Introduction

Study abroad (SA) is now a well-established domain of enquiry in applied linguistics and, like the phenomenon itself, is extremely varied. Narratives have often been employed in SA research since interest began to rise in the social and intercultural dimension of students' L2 experience abroad, and they are also employed in the following three case-study papers. Jane Jackson describes how Serena, a Hong Kong student spending a semester in England, developed a more intercultural mindset while abroad. Lou Harvey draws on the Bakhtinian concept of ideological becoming to conceptualise the language and intercultural development undertaken by Federica, an Italian student in the UK The paper by Xavier Martin-Rubio and Josep Maria Cots analyses the views of Catalan students studying abroad in a Danish university offering English-medium instruction, and of the Danish university staff, on the subject of multilingual repertoires.