While intercultural competence is commonly a goal of university study abroad programmes, debates around criteria for assessing this competence have highlighted the challenges in appropriately identifying students' intercultural learning in relation to specific university programmes. To overcome these issues, this research moves beyond…

This paper gives account of a project involving Year Abroad students of French at Warwick University challenged to select "realia" from their host countries in order to stimulate enthusiasm for language learning in local schools. It considers the cognitive and affective processes informing the "culture gathering" that took…

This collection of short papers is an outcome of the third conference on virtual exchange in higher education hosted by the Pedagogical University in Krakow in April 2018. Following the focus of the conference on virtual exchange in service of social inclusion and global citizenship, the papers collected in this volume offer first-hand insights…

Language students in the UK undertake their "year abroad" with high hopes for a linguistic and social "immersion" experience. However, past research shows that language learning success, while real, can be uneven, and that many Erasmus exchange students form social relations largely with other international students. New…

The TILA project originated from the need to explore whether and how telecollaboration affects language learning processes for communication, intercultural understanding and motivation of youngsters learning foreign languages at secondary schools and to empower teachers to pioneer meaningful pedagogical innovation in the curriculum of foreign…

Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition (TILA), is an EU-funded project within the Lifelong Learning Programme that will run between January 2013 and June 2015. TILA's overall objectives are: (1) to innovate, enrich and make foreign language teaching programmes more attractive and effective by encouraging the implementation of…

This paper examines how students learn to collaborate in English by participating in an intercultural project that focuses on teaching students to work together on a digital writing project using various online tools, and documents their reflections working in an intercultural context. Students from Université Paris Sud Orsay and Bonn…

Advances in science and technology, globalization of trade, international competition for markets, ethnic conflicts, and the limits of the planet's ecosystem have brought global issues and the people of the world to doorsteps and classrooms. With the increasing interaction among peoples of the world, skills in cross-cultural communication,…

This article focuses on how to teach intercultural communicative competence to learners of English as a foreign language enrolled in a university exchange program in Europe, and help them become "intercultural speakers." The intercultural speaker can be defined as an intermediary between his or her own culture and the other's culture.…

An English/French school exchange program provided opportunities for cooperation between language and humanities faculties. A shopping survey was prepared and French pupils conducted street interviews in England. Ideas for activities resulted from cross-faculty interaction. (DH)

An environmental awareness language exchange program was established between an English school and a school in France. Although the exchange occurred for three years, the program became overprescriptive and was cancelled. Concludes that environmental awareness is learned best in less formal situations. (DH)

Describes problems teaching English to mixed classes of native English speakers and nonnative speakers. Discusses problems in vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage, as well as problems involving the concept of bilingual education and cultural differences in the knowledge and expected roles of students. (EL)

This study explored hetero- and auto-stereotyping in 23 Pakistani students studying in the United States; 21 French and 20 American college students enrolled at the University of Besancon, France; and 59 American college students who had never lived or studied abroad. All subjects completed a four-page questionnaire in their native language in…

The evolution of European government activities in the sphere of international cultural relations is examined. Section 1 describes the period between World War I and World War II when European governments tried to enhance their prestige and policies by means of cultural propaganda. Section 2 analyzes the period during World War II when the…

An environmental awareness language exchange occurred between English and French pupils in 1983. Teacher planning and student activities are described for the 10-day exchange; they include a pupil/teacher discovery walk, student discussion, and student study of chosen themes. Guidance and encouragement help students become more aware of…