MULTILINGUALISM IN linguistic landscape within the Faculty of THE LINGUISTIC Arts. LANDSCAPE OF THE 1. Introduction FACULTY OF ARTS, CHULALONGKORN A growing area of investigation into UNIVERSITY, THAILAND multilingualism is what has been called “linguistic landscape”- or the analysis of 1 language in the public space (Huebner, Aroonrung Siricharoen 2006; Backhaus, 2007; Kasanga, 2012; Bruyel-Olmedo and Juan-Garau, 2015; Manan 2015). Landry and Bourhis (1997: Abstract 25) first coined the term “linguistic landscape” with the frequently quoted This paper is an examination of definition as “the language of public road multilingual signage in the Faculty of Arts, signs, advertising billboards, street names, Chulalongkorn University, where a place names, commercial shop signs, and number of language courses are offered public signs on government buildings and not only to the university community but how they combine to form the linguistic also to outsiders who are interested in landscape of a given territory, region or learning foreign languages. Special urban agglomeration”. attention is given to the distinction between signs made by the university and Initially Landry and Bourhis examined the those by students and outsiders. By linguistic landscape as related to youth’s focusing on the multilingual signs in contact with more than one language public space, the aim of the study is to (1997 cited in Dagenais et al., 2009). investigate the extent to which More recently, linguistic landscapes have multilingualism is promoted through the been examined in reference to the linguistic landscape in the common areas commodification of language for the of the Faculty of Arts. The study reveals purpose of tourism (Bruyel-Olmedo and that Thai-English bilingualism is Juan-Garau, 2015; Moriarity, 2015), the promoted within the Faculty of Arts. A few preservation of minority languages (Lou, language departments have made attempts 2010), the marginalization or maintenance to establish their language in the public of ethnic identity (Kasanga, 2012; Manan, space while some languages appeared 2015), and the hegemony of English only on outsiders’ signs. The paper (Huebner, 2006), to name a few of its contributes to our understanding of applications. Studies have also focused on linguistic landscape research by pedagogical applications of linguistic investigating the degree to which landscape. For example, Cenoz and Gorter multilingualism is promoted via the (2008) investigate the role of linguistic landscape as language input in second 1 language acquisition. They point out the MA student, English as an International potential use of linguistic landscape as a Language Program of Graduate School at source of input through the broad Chulalongkorn University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Chulalongkorn functions of English language on University. commercial signs. A similar point of view 5 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 06:30:54AM via free access Multilingualism in the Linguistic Landscape can be seen in one local small-scale A common thread in these studies is the research project in Mexico by Sayer recognition of the utility of the linguistic (2009) who suggests ways to use the landscape in creating a language learning linguistic landscape as a pedagogical environment. These and other studies resource for EFL teachers. In his study, illustrate how linguistic landscape can be English language on signs was analyzed used as a pedagogical tool to provide a for its social meaning. It can be said that learning opportunity to language learners linguistic landscape provides an any time they see languages on public opportunity for both language teachers and signs. In this paper, Chulalongkorn learners to study language in a different University (hereafter CU) is the subject of way outside classroom. this study, with the focus on the Faculty of Arts, where one can study a number of Dagenais et al.(2009) also claims that foreign languages including English, linguistic landscape serves as “a heuristic” French, German, Russian, Italian, Chinese, for language learning. In other words, one Japanese, and Malay. It can therefore be can learn language as one moves through hypothesized that multilingual signs will the linguistic landscape of one’s be abundant in the linguistic landscape of environment. They focus on young the Faculty of Arts, since it is viewed as children’s perception of multilingual and the main nexus for language instruction at multimodal signs in their communities. To the university. sum up, the study of linguistic landscape takes a variety of forms (Cenoz and In this paper, special attention is given to Gorter, 2008; Dagenais et al., 2009), the distinction between signs made by highlighting the potential use of linguistic various official University, Faculty and landscape as a pedagogical tool. Department authorities on the one hand and by students, and outsiders on the The place where children encounter other. The study aims to investigate to linguistic landscapes most frequently is the what extent the various institutional school. Therefore, some researchers pay authorities of the Faculty of Arts, attention to the linguistic landscape found especially the language departments, in the school. Dressler (2015) examines promote multilingualism in the common the promotion of bilingualism of the areas of the faculty. German bilingual program in one elementary school through the linguistic Research Questions landscape, using a nexus analysis. In the 1) What languages can be found in the Thai context, Draper (2010) investigates linguistic landscape of the Faculty of student attitudes towards multilingual Arts? signs at Khon Kaen University located in 2) How is information presented in the Northeast of Thailand. The production multilingual signs? of these multilingual signs was motivated 3) To what extent is multilingualism by a goal of recognizing, preserving and promoted via the linguistic landscape developing the minority language, Isan, within the Faculty of Arts and by which is the vernacular spoken language whom? of local people in the Northeast. This study hopes to draw attention to the linguistic landscape in the Faculty of Arts, 13 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 06:30:54AM 2 via free access MANUSYA: Journal of Humanities, Special Issue No.22, 2016 where one expects to find a variety of available and highest number of students languages on display. Its contribution to enrolled in the course. the current trends in the field of applied linguistic is to provide insight into the In terms of number of courses available in kinds of input students are exposed to in a the first semester of academic year 2015, typical university language faculty. Japanese language was offered with the highest number, 29 courses, followed by 2. Preliminary Analysis English offering 26 courses, Chinese offering 20 courses, French and Spanish Before analyzing the data, I conducted a each offering 15 courses, and German preliminary analysis to examine the offering 13 courses. However, the number language courses offered to the of available courses was not an indicator undergraduate students in CU. The Faculty of the number of enrolled students of Arts provides courses in 21 languages, studying each language. English language which can be classified into three types: courses unsurprisingly turned out to have majors, minors, and elective language the highest number of enrolled students as courses. There are 11 languages offered as 1,358 students registered at that time. majors for students at the Faculty of Arts. Japanese ranked second with 1,161 It is noted that Thai language courses were students enrolled. The third rank was excluded from this study, resulting in ten Chinese (786 students), followed by languages offered for major language Spanish (383 students) and Korean (258 study. Five languages are offered as students). All of these languages are minors and the other five as elective offered as majors except Korean, which is language courses. English language is also offered only as minor language to the provided throughout the university by students at the Faculty of Arts. Chulalongkorn University Language Institute (CULI). Therefore, English 3. Methodology courses are offered by two separate entities - the Faculty of Arts, where the Drawing on Backhaus’s (2007) description students within the faculty are required to of multilingualism in Tokyo, the paper study English and others can select will cover three issues that were English as their minor or elective courses, considered important in assuring the and CULI, where non-Faculty of Arts validity of data collection: (1) the students are required to study English. geographic limits of the target area; (2) the unit of analysis; and (3) the definition of The study collected data on the number of multilingual signs. students enrolled in each Faculty of Arts language course via the university’s register The linguistic landscape in this paper is website (http://www.reg.chula.ac.th) on 20th the Faculty of Arts at CU in Thailand. October, 2015. The data revealed the There are two main buildings located in number of courses available in each the territory of the faculty. As language and the number of students geographical location marker for the enrolled in each course. The study focused determination of study areas, the paper on the top five ranked languages based on focused on the common areas in and the rank of highest number of courses outside the buildings which students are presumed to move through