‘Our Mission Is to Transform Your Life’: The Online Linguistic Landscape of Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Location
SU-003
Start Date
2-5-2025 10:30 AM
Department
Linguistics
Abstract
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) consistently use English within the online linguistic landscape (OLL), unavoidably presenting the academic community as an institution of monolingual English speakers when twenty-five percent of the student population at HSIs identify as Hispanic. Seventy-five percent of U.S. Hispanics use Spanish conversationally and eighty-five percent report the importance of future Hispanic generations to speak Spanish (Mora & Lopez, 2023). Linguistic landscapes aim to identify the geographical territory markers that discern distinctive language communities (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). Extending a physical landscape to the production of online communities, Ní Dhonnacha and Wade (2020) expand the term ‘territory’ to examine language in virtual settings or ‘online linguistic landscapes’ (Androutsopoulos, 42). I examine how language signs in the OLL represent HSIs as they are understood in literal and representational contexts, exploring the process of identity formation through language and communication, also known as ‘discursive construction’ of the HSI terrestrial spaces found online (Gorter, 1; Androutsopoulos, 452). As a literal and representational space, does an HSI website adequately reflect Hispanic students? I also ask how does an HSI aim to serve its students (García & Zaragoza, 2020)? By examining twenty HSIs of the southeastern United States, I demonstrate English as the monolingual force in multilingual institutions; their online semiotic landscape lacking minority language representation. I offer proposals for recontextualizing OLLs that can create opportunities for intercultural, affective learning (Malinowski, 237) through methodological innovations (Troyer & Szabó) and reimagination of virtual signs to accurately reflect and serve students attending HSIs (Gorter & Cenoz,182).
Faculty Sponsor
Richard Hallett
‘Our Mission Is to Transform Your Life’: The Online Linguistic Landscape of Hispanic-Serving Institutions
SU-003
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) consistently use English within the online linguistic landscape (OLL), unavoidably presenting the academic community as an institution of monolingual English speakers when twenty-five percent of the student population at HSIs identify as Hispanic. Seventy-five percent of U.S. Hispanics use Spanish conversationally and eighty-five percent report the importance of future Hispanic generations to speak Spanish (Mora & Lopez, 2023). Linguistic landscapes aim to identify the geographical territory markers that discern distinctive language communities (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). Extending a physical landscape to the production of online communities, Ní Dhonnacha and Wade (2020) expand the term ‘territory’ to examine language in virtual settings or ‘online linguistic landscapes’ (Androutsopoulos, 42). I examine how language signs in the OLL represent HSIs as they are understood in literal and representational contexts, exploring the process of identity formation through language and communication, also known as ‘discursive construction’ of the HSI terrestrial spaces found online (Gorter, 1; Androutsopoulos, 452). As a literal and representational space, does an HSI website adequately reflect Hispanic students? I also ask how does an HSI aim to serve its students (García & Zaragoza, 2020)? By examining twenty HSIs of the southeastern United States, I demonstrate English as the monolingual force in multilingual institutions; their online semiotic landscape lacking minority language representation. I offer proposals for recontextualizing OLLs that can create opportunities for intercultural, affective learning (Malinowski, 237) through methodological innovations (Troyer & Szabó) and reimagination of virtual signs to accurately reflect and serve students attending HSIs (Gorter & Cenoz,182).