In globalization times, celebrating diversity is a major aim in everyday communication. For this reason, “Interculturality” and “intercultural competences” (IC) that lead to “intercultural communication” are vital aspects in various academic fields and social action (Byram, 1997, Deardorff, 2009, Fantini, 2002, Guilherme, 2002; Porto & Byram, 2014; Dasli, 2017). For this reason, the development of an intercultural and interculturally-competent individual depends on, from the educational point of view, significant and conscious learning experiences that guide her/him towards reflection and critical analysis in their relationship with people, environments and situations other than her/his own (Dervin, 2014, Jackson, 2012). From this point of view, The Intercultural Individual is developed by placing its participants and their daily experiences at the center of the learning process (learner-centered approach) to explore, among other objectives, their own ICs in situations that represent unknown experiences or critical events (Intercultural encounters).
Among the basic competences, students are expected to identify situations where ICs are required to achieve more horizontal and harmonious communication processes. Continuous reflection to foster flexible, open attitudes towards communication processes with those perceived as different from us are at the core of this course. As a corpus of analysis and exploration, the course uses experiential episodes, cultural shock anecdotes, film scenes, brief narrative and visual media in order to understand how the intercultural individual can become a citizen of the world (Byram, 2011; 2014; Guilherme, 2002; Risager, 2007).
The course is built under the underpinning assumption that we are all cultural and educational subjects or stakeholders, and we all are/have been language learners at any point of our lives. This experience serves a bedrock to explore, discuss and analyze course materials. From another point of view, direct references will be made to English, due to the importance of capitalizing schooling and higher education experience; however, considerations about language apply to any language, second or foreign or additional language. In the end, English has a triadic purpose: it is a medium of instruction (EMI) and communication, as well as an object of study, for interculturality is frequently associated to global, intercultural identities and citizenship.
