Developing interpersonal and intercultural skills in a university language course

Intercultural language learning and teaching is generally endorsed in contemporary foreign and second language classroom contexts. This article reports the use of an intercultural education activity taught in an Italian L2 elementary course at the Language Centre of the University of Bologna attended by exchange and degree-seeking students. The intercultural tasks proposed invite students to reflect on their experiences of studying and living in a different country, and encourage them to reflect on their intercultural learning objectives and on their goals for study abroad in relation to their intercultural encounters. Our aim was to explore students' willingness to engage with the intercultural tasks, their commitment and the possible influence on their behaviours, attitudes and beliefs, considering their relatively limited level of target language proficiency. The data, collected through audio-recorded interviews, show individual differences among the students. Our report concludes with our reflections as practitioners working in a university language centre, on the importance of intercultural language teaching and learning.