GETTING TO GRIPS WITH INTERCOMPREHENSION. THE NAVAL ACADEMY CASE STUDY

Abstract

Intercomprehension (IC) – at its simplest: a form of communication in which each person uses his or her own language and is also able to understand that of the other(s) – is a concept that originates in contrastive linguistics and constitutes a research field with a view to implementing within the Languages – Culture Didactics.

It has been at the core of several research projects since the ’90s, and as of 2011 the team of researchers within Intermar (a European Cooperation Project funded by the EU Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme, under Key Action 2 of the Transversal Programme, coordinated by Prof. F. Capucho at Universidade catolica in Viseu, Portugal) has been trying to encourage IC practice within the maritime community by offering blended a 60-hour course of uniquely designed modules containing learning materials and collaborative tasks. The course was piloted in 8 Naval and Maritime Academies involved in the project (among which the Naval Academy of Constanta) during the academic year of 2012 – 2013.

This paper gives a description of the first module of the course – Ice-breaker. Introduction to Intercomprehension Module – that was piloted at our institution and outlines its results