Korean tourists' experience of intercultural communication through English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in overseas travel: A grounded theory approach

This study examines Korean tourists' experience of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in overseas travel using grounded theory. The data is based on semi-structured interviews with 17 South Korean tourists, and the analysis using paradigm theory demonstrated 146 concepts, 29 subcategories, 11 main categories, and a core category entitled ‘enhancing the quality of tourism experiences and the motivation for English learning through effective communicative accommodation’ regarding ELF. The findings show that despite their awareness of the growing role of ELF, participants had concerns about using English in overseas travel and had experienced language barriers. However, these were mainly caused by different linguistic expression (dialects, accents) among speakers, not from using English per se. To overcome miscommunication, participants employ diverse strategies, which contribute to enhancing the quality of tourist experiences and raising the motivation for learning English. The study makes theoretical and practical recommendations to promote effective intercultural communication between tourists and hosts for sustainable destination management. •English as a lingua franca in international tourism has grown.•English enhances the quality of the tourist experience.