“Seeing a country with your own eyes”: The impact of immersion experiences in language travel

Abstract

This study approaches immersion experiences in the context of language tourism. Immersion is here understood as tourists’ extensive engagement and interaction with the members of the host culture. Previous studies have pointed out that language tourism implies a deeper contact with locals; however, other studies have observed that many language programmes abroad are not always as immersive as expected. These contradictory findings suggest that there may be a tremendous variation in contact with locals in the context of language tourism. Hence, the present mixed methods study uses interviews with 22 language travellers, and 1,011 survey answers to address the question of how language tourists who had an intense contact with local residents differ – in terms of profile and travel experiences – from those language travellers who did not have such an intense contact. There are significant differences between these groups. Those who had a more intense contact with locals are more likely to be intrinsically motivated by an interest for the local culture, to travel alone, to report higher levels of fluency, more frequent accommodation at homestays, and greater engagement in a wider range of activities at the destination.

The role of technology in language immersion: a systematic literature review

“…With the myriad benefits offered and the parents' wishes, responsible stakeholders need to consider many different aspects that can support language immersion success as shown in Table 1. Highly intensive daily contact and interaction [3], [8], [19], [31] Integrating language majority and minority learners in two-way immersion [14] An equitable language environment [32]- [35] Language input and output [3], [15], [36], [37] Enjoyable learning environment [22] Teacher Knowledge [38], [39] Instructional skills [22], [39], [40] Language and content integration [25], [39], [41] Pedagogical planning and practice [22], [38], [39], [41], [42] Teaching material [39], [43] Language skills [39], [ [10], [48] First of all, the advantages that language immersion offers to language learners come because language immersion provides highly intensive daily contact with the target language in various situations, including academic and everyday communication [8]. Intensive contact and communication with the target language from the surrounding environment can also provide input to participants regarding language use and then train them to construct, remake, and apply the target language to their interaction [37] This intensity is an important aspect of language immersion because intensive communication, although not fluent, can improve the quality of interactions, lead to stronger relationships and enable them to gain knowledge of the target language and a more authentic and rich experience [31].…”