The uses of amateurs : travel writing as a tool of second language acquisition research

Abstract

In order for second language acquisition (SLA) research to access the ‘learner-internal functions’ of SLA, methodologies of introspective research have arisen, including ‘diary studies’ and ‘language learner histories’. These have been found to yield valuable data about SLA (particularly in respect of affective factors and learning strategies), and are most rewarding when they approximate to quasi-literary modes of self-presentation: highly personalized and richly contextualized. This article proposes that the body of data that has accumulated from this initiative could be further expanded by including non-specialist accounts of language learning which share many of the conditions and features of diary studies, specifically works of travel literature in which part of the travellers’ experience is learning local languages. The article first attempts to illustrate this common ground by means of comparative samples, and then demonstrates from further texts how travel writing, though not produced by SLA specialists, can be analysed in terms of SLA theory so as to yield its own insights that not only corroborate what the specialist diary studies have revealed, but also supplement or challenge them. The article concludes that there is in this growing body of work a hitherto untapped resource of SLA research that awaits more sustained attention.