Abstract
This chapter investigates a teaching activity from the European project Intercultural Education Resources for ERASMUS Students and their Teachers, which is titled ‘24 h ERASMUS Life’ and was conducted at the University of Bologna with 33 participants. Students and teachers worked online for six weeks using forums, videoconferences, chat rooms, and a course blog. The authors gathered data from the blog postings and employed thematic analysis, focusing on the students’ language experiences, including identity-related features of language proficiency, linguistic self-concept, and second-language-mediated (L2) personal development. The outcomes of this study contribute to understanding the multifaceted nature of L2 identity development during study abroad and its links to intercultural learning within a non-essentialist theoretical framework. Some pedagogical implications for mobile student preparation are also considered.
This work was supported by the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency and the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture, under the Lifelong Learning Programme, ERASMUS [527373-LLP-1–2012-1-IT-ERASMUS-ESMO]. We would also like to thank the students who took part in the study, and the IEREST partners who developed the activity presented here.
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Notes
- 1.
Although various authors use the following terms slightly differently, for the purposes of the current chapter, the phrases ‘intercultural learning’, ‘intercultural development’, ‘interculturality’, and ‘development of intercultural competence’ are used interchangeably.
- 2.
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway , Switzerland , and Turkey .
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Beaven, A., Borghetti, C. (2018). Exploring Intercultural Learning and Second Language Identities in the ERASMUS Context. In: Plews, J., Misfeldt, K. (eds) Second Language Study Abroad. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77134-2_7
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