Soft power exemplified in language learning: an empirical study based on learning French at the Alliance Française in Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Soft power is a tool used by countries to have an international enhancement, which proposes a series of benefits for those countries. The objective of this research is to contribute to the analysis of soft power, taking France as an example, which ranks number one in the Soft Power 30 ranking, through the learning of French. The applied methodology proposes a primary study with a quantitative approach by using a survey as a data collection tool, which was applied to 94 students from the Alliance Française Institute of the city of Cuenca. The language of Villanueva (2015) was taken to be applied to the surveys, but it had certain modifications. Th results show that French learning is at somewhat superficial levels that do not allow it to be translated in direct benefits for France. However, the possibilities of this to transform and help soft power to be strengthened in the mentioned academy are high, since there is evidence of students’ commitment to truly learn the language and achieve their goals when studying it. In conclusion, France’s strength in terms of soft power is its culture since culture is the factor that has the greatest influence on this aspect.