Keeping a Language Landscape Diary

How can you keep records of the language you find around you?

I've chosen a blog. It suits my preference for note writing, quick updates of photos, and a way to share ideas with a group.

Really, I already have more photographs of signs than time to jot down what I thought about them. But I can't remember everything a sign made me think at the time - so I feel that some form of daily record keeping and note taking is invaluable.

If you're keeping a similar record, then a blog is useful. You can set up a blog for you personally, or you can set up a blog with your students, and invite them to add their responses, comments and observations. Perhaps you upload photographs to get them talking? Or perhaps you ask your students to upload photos too? It probably depends on your students, their access to phones, computers, and so on.

But there are many other record-keeping approaches!

In the classroom, I can imagine creating a large 'wall map'. On this I'd draw out streets and locations under our analysis. I'd ask students to annotate it, and bring in photos of a particular language, or where signs are written in more than one language. We'd pin their photos to the wall map to see if clusters emerge over the course of study - more English in one street than a neighbouring street? More Spanish in this area? Only English here? It might spark ideas about who is using which spaces, or which people in which area are being addressed in what language... and that can start discussions about why language is distributed like this.

A large, shared class scrapbook might be a handy place to collate, by theme, items that students find in the home - labels, product guarantees, instruction books, fliers, leaflets, snatches of print from newspapers or advertising.

I would encourage students to carry their own 'eye-spy' record book too, a place for words and phrases they see around them. I'd ask them to write in this book in as they walk on the streets, pass by different sites or buildings, visit new locations, or map language use around their home.

When walking around the streets, I'd set the children working in pairs. If they have phones or other devices, it would be interesting to use voice or video recording to catch their responses. Take a short video to look at a sign, describe it, and record what they think, as they ask questions such as: Who is this sign for? Why is the language as it is? Who put it there? Is it a sign that will stay as part of my town? Or is it a sign 'on the move'? Capturing the immediacy of their inquiry by audio or video recording would be a helpful way of finding out what impact any sign has on people, and a lively way to bring back ideas to a classroom.

Back in the classroom, wall files, large envelopes, table-top containers, storage boxes, files, trays and drawers can all be used like post boxes to collate, categorise, and share examples of language use. Everyone can bring in an example on a daily basis - a photo, a written record, a piece of authentic material - dropping their example in the right box. It's a great way to help build up a resource bank of realia for use in any future activity, but also a lovely way to share individual resources for ongoing group discussion.

Once you start record-keeping of signs and language in the landscape, the possibilities can spin off in many directions. You could build a photomontage wall display of signage, for example. Exploring a border between art and language, choose a feature except the language to unite your signs. Perhaps one colour common to some photographs (red?), or a typeface (sans serif?), or capital letters (ONLY), or a punctuation mark (? !) or graphic device (decorative border). Then have students sort photos by the linking feature chosen. See what you notice about the language which emerges from each new grouping.

For private exploration, I might choose scrapbooks, log books, diaries, or talk into a hand-held audio recorder as I move about, recording my observations by theme or by date. Useful perhaps for ideas guided by psychogeography - exploring how your psychological state is affected by passing through a place. Seeing particular signs (legal signs, no access signs, prohibition signs, permission signs, food or coffee bar signs) all have an impact on our sense of selves - a personal diary is perhaps a way to collect your thoughts, responses, and questions.

But for now, for me, it's a blog! You're welcome to dip in and out and read around to see if you can take away ideas about your own record-keeping approaches.