English Language’s Position in Multilingual Advertisements in the Coffee Capital of the Philippines

Abstract

This paper aims to show the English language position in the multilingual advertisements or in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Amadeo, a segregated town in the Southern Tagalog, province of Cavite, Philippines. Considered as the coffee capital, the LL is examined in the light of the town’s multilingual language situation, and its ongoing economic challenges. The study covers 14 barangays as shape by ‘top down’ and ‘bottom-up’ forces in the context of the complex relationship among the languages used and the representation in the chosen coffee-related. Since English has been shown to be the most frequently used foreign language of the town especially in product advertisements, the researcher then goes on to define the degree of English language visibility, diversity, and its position in the labelling of store signs, coffee products, and emblematic structures in Amadeo’s LL. Using Sebba’s framework, it covers the grammatical, genre-specific, and visual/spatial units of a multilingual text. An extensive documentation of LL items was determined by frequency count. The results of the frequency count for each unit are reflected in the coding chart created. The English language’s informative and symbolic functions in the LL serve to communicate the coffee products’ essential features and details that make them entice for educated local and foreign tourists, while at the same time, exuding modernity, sophistication, and globalness. It is concluded that the town’s economy and tourism are the main forces that determine the spatial practice, symbolic construction, and language ideology of Amadeo as the coffee capital in Philippines.