So TEFL tourism is all about people who go and teach English as a foreign language, and then combining that with a tourism experience. So there is a wide range of motivations. I identified that there are four main types of TEFL tourists. There are the career minded type. So whilst they might have lots of motivations, their predominant motivations are to do with their career, whether that be CPD, building their CVs, whether they want to perhaps gain experience to get another job. A lot of people do that. They go out to other countries to work as TEFL tourists. We then have the leisure minded type tourists. So their predominant motivations are focused on leisure activities, so whether that be sort of going to thebeach or social aspects, nightlife aspects. That's really dependent on the type of destination that they are in. We have expatriate minded TEFL tourists. So they are people who are looking more to relocate. Perhaps they're looking for a cultural experience, or perhaps they're looking for a change of life, a better quality of life, lower cost of living, that kind of stuff. So those tend to be the areas that are most motivating those types of tourists. And then we've got the philanthropic tourists as well. So they tend to be the people who want to do good, who want to help-- help the community. They're focused on development aspects, that sort of thing. So there's a wide range of motivations. And any one TEFL tourist might have a number of those that are applicable to them. But what I found is that actually, their dominant motivation sit within one of those four areas. Regulation within TEFL tourism I've raised in the book is a major concern, actually. There seems to be very little regulation at all. Granted, it is difficult because it is a global industry. And you've got cultural differences. You've got geographical differences. You've got differences in education systems. All of those factors come into play there. There is very little regulation, so when people sign up for, for example, a TEFL qualification, they could do that online in as little as 20 hours, or they could have done a yearlong course at an established university. And on their CV, it will say TEFL qualification. So from an employer's perspective or from a government's perspective who are issuing visas, et cetera, it's very difficult to determine actually what kind of qualification they have. It's not only about the qualifications that lack regulation and standardization, but there's also the practices. What is a teacher? What is a teacher to us here in the UK is not necessarily the same as what is a teacher in many parts of the world. Because what a teacher does in their actual duties and responsibilities differs in many different contexts. So that's very ambiguous and very unclear. And that's a problem not only from the prospective teacher's case--and I have seen examples of people who have signed up to be a TEFL teacher. They've flown out to a destination, and perhaps there's been corporal punishment there. And they felt very uncomfortable with that because a country where they are from, that's not acceptable. But there's cultural differences, and they haven't been pre-warned about this. And they're not aware of this. So there are many differences like that that play a key role in, actually, is the industry going to be successful? Is that person going to want to stay as a TEFL teacher? And a lot of people don't really know exactly what they're signing up for. Likewise, there are the people who are hiring TEFL teachers. So that's the prospective employers or perhaps the universities who are offering them courses on teacher training placements on their return home. They have a different perception of what their teaching experience perhaps was than what it was in reality. There are also aspects such as monitoring who are being employed. So I've seen many concerns, and I raised this in the book about people being employed inappropriately. There are two main areas that have arisen in that region. The first is in terms of skills. Are they suitably qualified? I've spoken to TEFL teachers who have said to me, I can't spell to save my life, but I'm teaching English. It's crazy. There are people who, they might have a degree, but it's nothing to do with English. They don't have a GCSE in English or equivalent. And are they suitably qualified to actually be teaching a language that they're perhaps--they don't specialize in themselves? So there's a strong argument to say, should these be TEFL teachers in the first place? It's a difficult one because in many cases, actually, governments are trying to boost their levels of English. It's part of their development agenda, but they can't recruit enough teachers, which is why they tend to tourists. But then the question is, are the tourists often suitably qualified to do that? And if they're not, actually, the students might not be making the progress that's intended. So the intended outcomes might not be achieved. And that's certainly something that warrants additional investigation. And that's something that the book does highlight, is that actually, there's a lot of gaps in knowledge. And there's a lot of areas that haven't been looked into sufficiently to date. The other area in terms of skill, in terms of which teachers are recruited that has been raised as a concern that I do address in the book is monitoring who's employed and looking at their background and their credentials. So many destinations won't have any kind of background checks. In the UK, for example, we're very hot on that. We have the DBS checks. They'll check references, et cetera. Many destinations won't do this. So there have been concerns that the industry could attract people who might act inappropriately--pedophiles, that sort of thing. There've been examples within orphanage tourism of a lot of sex tourism taking place and a lot of abuse happening there, particularly in certain parts of the world. Cambodia's the one that's been highlighted there in the media a lot. So there is a risk that within TEFL tourism, there could be a similar approach taken. So there is a very strong argument to say that there should be certain background checks in place. But actually, at the moment, there is no regulation for that, certainly nothing that's standardized. So that is another big concern and something that definitely needs to be addressed on a global, if not a local, scale. Impacts is something that I've raised in the book because it is really, really important. And it's not something that has been examined sufficiently to date. There are lots of different tourism types that I have identified similarities with. And I believe that it's really important that we do actually learn lessons from those. So for example, volunteer tourism I've identified has very close ties with TEFL tourism. Obviously, volunteer tourism is generally not paid, although there is a whole debate around that. But generally, it's not paid and TEFL tourism generally is. So it's not the same, but there are many similarities. And within the volunteer tourism industry, there have been many studies looking at the many negative impacts that that might have. So I think it's really important that we learn lessons from the volunteer tourism industry or similar industries that we can actually apply to the concept of TEFL tourism, so that we don't make the same mistakes. There are lots of examples of impacts. Positive impacts--obviously, it can be a great way to enhance the levels of English in a community. It can be a great way to promote a destination, to perhaps open up new businesses to enhance the economics in the area. When you bring in tourists, they might want to go to restaurants or stay in different venues, or they might want some kind of entertainment. All those sorts of things bring an economic benefit, so that's great. One of the main areas is probably the cultural impact of TEFL tourism. One of the areas I addressed in the book is the concept of ethnocentrism. And when we, from Western countries, fly out to a developing country to teach English as a foreign language, we arrive with all of our own preconceived ideas of what that is-- what teaching should look like, what a lesson should look like, what sort of things we should talk about, what sort of examples we should give. And actually, that might not lie well with their own values, and culture, and customs. And that's one of the problems, is that TEFL tourists are often not familiar enough with the local culture and with the local customs. And they might, through ignorance and naivety, they might actually offend the locals. And that can cause issues. For example, in Thailand, I actually worked in a school in Thailand for a little while. And in Thailand, as a mark of respect, you would always duck lower than people who are viewed as senior to you. So if a student was taller than me, they would duck down and go lower. And if I had a boss who, I was taller than them, as I walk past them, I should duck down. And that's part of their culture. But if I don't know that, if I haven't been taught that, then I wouldn't do it, and they would find me very rude, and they wouldn't understand that. When we as TEFL tourists go over to a destination, we often have an expectation that we are going to earn a certain salary to maintain the lifestyle that we expect. That salary isn't always in line with local salaries. And there are many cases where an unqualified TEFL tourist, they might be 21 years old, straight from university, have never studied English. And they actually earn more than a qualified teacher in the destination who's been teaching for 20 years, because they're a white Western face, and the qualified teacher is not. That causes its own problems. Obviously, there's perhaps some feelings of uneasiness there. There might be resentment caused from the local people towards the TEFL tourists. There are also cases where it's more preferable to employ a TEFL tourist than it is a local teacher who may be perfectly capable of teaching English. But because they haven't got an English accent or a Western English speaking accent, they're the ones who are not employed. So it can potentially have a negative effect on employment in the local area. And it can cause displacement, in that people are left without a job because the TEFL tourist has come in. And actually, they've taken their job. Often, the TEFL tourists are none the wiser. They won't realize this is happening. But this is definitely something that should be monitored and should be regulated. So the TEFL industry is very broad. And there are lots of different ways that you can get into TEFL tourism. So there are the self sourced employment opportunities. So that could be the TEFL tourist perhaps flying out to a destination and looking for employment. They could, for example, hand out their CV. They could apply directly to jobs they've seen advertised in the destination. They might go through some kind of employment agency. So there are lots of teaching agencies that exist in all parts of the world. And you would register with them, and they would then put you through to an appropriate school. That's one sort of way that you can source your employment. The other way is more tourism orientated. And what we've seen is the development of this almost post-modern package, really. You often see opportunities promoted on the internet by lots of different organizations, where the rhetoric of tourism is actually very strong. So rather than the focus being on teaching, the pictures will be--let's take Thailand, for example. If there's an organizationpromoting TEFL teaching in Thailand, rather than having pictures of Thai children sat in a classroom, they might have lots of images of people riding elephants and people at full moon parties. So that the involvement with tourism and the presence of tourism is very much there, and it's very clear, which is why it's quite ironic that before now, it hasn't really been addressed. And that connection between the two concepts of teaching English as a foreign language and tourism hasn't really been made. Because that's definitely clear when you do scour the internet for opportunities. Now these organizations frequently will put together a package for you. So it will be a packaged product. So it's almost as if the TEFL industry and teaching English as a foreign language has been commodified into a product. It will have different components, so just like a traditional packaged holiday, it usually will involve some kind of transport and some kind of accommodation. The accommodation might be just during a training period, or it might be for the duration of your placement as a TEFL tourist. And it will often include other aspects. So it's common to see opportunities that have a TEFL qualification included with them. So for example, you could go onto the website. You very easily click a button, just like you're buying a holiday. And you would get in that perhaps transport to the destination. You would get often a TEFL qualification within that. So you obviously would have to study for it, but that would be built into the package. And you'd often get some kind of accommodation there. The exact details often do vary. There might be other elements included as well. So sometimes there will be excursions, so you might go on a tour of the local town, or an elephant safari, or whatever is around in the local area. It's very much replicable of a traditional package model. So those kinds of tourists are often the younger tourists. They're often less well traveled, and they want the security of that package model, a bit like in the wider tourism industry, I suppose. So you can really go down either route. In the end, the experience is probably very similar, that you are combining the notions of teaching English as a foreign language and the elements of tourism that come outside of that. There is a strong argument that we should investigate TEFL tourism in terms of sustainability. And that's something that doesn't appear to be done at the moment. Many governments are turning to this as a method of improving the development in the region, of improving the quality of English that's spoken. But actually, there doesn't really seem to be any measurable outcomes as to whether TEFL tourism is contributing to that or not at the moment. And like I discussed before, in terms of negative impacts, there could potentially be some resentment between the local population and the TEFL tourists, not only because of differences in salary, but also because of the attitudes of the TEFL tourists. Are they reliable? Do they turn up for work every day? Do they take it seriously, or is it just a method of making money to extend their travels? If they don't take it seriously--perhaps they have a lot of sick days. Perhaps they quit just like that and leave them with no teacher. Those sorts of things--perhaps they're not doing the best job, that they're lazy, because teaching actually isn't their primary motivation. Then what are the impacts on that, on the learning outcomes? So ethically, it should be everybody's responsibility to ensure that TEFL tourism operates sustainably, and it is meeting the intended outcomes, and it is satisfactory for the community. Ultimately, it should be there for the community. And teaching English as a foreign language, the ultimate aim generally is, and should be, to improve English capabilities amongst the local community. However, the industry has changed a lot. We've now got these profit driven organizations who are offering these TEFL type packages, whose motivations are not necessarily to meet the community's needs, but instead to make money for themselves. So they are definitely an area that I think needs to be investigated. And there should be some kind of regulation. They have a moral and an ethical responsibility to create tourism that benefits the local community. However, I suspect that this frequently is not the case, as we've seen in many other areas of tourism. There's also an argument to say that the government should crack down and should really monitor it. However, many governments have lots to do. They might not have very big budgets. They might not see that as a priority. So it is difficult to measure. Measuring learning outcomes and comparing the difference between having a tourist doing that and having somebody else doing that isn't necessarily an easy task. It does require resources. It does require investment in time and money. And many destinations won't have that.