Abstract Summary
The landscape of the ELT industry is changing with intensifying competition between English schools or programs in ‘native’ and 'non-native' English speaking countries. This paper examines how and to what extent the discourse of language immersion is marketed by ELT schools in Baguio City, Philippines.
Abstract :
This paper situates itself in the changing landscape of the English language teaching industry where there appears to be intensifying competition between English schools or programs located in ‘native’ English speaking countries (e.g. the United States) and those located in ‘non-native’ English countries (e.g. the Philippines) for transnational flows of ‘non-native’ English language learners. This paper examines how and to what extent the discourse of language immersion is marketed by ELT schools in the Philippines, in particular, in the city of Baguio. Using the case of an English language school in Baguio City that caters to English language learners from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, this paper further examines how the notion of English language immersion is (re)interpreted/reinterpreted by the school, the teachers and the students. It shows how notions of immersion are variably mobilized depending on the nationality of the students, with immersion being important in discourses for and by Korean students and it not being part of the discourses for and by Arabic students where the teachers and the students mobilize and emphasize immersion in the 'local' context. This displacement and customization of the ideology of immersion, in the face of increasing competition between English speaking countries has implications for the future of English language teaching.
