Intercultural (communicative) competence, global citizenship, cultural sensitivity and similar terms have become part of our everyday vocabulary when we describe what we want to do in foreign language classrooms. However, when we examine our practice more closely it becomes clear that teaching and assessing intercultural competence (IC) requires much thought and hard work. With the ever-growing demands on teachers, it is understandable that there is not always enough time to integrate IC. This book tells the story of a group of language educators from a variety of backgrounds who made the commitment to design units that integrate IC in a systematic way. In other words, we decided to design together IC units based on a sound theoretical framework, and then teach and assess them in the classroom. In the following chapters we share the products, practices and perspectives – to borrow a phrase from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Guidelines – resulting from that collaboration.

Project Development as Cooperation

Our experience on this and previous occasions, and in other countries, has shown that curriculum development is most effective when there is collaboration. Theories and ideas for change are modified and improved by classroom implementation, and the novelty of experimentation stimulates teachers' imagination in realizing ideas in practice. This is why we consider it an important part of this book to give an account of our cooperation, in the hope that it will incite others to find ways of working together across institutional and disciplinary boundaries.

Here is how our story began:

• Rita: Manuela, why don't you ask your students to come to Glastonbury during your graduate course and see what we do? They may be able to help us.

• Manuela: That's a great idea. Let me think about it.

The current project was a continuation of prior collaborations between a public school in Glastonbury, CT, the University of Connecticut (USA) and the University of Durham (UK).