Innovation in Language Learning

One major aim of the Bologna Process in higher education is to promote mobility across the European space. The implementation of this aim has included the bridging of the gap between academia and the various different types of European workplaces and the equipping of graduates in member countries with a range of transversal and transferable skills during their undergraduate degree. This has engendered a programme reorganisation whose underlying principles call for the creation of inclusive and innovative learning and teaching, which will, in turn, then foster transnational cooperation, on both an academic and professional level. As a result, many undergraduate programmes have focused on the development of skills required in the workplace. This, in turn, has required an increased focus on building  learners’ intercultural competences, given that the potential workplace is now geographically and culturally much wider. This is certainly the case for Portuguese graduates who have a well-documented history and of working and living abroad. However, an increasing number of students are applying to master’s programmes immediately after their first cycle degree. These students appear to be less well equipped with the necessary academic competences to carry out the research work required at master’s level. This paper outlines an approach, used in an English skills subject taught during the sixth and final semester of a 1^st cycle degree in languages and business, which aims to interweave the intercultural competences students have previously acquired with research skills which they will need if they plan to do a master’s degree. The subject requires students to research and develop a proposal for an inbound franchise, followed by (inter)cultural research into foreign and host cultures. The students then create a poster and a mini-article, both of which stem from the results of their research work. By the end of their degree, students have had the opportunity to do a business-related task and carry out in-depth academic research into an area of interculturality linked to those tasks. It is hoped that the poster and article writing experience will provide students with a deeper understanding of academic writing and prepare them for the research demands of a master’s programme that could include a component of intercultural research and/or application.