Mister English: Oxford test of English

Mister English: Oxford test of English

Promotion of EFL certificates in Lleida

Authors: Amina Djabali, Maria Berzal and Anna Vadrí

Figure 1. Chosen Linguistic Landscape. Source: Picture taken by authors. (20/02/2020)

1. INTRODUCTION

Mister English is a well known English academy around Lleida, especially for students of all ages and school years who want to improve their use of the English language. There is only one academy, nonetheless, it works with several state-funded and semi-private primary schools from surrounding areas: Huesca and Lleida.
In this case, the advertisement of the academy is hung up in the corridors of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lleida (UdL), where foreign languages students assist to classes assist. The advertisement analyzed here includes the usage of two different languages: Catalan and English. Moreover, the language mostly used is Catalan. Nevertheless, English is much more remarkable since it is used for the titles of each section, as well as for the main title. Both of these languages are written with the Latin alphabet. Firstly, when it comes to the English language, we have examples such as “Oxford test of English”, a proficiency test known internationally. On the other hand, we can find sentences written in Catalan such as “examen adaptatiu al nivell” which gives the reader more detail according to the test.

2. CONTEXTUALISATION

This Linguistic Landscape is placed inside the faculty of Rectorat in Plaça de Víctor Siurana. This University is part of a neighbourhood known as Universitat (it is number 3 on the map, in Figure 1). In this neighbourhood there is a lot of movement of students because of the university and schools there are around. And also, we can appreciate the different cultures and languages that co-exist in the city, for example, Pakistanis, Romanians, Muslims, etc.

After analyzing the neighbourhood’s demographic profile, we have found that 75.84% of the people living in the area are Spanish nationals, and the 24.16% are foreign. Thus, the middle-class is more likely to live in this area than the migrant population (see Figure 3). The Universitat neighbourhood is not famous for tourists as Centre Històric, for instance. That is because in Universitat, as we already mentioned, it is more likely to be full of students.

The socio-economic profile is middle-class, as we already mentioned. The main reason for this is the number of student apartments around Rectorat, as well as bars, and other businesses and town council units(e.g. libraries, administrative units, primary schools, etc.). It is a highly busy and transited area, so we do not expect to find upper-class people residing there, because this profile tends to live in Ciutat Jardi, or quiet areas in Lleida.

Figure 2. Map of the neighbourhoods in Lleida. Source: Paeria (2011) https://www.gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de _Lerida.html

Figure 3. Number of Spanish and foreign citizens in Lleida according to neighbourhoods. Source: Paeria (2012) http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf

Figure 4. Streetview of Rectorat. Source: Google maps.

3. METHODOLOGY

For this project, we have used official demographic and socioeconomic city hall data and ethnographic participant observation, including picture-taking. We have chosen this token for two main reasons. Due to a current population lockdown due to the virus COVID–19 (see info here: https://web.gencat.cat/ca/coronavirus), (1), we were not able to walk around the city and chose a sign as the project’s instructions indicated. Thus, we went through old signs pictures we have previously token in UdL. Besides, (2), a member of our group, Maria D. Berzal, is currently working for the language school business Mr. English, the advert's creator.

We have not been able to analyze the variability of our token through a specific period due to the situation previously mentioned. However, the advert gains prominence just by accessing Rectorat’s building since it is hung up in a UdL corridor. Hence, we could only visit it one time but we are familiarized with its context and surrounding activity.

We noticed the token on the 20th of February 2020 at 10:45 p.m. and took a picture of it (the advert displayed in Figure 1). By the memory of the visit and our experience attending this university, we have observed that many of the people that pass by the token location are Catalan young students. Further, the sign also reaches a smaller percentage of exchange students that mainly come from China, South Korea, and Italy.

Furthermore, we consider our token follows a bottom-up policy. The poster is created by a local English academy advertising English courses. Hence, a commercial message is conveyed to persuade possible customers to sign up for these classes.

Figure 5. Google Maps Streetview screenshot of Mister English Academy in Lleida (see more: https://misterenglish.com.es/index.php/ca/).

Figure 6. Zoomed in Google Maps screenshot of Mister English Academy in Lleida. Notice the multimodal use of the colours of the UK flag.

The two main languages used are Catalan and English due to the nature of the commercial service it offers (see how the Academy sign and posters are written only in English in Figures 5 and 6, and how Catalan and English are blended though in a monoglossic manner that keeps each language separately in Figure 1). That language choice and the exclusion of Spanish in this token meets with Article 14 of the official regulation of the use of the Catalan language (2014) found in the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which declares Catalan as an official language in Catalonia and with Gorter (2006:5), as he states that there are language policies protecting minority languages. Hence, we can consider Spanish as the official non-state majority language, which actually has its first place in most social Catalan spaces. Thus, a “revitalisation of minority languages” (Gorter, 2006:1) through official language policies is important to preserve minority languages such as Catalan.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The token analyzed includes the usage of two different languages, Catalan and English. We believe this language choice aims to reach the largest range of people possible. In this case, we can link the usage of English with the advertisement's aim, which is the promotion of classes to prepare for official Oxford English exams. For this cause, the academy relies on 28 classrooms and more than 70 teachers. The reasoning behind the usage of Catalan could be to make sure the audience understands the sign in its whole. By this means, we understand that Catalan is the main language spoken around the ad’s area and also the language mostly understood by UdL students, therefore, the ad addresses the local population.

Moreover, we can also point out how the English words in the text (eg. "Why O.T.E.?") are written with different fonts and colours, making these more remarkable to the eyes of the public. Besides, a flag of the country of the UK is also used as part of their advertisement, a way to prove and show their professionality and efficiency. Hence, the multimodality used in the advertisement would only attract clients that are interested in learning English and providing more detailed information about this offer in a language spoken by everyone, which would be Catalan. Additionally, "A multimodal approach focuses on how meaningful combinations of written language, illustrations, photographs, diagrams, maps, layout and other modes of expression emerge in data visualizations." (Hippala, 2020).

On the other hand, according to the list of values from the European Landscape Convention provided by the "Landscape Observatory of Catalonia" we have noticed four different values, historical, identity and productive value.

The traces of historical value rendered by human activity can be directly related to our current society since they are engaged in the development of Lleida's history. “The concept of a Universal Language is more significant only now, in the era of world mass communication. Before this era Greek, Latin, French were to some extent universal languages, though mainly in Europe.” (Torres, 2015) but nowadays, English is a globalized language spoken worldwide and also used as a lingua franca, therefore its importance is higher than ever, making it one of the most demanded languages when it comes to language acquisition. Furthermore, “Often the English language [unsurprisingly, the most frequently used language for advertising in non-Englishspeaking countries] is used to associate a product with a social stereotype of modernity, progress and globalisation” (Eldelman & Gorter, 2010).

Secondly, we find identity value. The public interested in this advertisement could be civilians that have the need for improving their English language skills for educational or professional purposes, in other words, language-minded people. Since it is a universal language used globally, it is important to have a certain level of proficiency in different aspects of life.

Finally, this token is used to promote a business, hence the production value is the most distinctive one. Prices are mentioned in different parts of the text, such as where it says "Preu: 89€". Thereby, we can conclude that the prices are mentioned declaring that the token provides a service for financial benefits.

5. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Throughout this project, we have had the opportunity to become knowledge generations and to learn outside the walls of the classroom. Overall, we have taken an ethnographic approach to analyze a Linguistic Landscape from a sociolinguistic perspective. Therefore, we have found ourselves engaged in exciting active research of the linguistic context of a particular token of our city, Lleida. In this case, we chose a local English Academy advertising poster hung up at the University of Lleida corridor. 

Despite our limitations due to the current lockdown, we still have managed to retrieve pictures of the English Academy responsible for our chosen token. We used Google Maps, which is a well known online platform that has allowed us to get a glance at the street view of Mart street in Lleida (see figures 5 and 6). In fact, and as Prego-Vázquez and Zas Varela (2018:281) mention, technological tools can be indeed used for pedagogical purposes within a class –through ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) or TAC (Technologies for the Acquisition of knowledge), for instance.– 

In sum, we have seen how our chosen LL involved English and Catalan as its predominant language. We considered that despite the nature of the advert -to offer English classes-, the public targeted are local Catalan students. Thus, language choice has been premeditated for marketing purposes. A commercial sign aim is to reach as many people as possible, hence our token has the most important ideas highlighted and written in Catalan. We could deduce then that Catalan is the most predominant language used among the targeted clienthood (Catalan students). 

6. REFERENCES and WEBSOURCES

1. Edelman, L., & Gorter, D. (2010). Linguistic landscapes and the market. Language and the Market, 96-108.

2. Gorter, D. (2006). Introduction: The study of the linguistic landscape as a new approach to multilingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 1-6.

3. Hiippala, T. (2020). A multimodal perspective on data visualization. In Engebretsen M. &  Kennedy H. (Eds.), Data Visualization in Society (pp. 277-294). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

4. La Paeria (2019). Butlletí econòmic. Source from: http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf

5. Prego-Vázquez, G. & Zas Varela, L. (2018). Paisaje lingüístico: Un recurso TIC-TAC-TEP para el aula. Lingue Linguaggi 25: 277-295.

6. The European Landscape Convention (Florence, 2000). Retrieved from https://www.coe.int/en/web/landscape/the-european-landscape-convention

7. Torres, C. C. (2015). English as a universal language.