THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF RAMALLAH, PALESTINE: A CASE STUDY OF ANALYSING THE DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH VS. ARABIC AS L1 IN THE MAIN STREET OF THE CITY
THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF RAMALLAH, PALESTINE: A CASE STUDY OF ANALYSING THE DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH VS. ARABIC AS L1 IN THE MAIN STREET OF THE CITY

Summary/Abstract: The study investigates whether the Linguistic Landscape (LL) in the main street of Ramallah, Palestine should be considered a situational variable of the English language in the country or a treat-like variable and exclusive to this city. The analysed data include over 519 pictures of signage so as to determine the number of languages used on the signs, the signs genre, their taxonomies, and the number of languages. Findings evince that there are significant differences between language policies and the street reality. The linguistic landscape in the street is not abided by the official language policy regarding the state language (Arabic) nor does it employ any minority language. The results of the study may contribute to ameliorating the situation through the policymakers to rectify the state language status. Further studies are expected to arrive upon other factors that influenced the status quo.

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