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Article published In: Methodology in Linguistic Landscape Research
Edited by Robert Blackwood
[Linguistic Landscape 3:3] 2017
► pp. 226–245

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Using eye tracking to investigate what bilinguals notice about linguistic landscape images

A preliminary study

 | Department of Psychology, McGill University | Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
 | Department of Psychology, McGill University | Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute | Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
 | Department of Psychology, McGill University
 | English Department, University of Freiburg
 | Department of Psychology, McGill University | Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
Published online: 19 January 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.17014.vin
Abstract
In daily life, we experience dynamic visual input referred to as the “linguistic landscape” (LL), comprised of images and text, for example, signs, and billboards (Gorter, D. (2013). Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 331, 190–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Shohamy, Ben-Rafael and Barni 2010). While much is known about LLs descriptively, less is known about what people notice when viewing LLs. Building upon the bilingual eye movement reading literature (e.g., Whitford, V., Pivneva, I., & Titone, D. (2016). Eye movement methods to investigate bilingual reading. In R. Heredia, J. Altarriba & A. Cieslicka (Eds.), Methods in Bilingual Reading Comprehension Research (pp. 183–211). Springer New York. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and the scene viewing literature (e.g., Henderson, J. M., & Ferreira, F. (2004). Scene perception for psycholinguists. In J. M. Henderson and F. Ferreira (Eds.), The interface of language, vision, and action: Eye movements and the visual world. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), we report a preliminary study of French-English bilinguals’ eye movements as they viewed LL images from Montréal. These preliminary data suggest that eye tracking is a promising new method for investigating how people with different language backgrounds process real-world LL images.
Français
Au quotidien, nous traitons les informations contenues dans notre « paysage linguistique » (PL), composé de l’ensemble des textes et objets de notre entourage (signalisation, publicité). Dans les villes à population bilingue, comme Montréal, la représentation des différentes langues dans le PL est influencée par des lois linguistiques, mais aussi par les préférences et l’identité linguistique des habitants. Ce phénomène a déjà fait l’objet de plusieurs études sociolinguistiques, mais peu de travaux se sont penchés sur le traitement cognitif du PL et sur la manière dont les différentes langues présentes sont traitées. Notre étude recourt à l’oculométrie afin d’étudier le traitement d’un échantillon d’images représentant des PL bilingues. Nos résultats préliminaires suggèrent que les proportions de fixation reflètent le profil linguistique des participants (L1, expérience en L1 et L2). Ainsi, les bilingues reviennent plus souvent sur le texte lorsque les PL contiennent du texte écrit dans leur langue seconde (L2) que du texte dans leur langue maternelle (L1). Dans les images bilingues, les lecteurs fixent d’abord le texte le plus saillant (en français) avant de fixer le texte en anglais, et la durée de la deuxième fixation varie selon la L1 des participants. Ces résultats prometteurs nous permettront de développer des procédures oculométriques afin d’étudier le traitement du PL de manière plus efficace.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A preliminary eye tracking study of how bilinguals view LL images
    • 2.1Methods
      • 2.1.1Participants
      • 2.1.2Materials
      • 2.1.3Procedure
    • 2.2Results
      • 2.2.1Question 1: How do bilinguals differentially view L1 text, L2 text, and objects when viewing unilingual, semi-matched LL images?
      • 2.2.2Discussion of Question 1
      • 2.3.1Question 2: How do bilinguals differentially view L1 text, L2 text, and objects when viewing mixed language (i.e., multilingual) LL images?
      • 2.3.2Discussion of Question 2
  • 3.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note
  • References
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