f. Muth, 2015; Themistocleous, 2019). We discuss how through studying LL educators can break their binary understanding of a region in conflict through studying the languages on signs in the area. We first focus on what teachers need to know about the LL of the region in order to use the concept in the classroom. We then describe the hierarchical existence of different linguistic representations on both unofficial (storefronts and shops) and official (road/highway) signage in the rural Palestinian village of Ni`lin as well as the Palestinian and Israeli cities of Ramallah and Tel Aviv. We highlight how exploring the LL of varying areas can be used to highlight how students and educators on both “sides” of an area in conflict can break their binary understanding through designing their own activities demonstrating cross-cultural awareness. We end our talk with a discussion of how these activities allow both educators and students to discuss and deconstruct this complex, fraught situation in order to bring peace and not division. Essentially, we show while English is not necessary, THE main focus, English can play a crucial role in co-existing and bridging the gap between multiple languages that can be represented.