The positioning of English as a key skill in the labour market of Marseille’s Tourist Office

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Published: Apr 12, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/ijltic.16164
Keywords:
Tourism language English labour market Marseille
ADAM WILSON
Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LPL, Aix-en-Provence, France
Abstract

Marseille is reinventing itself as an urban tourist destination. The aim of this paper is to explore the effects that the resulting intensification of international tourism may have on the city, its population and its labour market. Drawing on previous research, language is shown to be a powerful lens through which to explore such phenomena. Therefore, an ethnographic research project was undertaken in Marseille’s Tourist Office, focussing on language use in encounters between international tourists and tourist advisers. The analyses of these data presented here show that English facilitates communication between these parties and thus becomes an indispensable resource for those working at the Tourist Office. It is thus shown how the English language is a key skill in the Tourist Office’s labour market and acts as a discriminatory factor in the recruitment of tourism professionals. In conclusion, some of the potential wider social repercussions are discussed.

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Author Biography
ADAM WILSON, Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LPL, Aix-en-Provence, France
Adam WILSON is currently “ma tre de langue trang re” in the Departement d’ tudes du monde anglophone (DEMA) at Aix Marseille Université and affiliated with the Laboratoire Parole et Langue (LPL). He defended his PhD thesis, dealing with the sociolinguistic dynamics of globalisation, in 2016. His on-going research continues his work on this theme by focussing especially on language use in tourism
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