In this contribution, I approach strategies of language learning and teaching in touristic contexts based on empirical research with beach vendors, in hotel resorts, villages and Swahili/Mijikenda speakers' homes in Mombasa, Kenya. I am particularly interested in speakers' agency in contexts of inequality and in the impact of touristification in the coastal areas on (emergent and creative) language practices. I suggest to broaden perspectives on language acquisition in and beyond the classroom with reference to the multilingual situation at the Kenyan coast.
Backup Video Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/OmFmbWc_i58oRy3pgLF665l6ECX23i-os2uMlo8bpTCbeqUcW4SGb6ulgBj3SLfv6V0KIQ1gb4kffaVG.ydGyKWBS_Dufu7fl
In my talk, I focus on strategies of language acquisition in a touristic context. Along the Kenyan coast (and specifically Mombasa), German is treated as a very valuable linguistic resource and actively learnt by most beach vendors, hotel staff, and tour operators. At the same time, numerous (German and other) tourists acquire some basics in Swahili, the most widespread African language at the coast. These patterns of acquisition and teaching, however, differ to a great extent from each other. While tourist languages such as German are either taught by older Mijikenda people in the villages in typical classroom situations or are based on frequent interactions at the beach serving as a tool for economic survival, a simplified form of Swahili ("hakuna matata Swahili") is strategically used in hotel resorts as part of the authentic touristic experience. These contexts of learning and teaching in a setting of striking social and economic inequalities is addressed from different perspectives: What are the purposes of informal (grassroots) learning at the beach? How do people play with language and manipulate it, e.g. through creative and tarzanized/mimetic performances in hotel pools during aqua aerobic (sometimes called "bush language")? Which role does (de)standardization play, e.g. when German dialects are prefered over standard German? How do writing practices (on paper, in the sand) point to specific language ideologies in the learning processes? Based on ethnographic fieldwork at the Kenyan coast (2015-2019), my paper tries to work out patterns/strategies of acquisition, their correlation with social inequalities and language concepts.
