As Spanish evolves as a dominant world language, public exposure to foreign media grows through channels like the internet and job opportunities flourish overseas, it is more relevant than ever before for Americans to learn a foreign language. There has been a growing interest in language travel in the past decade, specifically traveling abroad to study a foreign language. This trend, coupled with the increased affordability of foreign travel, suggests that the demand for language travel will steadily increase into the next century.

Recognizing this trend, the Tourism Promotion Board of Spain together with Spain's Ministry of Language and Culture assembled an international panel of language schools, academics and tour operators from the United States, Europe, Japan and South America, at the First Annual Language and Tourism Workshop, held at the University of Alcala in Spain last September. For two days, the panel focused on the growing international market for Spanish instruction and the commercialization of Spanish language courses.

Though the Alcala workshop concentrated on the Spanish language, its themes are relevant to other foreign languages. One of the major insights which emerged from the American delegation was the growing demand for language travel programs in the student travel market. Whereas twenty years ago, traveling abroad on a typical eight to ten-day survey tour provided an excellent foreign language experience outside the classroom, today this kind of program offers many American students little more than what they are exposed to in their own communities on a daily basis. In short, these touristic programs don't really enhance foreign language learning. Hastened by the growing expectation to find more challenging learning opportunities for their students, many foreign language teachers are now demanding programs that provide substantive contact with native speakers and local culture.

Specialized tour operators are responding to this market demand by designing travel products that effectively integrate tourism with language instruction. By partnering up with language schools in countries as diverse as Costa Rica, Spain, France, Germany, and Russia, these companies are now incorporating language courses into their broader travel programs. A typical language travel program may include one or more weeks of private language instruction and cultural activities followed by a week or two of touring within the country. Students usually live with local families to increase their practice of the language. The programs are often enhanced with lectures or workshops in subjects like cooking and dance, sporting events, "intercambios" or exchanges with local students studying English, and even volunteer service in local community organizations.

Anyone who has ever studied a foreign language abroad knows it is simply the best way to learn a language. Complete immersion in both the written and spoken native tongue reinforces grammar and pronunciation. But language travel offers other benefits such as a keen insight into the foreign culture, exposure to local dialects and customs, development of daily "survival skills" and even the opportunity to form lifelong cross-cultural friendships, which cannot be realized in the home country classroom.

This article first appeared in the May/June 1999 issue of American Language Review.

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