Xiaofang Yao
Biographic Data
| ID | 3650425 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Xiaofang Yao |
| GIVEN NAMES | Xiaofang |
| FAMILY NAME | Yao |
| SIGNATURE | YAO X |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7980-5391 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Linguistic Landscapes
Translanguaging in the linguistic landscape
This paper focuses on the creative scripts in handwritten signs as part of the ‘linguistic landscape’ created by high school students of Yi ethnicity in Liangshan, China. It investigates the translanguaging practices of ethnic minority students and language teachers’ attitudes towards these sociolinguistic realities. It was found that Yi students adopted a wide range of translanguaging strategies such as trans-scripting, trans-modal writing, and …
Missing the human touch
Existing research suggests that machine translations of literary texts remain unsatisfactory. Such quality assessment often relies on automated metrics and subjective human ratings, with little attention to the stylistic features of machine translation. Current understanding is limited regarding the extent to which AI may transform the literary translation landscape, with implications for other critical domains for translation such as the creativ…
Deepening the data divide
This paper investigates open public data and data sharing reforms in Australia (2018–2022) and their potential role in deepening the ‘data divide’. In the contemporary datafied welfare state, open public data and data sharing are increasingly vexed issues in times of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI). We scrutinise public consultation surrounding the establishment of the Australian Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022 (DAT Act). Thr…
Tourism, commodification of Dongba script and perceptions of the Naxi minority in the linguistic landscape of Lijiang
Ongoing debates in the field of sociolinguistics are centred around the implications of the commodification of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities. Previous research has adopted synchronic approaches to describing how ideologies of tourist consumption shape language choices in the linguistic landscape. However, such snapshot analyses have proved to be inadequate in revealing changes in the linguistic landscape over time, especially th…
Implicit language policy in ethnic minority migrant community in urban China
Stylization of history and heritage commodification
Commodification or shared ownership? A case study of Chinese communities in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo
Current linguistic landscape studies of tourism are primarily concerned with the commodification of languages, and less attention is focused on ownership discourses that are constructed in tourist spaces through varied semiotic resources. This study employs a spatial perspective to analyse commodification and ownership in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, focusing on how these discourses materialise in the conceived, perce…
Crossing borders
This issue builds on sociolinguistic research on indigenous languages, visual and auditory semiotics, material ethnography, and multicultural practices to develop a nuanced understanding of linguistic landscapes in the Asia Pacific context. The contributions to this issue, from Vanuatu to Hong Kong, disrupt the boundaries between the rural and the urban, the linguistic and the semiotic, the powerful and the marginal
Claire Kramsch
In 2020 amidst the COVID-19 crisis, and in the final year of Donald Trump’s tumultuous Presidency, a group of Australian applied linguists met weekly via Zoom to discuss Claire Kramsch’s latest book, Language as Symbolic Power. As linguistics and language educators, we were a close fit for the book’s intended audience. Our weekly interactions, our unresolved questions, our resistances were distilled in a weekly e-mail to the author, provoking gen…
Power through the semiotic landscape
The aim of this paper is to advance an understanding of power in linguistic landscape research. After setting out and discussing the concepts of ‘power over’, ‘power to’ and ‘power through’, we present a case study of Chinese semiotic assemblages in the Australian regional city of Bendigo. Our research includes ethnographic details of the processes of sign production and consumption, and illustrates the ways in which power relations have been exp…
Leisure Lives and Children’s Play
Work and leisure occupy two ends of a continuum. How work and leisure are organized pertains to ideologies and a sense of who we are. For example, in our current times, upper-/middle-class children’s leisure is frequently regulated and supervised, known as “concerted cultivation.” In contrast, “the achievement of natural growth” refers to working children spending their free time with minimum adult supervision. Likewise, two ideals regarding leis…
Developing data capability with non-profit organisations using participatory methods
In this paper, we explore the methodologies underpinning two participatory research collaborations with Australian non-profit organisations that aimed to build data capability and social benefit in data use. We suggest that studying and intervening in data practices in situ, that is, in organisational data settings expands opportunities for improving the social value of data. These situated and collaborative approaches not only address the 'exper…
Metrolingualism in online linguistic landscapes
The field of linguistic landscape has rarely engaged with the growing number of metrolingual practices brought about by online digital spaces. This paper examines the online linguistic landscape of social media platforms, which presents a spatial repertoire of innovative semiotic affordances. Adopting an online ethnographic approach consisting of screenshots of WeChat Moment posts and semi-structured interviews and drawing on the researcher’s eth…
Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the Covid-19 semiotic landscape
This study investigates the role of linguistic and semiotic resources in the construction of exclusionary discourses amidst the COVID-19 semiotic landscape. Drawing on systematic observations of and engagement with Weibo and Twitter from February 2020 to April 2021, the paper adopts a geosemiotic perspective and analyses social media posts as publicly displayed language items. This study’s findings suggest that exclusion is embedded in perpetual …
A layered investigation of Chinese in the linguistic landscape
Increased attention to urban diversity as a site of study has fostered the recent development of linguistic landscape studies. To date, however, much of the research in this area has concerned the use and spread of English to the exclusion of other global languages. In a case study situated in Box Hill, a large suburb of Melbourne, we adopted a layered approach to investigate the role of Chinese language in Australia. Our data set consisted of hu…
Language and Subjectivity Tim McNamara (2019)
Language and Subjectivity Tim McNamara (2019)
Material narration of nostalgia
The issue of affect in linguistic landscapes has rarely been addressed, especially regarding the material narration of nostalgia in the rural context. In this article, I present an investigation of the linguistic landscape of a rural township in Victoria, Australia to reveal how nostalgia is ordered, narrated and accomplished by means of situated material semiotic artefacts. The study is based on ethnographic data collected through photographs, i…
Posthumanist applied linguistics
Material narration of nostalgia
The issue of affect in linguistic landscapes has rarely been addressed, especially regarding the material narration of nostalgia in the rural context. In this article, I present an investigation of the linguistic landscape of a rural township in Victoria, Australia to reveal how nostalgia is ordered, narrated and accomplished by means of situated material semiotic artefacts. The study is based on ethnographic data collected through photographs, i…
Stylization of history and heritage commodification
Metrolingualism in online linguistic landscapes
The field of linguistic landscape has rarely engaged with the growing number of metrolingual practices brought about by online digital spaces. This paper examines the online linguistic landscape of social media platforms, which presents a spatial repertoire of innovative semiotic affordances. Adopting an online ethnographic approach consisting of screenshots of WeChat Moment posts and semi-structured interviews and drawing on the researcher’s eth…
Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the Covid-19 semiotic landscape
This study investigates the role of linguistic and semiotic resources in the construction of exclusionary discourses amidst the COVID-19 semiotic landscape. Drawing on systematic observations of and engagement with Weibo and Twitter from February 2020 to April 2021, the paper adopts a geosemiotic perspective and analyses social media posts as publicly displayed language items. This study’s findings suggest that exclusion is embedded in perpetual …
Implicit language policy in ethnic minority migrant community in urban China
Developing data capability with non-profit organisations using participatory methods
In this paper, we explore the methodologies underpinning two participatory research collaborations with Australian non-profit organisations that aimed to build data capability and social benefit in data use. We suggest that studying and intervening in data practices in situ, that is, in organisational data settings expands opportunities for improving the social value of data. These situated and collaborative approaches not only address the 'exper…
Power through the semiotic landscape
The aim of this paper is to advance an understanding of power in linguistic landscape research. After setting out and discussing the concepts of ‘power over’, ‘power to’ and ‘power through’, we present a case study of Chinese semiotic assemblages in the Australian regional city of Bendigo. Our research includes ethnographic details of the processes of sign production and consumption, and illustrates the ways in which power relations have been exp…
Leisure Lives and Children’s Play
Work and leisure occupy two ends of a continuum. How work and leisure are organized pertains to ideologies and a sense of who we are. For example, in our current times, upper-/middle-class children’s leisure is frequently regulated and supervised, known as “concerted cultivation.” In contrast, “the achievement of natural growth” refers to working children spending their free time with minimum adult supervision. Likewise, two ideals regarding leis…
A layered investigation of Chinese in the linguistic landscape
Increased attention to urban diversity as a site of study has fostered the recent development of linguistic landscape studies. To date, however, much of the research in this area has concerned the use and spread of English to the exclusion of other global languages. In a case study situated in Box Hill, a large suburb of Melbourne, we adopted a layered approach to investigate the role of Chinese language in Australia. Our data set consisted of hu…
Language and Subjectivity Tim McNamara (2019)
Language and Subjectivity Tim McNamara (2019)
Material narration of nostalgia
The issue of affect in linguistic landscapes has rarely been addressed, especially regarding the material narration of nostalgia in the rural context. In this article, I present an investigation of the linguistic landscape of a rural township in Victoria, Australia to reveal how nostalgia is ordered, narrated and accomplished by means of situated material semiotic artefacts. The study is based on ethnographic data collected through photographs, i…
Posthumanist applied linguistics
Metrolingualism in online linguistic landscapes
The field of linguistic landscape has rarely engaged with the growing number of metrolingual practices brought about by online digital spaces. This paper examines the online linguistic landscape of social media platforms, which presents a spatial repertoire of innovative semiotic affordances. Adopting an online ethnographic approach consisting of screenshots of WeChat Moment posts and semi-structured interviews and drawing on the researcher’s eth…
Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the Covid-19 semiotic landscape
This study investigates the role of linguistic and semiotic resources in the construction of exclusionary discourses amidst the COVID-19 semiotic landscape. Drawing on systematic observations of and engagement with Weibo and Twitter from February 2020 to April 2021, the paper adopts a geosemiotic perspective and analyses social media posts as publicly displayed language items. This study’s findings suggest that exclusion is embedded in perpetual …
Claire Kramsch
In 2020 amidst the COVID-19 crisis, and in the final year of Donald Trump’s tumultuous Presidency, a group of Australian applied linguists met weekly via Zoom to discuss Claire Kramsch’s latest book, Language as Symbolic Power. As linguistics and language educators, we were a close fit for the book’s intended audience. Our weekly interactions, our unresolved questions, our resistances were distilled in a weekly e-mail to the author, provoking gen…
Power through the semiotic landscape
The aim of this paper is to advance an understanding of power in linguistic landscape research. After setting out and discussing the concepts of ‘power over’, ‘power to’ and ‘power through’, we present a case study of Chinese semiotic assemblages in the Australian regional city of Bendigo. Our research includes ethnographic details of the processes of sign production and consumption, and illustrates the ways in which power relations have been exp…
Leisure Lives and Children’s Play
Work and leisure occupy two ends of a continuum. How work and leisure are organized pertains to ideologies and a sense of who we are. For example, in our current times, upper-/middle-class children’s leisure is frequently regulated and supervised, known as “concerted cultivation.” In contrast, “the achievement of natural growth” refers to working children spending their free time with minimum adult supervision. Likewise, two ideals regarding leis…
Developing data capability with non-profit organisations using participatory methods
In this paper, we explore the methodologies underpinning two participatory research collaborations with Australian non-profit organisations that aimed to build data capability and social benefit in data use. We suggest that studying and intervening in data practices in situ, that is, in organisational data settings expands opportunities for improving the social value of data. These situated and collaborative approaches not only address the 'exper…
Commodification or shared ownership? A case study of Chinese communities in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo
Current linguistic landscape studies of tourism are primarily concerned with the commodification of languages, and less attention is focused on ownership discourses that are constructed in tourist spaces through varied semiotic resources. This study employs a spatial perspective to analyse commodification and ownership in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, focusing on how these discourses materialise in the conceived, perce…
Crossing borders
This issue builds on sociolinguistic research on indigenous languages, visual and auditory semiotics, material ethnography, and multicultural practices to develop a nuanced understanding of linguistic landscapes in the Asia Pacific context. The contributions to this issue, from Vanuatu to Hong Kong, disrupt the boundaries between the rural and the urban, the linguistic and the semiotic, the powerful and the marginal
Tourism, commodification of Dongba script and perceptions of the Naxi minority in the linguistic landscape of Lijiang
Ongoing debates in the field of sociolinguistics are centred around the implications of the commodification of the languages and cultures of ethnic minorities. Previous research has adopted synchronic approaches to describing how ideologies of tourist consumption shape language choices in the linguistic landscape. However, such snapshot analyses have proved to be inadequate in revealing changes in the linguistic landscape over time, especially th…
Implicit language policy in ethnic minority migrant community in urban China
Stylization of history and heritage commodification
Translanguaging in the linguistic landscape
This paper focuses on the creative scripts in handwritten signs as part of the ‘linguistic landscape’ created by high school students of Yi ethnicity in Liangshan, China. It investigates the translanguaging practices of ethnic minority students and language teachers’ attitudes towards these sociolinguistic realities. It was found that Yi students adopted a wide range of translanguaging strategies such as trans-scripting, trans-modal writing, and …
Missing the human touch
Existing research suggests that machine translations of literary texts remain unsatisfactory. Such quality assessment often relies on automated metrics and subjective human ratings, with little attention to the stylistic features of machine translation. Current understanding is limited regarding the extent to which AI may transform the literary translation landscape, with implications for other critical domains for translation such as the creativ…
Deepening the data divide
This paper investigates open public data and data sharing reforms in Australia (2018–2022) and their potential role in deepening the ‘data divide’. In the contemporary datafied welfare state, open public data and data sharing are increasingly vexed issues in times of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI). We scrutinise public consultation surrounding the establishment of the Australian Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022 (DAT Act). Thr…
Linguistic Landscapes
Sociology (17 works) · Linguistics (14 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Semiotics (7 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works)