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

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

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, 2013; Landry & Bourhis, 1997; 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, Pivneva, & Titone, 2016) and the scene viewing literature (e.g., Henderson & Ferreira, 2004), 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.

Keywords: linguistic landscape, eye tracking, bilingualism, visual attention, Montréal
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
Published online: 19 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.17014.vin
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