ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of action research in language and culture didactics, which led to the creation of a module called “Tandem Learning” at INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations), Paris, where more than one hundred languages are taught. It includes a corpus analysis of twenty-seven reports on student experiences, as Tandem Learning was offered both to international students taking French as a foreign language and to students studying language didactics. Building on research in language learning in tandem, interculturality, pedagogy of exchange and mediation, it explores the issue of intercultural encounters between international students and local students and considers internationalisation of higher education as a favourable context for the development of educational programmes focused on plurilingual and intercultural exchange.
