Description

Studying abroad denotes crossing more barriers than the borders of one's country. With an increasing popularity and availability of study abroad (SA) programmes the need arose to support international students in overcoming the difficulties of living in a foreign country. The overall aim of this work is to explore the impact of SA programmes on tertiary students' intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The reader will find a detailed yet concise insight into the nature of ICC on the example of the Erasmus participants. A historical overview of the concept of ICC is followed by a discussion on the intercultural approach in foreign language teaching, and the author's outline of research conducted on the topic in recent decades. The empirical part of the book reports on the author's own research, which delves into the development of particular ICC components during stay abroad and aims to explicate how language educators can help students in their future sojourns. The findings of the undertaken research will be a source of inspiration for anyone concerned with intercultural competence, cross-cultural communication, student exchange programmes, and foreign language education.