Becoming an Intercultural Mediator: A Longitudinal Study of Residence Abroad

The 'Year Abroad' is a requirement of all students of languages in Higher Education in Britain to spend an academic year in a country or countries where the languages they are learning are spoken. This article draws on research with a cohort of students during the Year and ten years later to examine the long-term learning involved. The research methodology was based on in-depth interviews and narrative theory. The data were analysed in terms of the development of intercultural competence discernible in the interviews undertaken ten years after the experience. It was found that the participants who profited most from the Year were those who had a degree of 'tertiary socialisation' before they left, and that this continued to be a significant part of their private and professional lives.