Language learning, desire, and global power dynamics

Abstract

Drawing on the concepts of desire from applied linguistics and Deleuzian perspectives, this study investigates the desires encapsulated in a Japanese woman’s English learning sojourn in the Philippines. Data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire and through two semi-structured interviews. The participant’s retrospective narrative provides insight into her perceptions of the Philippines compared to Canada. While previous research has primarily examined the sociolinguistic aspects of studying abroad in the Philippines, the current study expands this focus to encompass other dimensions, such as material factors. The findings illuminate how the Philippines, as a study-abroad destination, is experienced and remembered by students. Further, the findings unveil the participant’s ambivalent yet irresistible akogare for the West. The marginal desirability of the Philippines as a study-abroad destination represents how the historically and economically constituted global hierarchies of power have been reproduced in the discourse and practice of transnational English learning.