Engaging the city: Language, space, and indentity in urban environments

Abstract

Cities bring together a great diversity of people and cultures and constitute the backdrop for many of the sociocultural processes shaping the new century. Yet urban spaces are not just the product of urban design and architectural concepts. They are also constructed, appropriated, and given meaning through the social and linguistic interactions of the people who inhabit them, in other words, at the confluence between language and space. The languages of the city are in a dynamic relationship with the urban spaces where they occur. In this chapter, we discuss current developments in language pedagogy and connect them with the recent literature on social pedagogies and spatial analysis. We first explore their potential to serve as a bridge between formal language classroom instruction and motivated, purposeful engagement with language usage beyond the classroom and then reflect on how place-based curricular offerings can help language programs connect with the other disciplines that also study and engage with the city. We end by highlighting opportunities for building communities of practice within and outside the classroom and offering suggestions for incorporating principles, tools, and techniques to help L2 learners connect with the evolving nature of the modern multilingual and multicultural global city.