The Virtual Landscape of German Language Learning and Teaching in Social Media

Authors

• Akra Chowchong

Publication Date

2024-08-27

Abstract

This paper aims to study the linguistic landscape in the virtual domain of online language instruction. It analyzes the various semiotic forms used by language teaching Facebook pages in their materials and advertisements. The corpus of the study consists of 10 Thai Facebook pages that teach German as a foreign language. The analysis includes 36 profile pictures, 59 cover photos and a total of 1,879 posts. The findings indicate that the majority of these pages predominantly use semiotic elements that index Germany when teaching or discussing German, despite the fact that German is also an official language in Austria and Switzerland. The most frequently found semiotic elements are images and emojis of the German national flag, as well as the black-red-gold colors that appear on the flag. This phenomenon reflects a widely held language ideology, namely the concept of "one language, one nation."

First Page

1

Last Page

24

Recommended Citation

Chowchong, Akra (2024) "The Virtual Landscape of German Language Learning and Teaching in Social Media," Journal of Letters: Vol. 53: Iss. 2, Article 2.
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/jletters/vol53/iss2/2