Capturing Social Issues Through Signs: Linguistic Landscape in Great Malang Schools, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the signs associated with social issues in school spaces by using the Linguistic Landscape approach. Data were obtained from 10 public and private schools in Great Malang, Indonesia through photography. The study reports several findings, namely (1) Indonesian schools are monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual with the dominant use of Bahasa, English, Arabic and Javanese, (2) phrases and clauses dominate the appearance of data in linguistic aspects, compared to words. Therefore, they are very effective in mediating messages conveyed in signs, (3) it comprises of eight themes, namely environment, juvenile delinquency, health, discipline, motivation, attitude and behavior, religion, and nationalism, (4) there are 9 out of 18 values of character education, namely hard work, creative, discipline, national spirit, religious, honest, environmental care, reading hobby, and love for peace. In conclusion, Bahasa Indonesia is associated with the symbol of nationalism and language policy, where English, Arabic and Javanese symbolize modernization, Islam, and the local culture, respectively. Furthermore, the themes and values of character education that emerge represent the conditions of the problems faced by students. This finding suggest education through signs, evoke perceptions and attitudes which is used to strengthen character education in schools to solve social problems.

MODERATE EDUCATION: Overcoming Juvenile Delinquency through the Implementation of Pesantren Character Education in Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo Junior High School

“…Character education, including religious character values and citizenship education, has been recognized as a crucial element in preventing juvenile delinquency. 12 The implementation of religious character education, supported by adherence to discipline and self-awareness in religion, has shown positive results in terms of academic performance and self-awareness. 13 Moreover, the study on strengthening students' character through TPACK-based learning emphasizes the immediate need for character building at all levels of education to address the rise in juvenile delinquency cases.…”

A Panorama of Linguistic Landscape Studies

“…Other different survey areas, or research sites, have been chosen for linguistic landscape work, for example, shopping malls (Akindele, 2011;Trumper-Hecht, 2009), airports (Blackwood, 2019;Cunningham & King, 2021;Woo & Riget, 2022), markets (Choksi, 2015;Gorter et al, 2021;Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015;Ramos Pellicia, 2021), museums Xiao & Lee, 2019), monuments (Huebner & Phoocharoensil, 2017;Shohamy & Waksman, 2009), hospitals (Sumarlam et al, 2020a;Wroblewski, 2020) and restaurants (Abas, 2019;Xu & Wang, 2021). Unsurprisingly for academic researchers, universities and campuses (Adekunle et al, 2019;Debras, 2019;Jocuns, 2019Jocuns, , 2021Milani, 2013a) and various other educational institutions are popular survey areas (see Chapter 10).…”

“…She observed that Indonesian was more used for products for people of lower or middle classes and English more for luxury products, concluding that both languages have their own readership. In a study of hospitals and health clinics in Malang, a city of over 800,000 inhabitants in central Java, Sumarlam et al (2020a) found that Indonesian dominates in the names, followed at a distance by English and a few institutions have added other languages to the name (n = 211). The authors concluded, 'language plays an important role in forming a positive image' (Sumarlam et al, 2020a(Sumarlam et al, : 2624.…”

“…In a study of hospitals and health clinics in Malang, a city of over 800,000 inhabitants in central Java, Sumarlam et al (2020a) found that Indonesian dominates in the names, followed at a distance by English and a few institutions have added other languages to the name (n = 211). The authors concluded, 'language plays an important role in forming a positive image' (Sumarlam et al, 2020a(Sumarlam et al, : 2624. In another study in the same city (Sumarlam et al, 2020b), a similar pattern was found for the use of languages on signs of halal food stalls and restaurants (n = 503).…”