GOALS
The current project aimed to reach the following objectives:
- Raise awareness of pre- and in-service teachers of English as well as the learners of English in terms of global citizenship-related issues.
- Present opportunities for teachers to enable their learners to discuss globalization-related themes including but not limited to global citizenship, linguistic diversity, translanguaging, and English as a lingua franca.
- Introduce the everyday LLs including commercial signs, government signs (e.g., street signs), storefronts, graffitis, advertisements, murals, and posted notices as ELT materials.
- Bridge the divide between languages used in course books and a variety of English language forms present at linguistic landscapes in the everyday life.
- Create an educational community where pre- and in-service teachers of English language can find open-access LL-based materials.
- Provide opportunities for learners to engage in meaningful real-world tasks, which are to contribute to their understanding of global citizenship in general, and more specifically the societal use of various English forms in both U.S. contexts and non-English spaces.
- Offer a space for the collection and publication of LL images for pedagogical use under Creative Commons licensing.
- Illustrate the different ways of using English language as cultural, economic, and linguistic resources in the public and private spaces, and transfer such dynamic resources to language teaching and learning contexts.
Image: Los Angeles, CA