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This book explores how fan practices, such as fan art and fan fiction, and linguistic landscapes – the language surrounding us in everyday contexts – can be integrated into foreign language teaching through the innovative Fictional Linguistic Landscapes pedagogy. It offers practical models for educators to use multimodal fan activities to enhance second language learning, including designing semiotic landscapes, soundscapes, skinscapes and social mediascapes. Drawing on popular fictional universes like Dune, it illustrates how educators can utilize fan practices to foster deeper language learning, critical thinking and intercultural awareness. The result is an innovative pedagogical approach that blends entertainment, social media and popular culture with language learning in a way that promises to engage and inspire students. The book represents a step forward in EFL and TESOL pedagogy and demonstrates how theoretical advances can be used in ways that make language learning relevant to today’s students.
This is an innovative volume rich in creative teaching examples and material for language educators interested in bringing multimodal fan practices into their classes. By merging the boundaries of second language pedagogy and linguistic landscaping with popular fan practices found in the digital wilds, it addresses an often-raised concern by language teachers around the world: how to truly engage language students in reading, writing and thinking in the target language.
Solmaz's work outlines a unique and timely coming together of linguistic landscape research, fan practice research, and L2 pedagogy. Teachers and researchers will find in this book a cogent review of the literature and an innovative way to bridge the rich fictional worlds that already immerse learners with the new worlds and languages they are learning. It is exciting and inspiring to see how deeply learners can be engaged with language when they tap into the worlds beyond the classroom.
The book offers a seamless blend of theory and practice. Each chapter focuses on a central theme, explores it in depth, and concludes with a summary, allowing readers to engage with chapters individually [...] Although the primary aim of Fictional Linguistic Landscapes is to equip educators with a practical and imaginative framework for language teaching that promotes collaboration, creativity, and engagement while maintaining clear pedagogical structure and attention to linguistic development, the book also makes a broader theoretical contribution. By extending LL into fictional and fan-based domains, Solmaz offers scholars outside language education a valuable lens for examining how meaning, power, and identity are constructed, negotiated, and transformed across both real and imagined semiotic spaces.
Osman Solmaz is an Associate Professor of English Language Teaching at Dicle University, Türkiye, and holds a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona, USA. He is the recipient of the 2025 TESOL Teacher of the Year Award. His research explores language teacher education, linguistic landscapes, and the integration of digital technologies and fan practices into second language teaching and learning.
Illustrations
Chapter 1. Introduction: Navigating and Experiencing Realities through Fiction
Chapter 2. A Critical Review of Linguistic Landscapes in Second Language Teaching and Learning
Chapter 3. A Comprehensive Exploration of Fan Practices for Language Teaching and Learning
Chapter 4. Language Learners Designing Fannish Semiotic Landscapes for Frank Herbert’s 'Duniverse'
Chapter 5. Skinscapes and Fan Artworks as Multimodal Meaning-Making Literacy Practices in Language Classrooms
Chapter 6. Resonating through the Sands of Arrakis: Learners Socializing into Musical Fan Practices
Chapter 7. From Digital Fandom to Language Education: Leveraging Fan Practices within Social Mediascapes
Chapter 8. Leveraging Fictional Linguistic Landscapes in Teacher Education: Insights from Lesson Plan Analysis
Chapter 9. Conclusion, Key Insights and Implications for Research and Pedagogy
Appendices