The case of Sydney universities

Abstract Within the study of multilingualism, research using the lens of “linguistic landscapes” (LL) has caught the attention of sociolinguists by describing the make-up of urban centers and shedding light on issues of social justice and linguistic harmony. The current study aimed to determine if the language used in the public domain in the university context endorses a monolingual mindset, or whether it promotes multilingual ideologies. To accomplish this goal, photographic data was collected by exploring the physical campuses of two Australian universities in Sydney. By using discursive analysis in the context of LL methodologies, the following categories emerged from the data: (1) omnipresence of monolingual signage, (2) relatively high frequency of Asian languages and Arabic, (3) Westernization and/or commodification of Indigenous languages, (4) symbolic use of university space, (5) differences between top-down and bottom-up messages, and (6) display of information about health issues. These findings suggest the pervasiveness of a monolingual mindset in university campuses in Sydney, despite nascent attempts to incorporate messages in languages other than English in the public domain.