Linguistic Schoolscapes as the Resource for Teaching and Learning English in an Indonesian Islamic Boarding School

Abstract

All visible signs in public spaces, or linguistic schoolscapes, can be a potential resource for teaching and learning English. However, its classroom integration is still an uncommon practice and both teachers and students are still unfamiliar with such pedagogical potential. This case study examines the perspective of teachers and students regarding the use of linguistic schoolscapes as a resource for teaching and learning English in an Indonesian Islamic boarding school. There were 316 linguistic schoolscapes collected from the school that were categorized thematically based on 1) the physical, 2) political, and 3) experiential dimension. Three teachers and three students were also interviewed. The findings showed that the percentage of English used in monolingual is 21.3 %, bilingual is 67.5 %, and multilingual is 86.4%. Politically, English was the second language to be used frequently at the linguistic schoolcapes after Indonesian because English is one of language program in this boarding. However, in practice, boarding school teachers continue to instruct using the modules they have and they hardly ever use LS in the boarding school environment as a teaching tool. Meanwhile, LS serves as a learning tool to help students expand their vocabulary. These findings suggest the need for teacher professional development that focuses on the integration of LS in Indonesian ELT classroom and the need to have more LS in English as it provides exposure to English language use for students. Further pedagogical and theoretical implication will also be discussed.