Interpersonal communication and intercultural communication
Our perspective on communication is a complex concept that implies a comprehensive socio-linguistic and pragmalinguistic competence. Knowing how to communicate does not only mean knowing how to use linguistic tools (vocabulary, syntax, morphology, phonetics, specialised terminology, etc) in one's own or another's community; but also being able to use the linguistic tools in a way that is suitable to social and situational contexts, and therefore, in relation to the interlocutor, the places, the aims, the intentions that one wants to convey. Furthermore, the concept of communication is rather wide and comprises varied fields: from verbal communication (words and, generally, linguistic heritage) to visual communication (images, forms, colours), from oral verbal communication to written verbal communication, from paraverbal (voice) communication to nonverbal communication (body language). Communication is therefore the basis and medium of every social event: social processes are not possible without communication.
Communication is a multilateral process and, consequently, it is extremely sensitive to interferences; the result of which is the fruit of everybody's participation. It is, therefore, an interactive practice whose repercussions are of fundamental importance in professional and institutional life.
In this paper we focus especially on oral communication because it is central in any encounter between adults-in-mobility and adults-professionally-in-contact-with-mobility; furthermore, it is the way of communication adults-in-mobility mainly practice. However, misunderstanding can also appear in written communication, and since the adults-in-mobility have to rely on their own assumptions what the written text is about, this kind of communication can be even more problematic, so that the whole interaction can break down (cf. Klein/Caruana ed. 2008).
