Experiencing mobility in an educational environment: the acquisition of intercultural competence

It is merely out of theoretical necessity that Linguistics identifies human beings as monolingual speakers, since individuals usually interact in more than one language variation, sharing common rules of interpretation in their ‘discourse systems’ by adopting verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. Considering that speaking any language means reflecting that culture, an analysis of students’ biographical Erasmus narratives demonstrates how the mobility experience can have a significant impact on the personality and on the social and professional future of the participants at a psychological, emotional and cultural level, developing their intercultural self-awareness by encouraging them to reappraise their sociocultural practices, values and beliefs and arrive at a real acceptance of the inherent diversity of otherness.