Bridging the Gap Between Conceptualisation & Assessment of Intercultural Competence

This paper aims at deconstructing the intercultural competence assessment task by building a coherent framework to assess the IC of incoming Campus Europae students at the University of Aveiro in 2011/12. Our discussion focuses on pre/post-test design survey techniques, by reflecting upon the process of moving from the first to the improved final version of a pre-test questionnaire partly adapted from the YOGA format Assessment of Intercultural Competence questionnaire. Findings provide practical ideas on how to lessen the social desirability bias of this type of questionnaires, whilst prioritising the specific aspects of intercultural competence to be measured.