THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF A SOUTHERN JORDANIAN CITY: EXPLORING SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF THE USE OF ENGLISH ON STOREFRONTS

Abstract

The article examines sociolinguistic aspects of the use of English on shopfronts in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Tafila, in Jordan. To attain this goal, a corpus of 143 signs on a wide range of shopfronts was gleaned from the LL, including food stores (e.g. supermarkets, butcher’s shops, and grocery shops) and restaurants, mobile stores and bookshops, fashion stores, and others (commercial banks, pharmacies, and coffee shop corners). In addition, 25 interviews were conducted to identify the opinions and perceptions of Tafila Technical University English department students about the use of English in the LL of Tafila. The results indicate that English is not highly represented on shopfronts. This can be due to the economic, industrial, cultural, and educational marginalisation of the city. The same is true of the demographic structure of the population, which explains why English is minimally used on commercial signs.