Abstract

This paper identifies the notion of English as a brand through the ideas of a brand from Brand Theory in the fields of marketing and sociology. In brief, my conceptualisation of English as a brand represents a unique social phenomenon in Japanese society, whereby English functions as a fashionable accessory or lifestyle. Through ‘wearing’ or ‘sporting’ English, people, institutions and companies are proving their identity as ‘internationalised’, ‘cool’ and ‘fashionable’, all of which are highly valued socially in Japan. Analytic approach of this study combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Linguistic Landscape (LL). Whereas theoretical framework to identify the notion of English as a brand is Brand Theory from marketing and sociology, which provides with detailed components of a brand. I will use LL for data collection and analysis for clarifying how the conceptualisation of English as a brand is represented in signboards, and CDA for considering the ideology embedded in the notion of English as a brand and its ‘implicit’ effects to Japanese society and people.