Past events

The Universities of Exeter and Nanyang were delighted to host a symposium that brought together global experts on multilingualism and migration.

We were proud to present the online symposium, which was hosted by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Exeter and the Department of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies at Nanyang Technological University.

The presentations focused on case studies of multilingualism and migration, with a particular emphasis on the multilingual city. The event was followed by a final round table on the study of multilingualism in the city. Speakers from both universities presented their current research, alongside experts from other universities in the UK, Germany, East Timor, and Australia.

This symposium had been jointly organized by the University of Exeter, UK (Dr. Francesco Goglia) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Prof. Francesco Cavallaro) and was financially supported by Exeter Global Partnerships (2020-21 Outward Mobility Academic Fellowship).

View the full programme here

The Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Exeter hosted an online two-day conference to bring together researchers, professionals and practitioners with expertise in integrating Intercultural Competence in the teaching and learning foreign languages in Higher Education.

Intercultural competence can be broadly defined as a wide range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures, and thus the ‘ability to interact with ‘others’, to accept other perspectives and perceptions of the world, to mediate between different perspectives, to be conscious of differences’ (Byram, Nichols, and Stevens, 2001: 5).  Intercultural competence is essential to operate in our multicultural world and language learners are in an ideal position to engage actively with cultural diversity.

The process of languaging is a social one and it is inextricably interwoven with the mechanism of making sense through language learning of ‘the supercomplex variety of human experience’ (Bennett, 2000). It is through this process that we are able to understand better also our own culture and identity.

View the full Intercultural Competence and Foreign Language Learning Booklet