New perspectives in intercultural competence and cultural inclusion of students: a case study of international students in the US

International audienceThe purpose of this paper is to present the way international students in the USA utilize their multilingual and multicultural background in order to communicate in daily life and how they adapt to their new environment. In this presentation, we look into the students' social, cultural, and linguistic perceptions of their practices and we demonstrate how they comprehend the significant role that their multicultural and multilingual background plays in their everyday life. The question we try to answer is how international students develop an intercultural competence through the challenges of their educational and cultural encounters. We argue that international students-in a world that is increasingly interconnected through global migrations-exercise their multicultural and multilingual competences along a fluid continuum between their cultural and linguistic repertoire in order to communicate effectively in different social, cultural and domain-specific contexts. We also find responses to questions about how they perceive the asset of having several languages and cultures in their repertoires and the issues they face as international students in adapting themselves in a different culture and way of life. By employing both a quantitative and a qualitative approach in this research to analyze the students' responses to the questionnaires, this article provides critical insights on intercultural competence of international students and the principles of the day-today management of their cultural encounters in an immersive environment