Perspectives towards Schoolscapes in the Deep South of Thailand: A Case Study of Two Islamic Private Schools in Yala and Pattani

Abstract

This study was carried out in two private Islamic schools situated in the Deep South of Thailand with the purpose of investigating the languages employed on signs and obtaining perspectives of three different groups of participants: teachers, students, and administrators. The findings indicated that Thai and Malay were the most commonly used languages in the linguistic landscape of the schools. Thai was predominantly used on monolingual signs, while bilingual signs featured both Thai and Malay equally in both schools. Regarding multilingual signs, School A displayed a greater variety of languages in comparison to School B. Furthermore, the study revealed that bottom-up signs created by school insiders were more widespread than top-down signs generated by government entities. The utilization of the Malay language was also evident in both schools, with both the Arabic-derived Jawi and Latin-derived Rumi scripts used. In summary, this research underscores the significance of examining the linguistic landscape of educational institutions, especially in regions characterized by diverse linguistic backgrounds. The prominence of Thai and Malay in the schools emphasizes the requirement for language policies that endorse multilingualism and honor linguistic diversity. The dominance of bottom-up signs also implies the importance of giving space for school insiders to have a voice in shaping the linguistic landscape to promote a wide range of languages used on signs to support multilingual students.