Second language acquisition and socialization in international trips

Abstract

English is not only the most widely used language in the world, but a good command of English can certainly offer an array of benefits for international travel. Drawing on the language socialization paradigm and the travel-learning perspective, this research investigates independent tourists' foreign language (i.e., English) acquisition obtained from international trips. It adheres to a phenomenology approach with semi-structured interviews to gauge tourists' English preparation prior to departure, en route English acquisition, and post-trip language achievement. Results highlight the advantages of high English proficiency on tourists' favorable travel experience and language educational benefits of experiential learning in truly authentic environments. They also illustrate that one's English ability works in tandem with his/her interest, and it helps the tourist to imbue better connotative meaning of the toured objects with greater perceived authenticity and pleasure and hence, a greater sense of appreciation of the destination.