TEFL tourism: the tourist who teaches

ABSTRACT

There is evident lineage between the concepts of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) and tourism, represented through evocative marketing material, the commoditisation of the TEFL product, teacher motivations and experiences. Yet, to date there has been little attention paid to this relationship. The amalgamation of the two concepts brings rise to the introduction of the niche form of tourism ‘TEFL tourism’, where the tourist travels outside of their usual environment to teach English as a foreign language and whose role shifts between tourist, educator and educatee at various points in their trip. The TEFL tourism phenomenon is explored through the use of a two-phase research approach employing the qualitative examination of blogs written by TEFL teachers and quantitative surveys. Drawing parallels with associated tourism forms including volunteer, education and philanthropic, it is concluded that TEFL tourism is an entity in its own right, with unique characteristics and motivations presented by TEFL tourists. The use of logistic regression facilitated the analysis of TEFL teacher types, presenting a typology classifying tourists as leisure-minded, philanthropy-minded, career-minded and expatriate-minded. This case-study examination facilitates initial comprehension of the TEFL tourism industry, providing basis for subsequent research to be undertaken to enable enhanced sustainable management of the TEFL industry worldwide.

摘要

对外英语教学与旅游之间存在明显的联系, 通过煽动性的对外英语教学宣传材料、对外英语教学产品的商品化、教师的动机和经历可以表现出来。但是, 对它们之间的关系至今仍鲜有关注。这两个概念的融合产生了一种新的旅游形式—“对外英语教学旅游”, 即旅游者离开他们的惯常环境去外地教授英语, 在旅行各个阶段中他们的角色在旅游者、教育者与受教育者之间转变。本研究分定性分析对外英语教师博客与定量调查两个阶段进行, 探求了对外英语教学旅游这一现象。通过与志愿旅游、教育旅游以及慈善旅游等相关旅游形式的比较, 本文得出结论༚对外英语教学旅游本身是一种独特的旅游形式, 该种旅游者有其独特的特征与动机。本文运用逻辑回归识别了对外英语教学旅游者的类型, 把对外英语教学旅游划分为休闲型、慈善型、就业型与侨居型。本案例研究有助于初步理解对外英语教学旅游业, 为持续管理全球对外英语教学产业的后续研究奠定了基础。

KEYWORDS:

• TEFL tourism
• education
• volunteer
• philanthropy
• sustainability

关键词:

• 对外英语教学旅游
• 教育
• 志愿者
• 慈善
• 可持续性

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hayley Stainton

Hayley Stainton is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Aviation at Buckinghamshire New University who has recently completed her PhD research examining the notion of TEFL tourism. She specialises in TEFL tourism, volunteer tourism, tourism development, sustainability, netnography and blog analysis.