Linguistic Landscape for (Foreign) Language Learning

In 2008 Cenoz & Gorter were the first to note that “the linguistic landscape can provide input for second language learners and it can be particularly interesting for the development of pragmatic competence” (p. 274). Their statement highlights issues that are central in the language education field: 1) considering language learning as part of language use, as a social action (Council of Europe, 2001); 2) exploring new ways to learn beyond the classroom (Nunan and Richards 2015) and in the wild of social interaction (Dubreil and Thorne 2017). Building on these issues and on the experience of Italian signs in the linguistic landscape in the cities around the world, the aim of the chapter is to explore the opportunities offered by linguistic landscape for foreign language learning.