Developing intercultural competence: the year abroad in oral classes

This paper provides an analytical account of a speaking activity, which was designed and delivered by the authors in order to help modern languages finalist students to further develop their intercultural competence. It argues that even finalists coming back from their year abroad might struggle with making sense of cultural differences. The paper presents an activity that builds on their year abroad to facilitate deeper cultural understanding. Through an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates recent recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) as well as scholarly work on cultural studies and intercultural pedagogy, this paper offers a concrete example of how a language curriculum can be adapted to meet the challenges of today’s culturally complex and ever changing world.