The Price of Immersion: Language Learners as a Cheap Workforce in Malta's Voluntourism Industry

Autor/in	Schedel, Larissa Semiramis
Titel	The Price of Immersion: Language Learners as a Cheap Workforce in Malta's Voluntourism Industry
Quelle	In: Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 41 (2022) 2, S.181-200 (20 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Schedel, Larissa Semiramis)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0167-8507
DOI	10.1515/multi-2020-0178
Schlagwörter	Tourism; Multilingualism; Foreign Countries; Language Attitudes; Volunteers; Program Descriptions; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Bilingualism; English (Second Language); Semitic Languages; Sociolinguistics; Study Abroad; Hospitality Occupations; Neoliberalism; Labor Force; Work Environment; Malta + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Tourismus; Mehrsprachigkeit; Multilingualismus; Ausland; Sprachverhalten; Freiwilliger; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Bilingualismus; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Arabisch; Hebräisch; Soziolinguistik; Studies abroad; Auslandsstudium; Gastgewerbegehilfe; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Labour force; Arbeitskraft; Erwerbsbevölkerung; Arbeitsmilieu
Abstract	This contribution treats "language immersion" as a linguistic ideology and explores narratives, practices, and subjectivities pertinent to that notion in the context of language-motivated voluntourism. Voluntourism programs offer short-term sojourns abroad, which combine voluntary work with holidays while promising "immersion" as an efficient alternative to classroom language learning. In the Mediterranean island state of Malta, whose population is mostly bilingual in English and Maltese, voluntourism has become an attractive product for the booming English language travel industry. Since there is a lack of critical sociolinguistic and second language acquisition research on the language learning trajectories of voluntourists, this piece examines the promise of immersion through the example of a hostel that figures as a workplace. Drawing on ethnographic data, it investigates how learning English through immersion while working abroad is imagined and promoted, whether or not it occurs, and what gains (linguistic or otherwise) it generates and for whom. The article argues that the voluntourism industry appropriates the discourse of immersion to responsibilize English learners for their linguistic self-skilling, thereby constituting them as neoliberal subjects that can easily be exploited as a cheap workforce. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: service@degruyter.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01