English in Asian Linguistic Landscapes

Linguistic landscape research is a rapidly evolving area of study which draws on
a range of disciplines and theoretical backgrounds and utilizes a wide range of
research methodologies. The field of linguistic landscapes can be traced back to
Spolsky and Cooper’s (1991) study of signage in Jerusalem, but the popularity of
linguistic landscapes as a field of inquiry in applied linguistics, multilingualism,
and sociolinguistics is of a much more recent origin (Coulmas, 2009). A seminal
article by Landry and Bourhis (1997) defined linguistic landscape research as
“[the] language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place
names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (p. 25).