ABSTRACT
Nowadays, many intercultural educational programmes promote intercultural learning and development through international or multicultural camps. While ‘equitable and fair distribution of participation’ (Baraldi 2009; also, Chapter 4, this volume), among other factors, is essential and optimal for intercultural learning in such a context, very few studies have looked into the details of how participants manage and negotiate their participation in joint activities and interactions, in particular, how language proficiency in a shared and working language impacts on participation. This chapter begins with a brief review of the current literature on language proficiency and participation. It then presents a multiple case study of participants in two activities in a summer camp, with a particular focus on their level of participation in activities and interaction in relation to their language proficiency. The final section brings together the key points and discusses the implications of the findings.
