Teaching English in Latin America for environmental purposes : an exploratory analysis

textThe English language is taught for a variety of professional purposes, including business and medicine, yet to date there is no scholarly research investigating the potential necessity of teaching English for environmental purposes. Given that tourism constitutes one of the largest global industries, that ecotourism is the fasting growing segment of the field, that English is the lingua franca of tourism worldwide, that the majority of ecotourism operations are located in the developing world, and that significant levels of unemployment persist within many of these areas, the relationship between knowledge of the English language and employment opportunities within the field of ecotourism warrants consideration. Consequently, the present exploratory study of the relationship between English and ecotourism in Latin America is a first attempt to determine whether or not English language training programs for ecotourism guides in Latin America are a relevant endeavor worthy of further investigation and whether or not the field of teaching English for Professional Purposes (EPP) should consider this area a new sub-discipline.Foreign Language Educatio