A Study of the Linguistic Landscape of a Hungarian University That Is Going International

The study of the linguistic landscape is a key area for mapping the linguistic and cultural characteristics of university campuses. This attention is manifest in the language choice employed in the signage on campus, which serves as a physical indicator of these institutions’ linguistic policies and practices. The following paper will present a multi-faculty study conducted at Széchenyi István University in Hungary. The objective of this research is to address the question of how internationalization is explicitly manifested in the institution. A further aim of this investigation was to determine to what extent foreign languages, especially English and German, are represented in the texts found at the university, and what functions these texts perform. Therefore, mixed-method research was conducted in the university’s central academic buildings and their immediate surroundings, during which photos of the signage were taken, analysed, and systematically categorized. This research yielded a comprehensive understanding of the university’s linguistic landscape and revealed the lack of a coherent foreign language policy at the university. The results can provide relevant information for consciously (re)designing the linguistic landscape of the university studied and can help other universities to plan their language policies.