Publications

Publication details [#63029]

O'Rourke, Bernadette and Renée DePalma. 2017. Language-learning holidays: what motivates people to learn a minority language? The International Journal of Multilingualism 14 (4) : 332–349.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

This paper explores the experiences of 18 Galician language learners who partook in what Garland [(2008). The minority language and the cosmopolitan speaker: Ideologies of Irish language learners (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of California, Santa Barbara] refers to as a ‘language-learning holiday’ in Galicia in north-western Spain. The paper explores what motivates these learners to travel abroad to study Galician and in some cases to become new speakers of this minoritised language. It examines the ideologies and practices of these students, who as edutourists [Yarymowich, (2005). ‘Language tourism’ in Canada. A mixed discourse. In F. Baider, M. Burger, & D. Goutsos (Eds.), La Communication touristique. Approches discursives de l’identité et de l’alterité (pp. 257-273). Paris: L’Harmattan], are the targets and potential consumers of cultural and linguistic commodification. It examines the ways in which students themselves commodify Galician culture and language, in their efforts to capture what they perceive as an authentic learning experience and as a means of accessing a minoritised linguistic and cultural group.