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Representation of the Spanish language in the virtual linguistic landscape of university websites in Australia

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de la Frontera
Published online: 20 March 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.24074.tor
Abstract
Although it can be argued that the language of the internet is English, the portrayal of other languages in virtual academic settings such as university websites may face constraints related to institutional and monolingual policies. Thus, this research adopts a linguistic landscape perspective to explore the representation of the Spanish language and culture in Australian university websites. In particular, it focuses on how Spanish language/studies programs or courses are portrayed and what meanings are conveyed in the virtual linguistic landscape of four Sydney universities. This paper applies a social-semiotic, multimodal analysis to explore the hierarchical organization of information on universities’ websites and webpages and the meanings conveyed by the designers in relation to the semiotic resources selected to promote Spanish language/studies programs or courses. The study concludes that only two of the studied webpages attempt to portray Spanish language/studies programs or courses fully multimodally, one uses text and video, and the last relies solely on written text to convey meanings. These choices may have ideological implications because these institutions fail in their attempt to represent Spanish as a pluricentric language. Additionally, these programs/courses are disadvantageously positioned in the hierarchical organization of information on the four analyzed websites, which makes it harder for potential students to find relevant content about these programs/courses.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A description of the virtual linguistic landscape of HE websites
    • 2.1Signage in virtual linguistic landscapes and language ideologies
    • 2.2A social semiotic multimodal analysis of the VLL of HE Websites
    • 2.3Spanish as a Foreign Language in Australia
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1How are the Spanish language/studies programs or courses portrayed multimodally on the webpages of four Sydney universities?
      • 4.1.1Purpose of webpages
      • 4.1.2Ideational meanings
        • 4.1.2.1Scope
        • 4.1.2.2Type
        • 4.1.2.3Explicitness
      • 4.1.3Interpersonal meanings
      • 4.1.4Textual meanings
    • 4.2How are Spanish language/studies programs or courses positioned in relation to the hierarchical organization of information on the webpages of four Sydney universities?
      • 4.2.1Website hierarchy and user orientation
      • 4.2.2Homepages as English-only portraits
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Disclosure statement
  • Statement on the use of AI
  • References
References (76)
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