English as a lingua franca in the linguistic landscape of Hoan Kiem lake tourism spots in Ha Noi

Abstract

Along with the globalization and the improvement of international free trade, English has played the role of the lingua franca worldwide. Especially in tourism industry, English is alleged to be expected by international travelers in tourism spots, but not many linguistic researchers paid attention to the truth behind this assumption. The present paper investigates the use of English in the tourism context from the sociolinguistic approach. Based on the theories of linguistic landscape, theresearcher also evaluated the role of English language in Hoan Kiem lake tourism spots. Results revealed that English has not become an inherent part of linguistic landscape of tourism spots in Hoan Kiem lake. There are also a multitude of language problems that bring discomfort to tourists. From the findings, some solutions are proposed to local authorities and tourism managers in order to improve tourism condition in Hoan Kiem lake spots in particular and Vietnam in general.