In 1999, Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm (LHS), Aalborg Seminarium (AS) and the Amsterdam Faculty of Education (EFA) decided to co-operate intensively in the project TL2L (Teaching and Learning in a Second Language). The overall aim of our project is to increase student and staff mobility, and to confront all students at LHS, AS and EFA with the international and intercultural elements in their subjects and in teaching. After having cooperated in this project for a year, LHS, AS and EFA submitted a proposal for a Comenius 2.1 grant and obtained a grant for a three year period. At the start of the second phase, in January 2003, St Kliment Ohridsky University in Sofia joined as a fourth partner. Znanie Association in the same city is an associated partner.

A core element in the project is the joint development of English-medium modules in all subjects (so not just languages), which will also have an element of joint delivery. Staff involved in these modules receive in-service training in English and in teaching in English.

With these modules, LHS, AS and EFA will integrate visiting and home students so that there is a visible international/intercultural element in the curricula of students who stay in their own country for their studies. These modules will also form an excellent preparation for students who are planning to study abroad at a later date, and (if taken in large enough doses) for students who are planning to use English as the medium of instruction for their subject teaching. TL2L thus ties in with the growth of bilingual education worldwide. Finally, TL2L will make students more aware of the role of language in the teaching and learning process and will help them to teach more effectively in their native language, especially to pupils who have a different first language.

At the moment the medium of instruction at the participating institutes is almost exclusively the majority of the students' native language (Swedish and Dutch, respectively). This stands in the way of in-depth international projects between students and staff of these institutes. As a consequence, student mobility becomes too incidental, and those students who do not study abroad for a period of time (the majority of students) are hardly or not at all confronted with international aspects of their subjects and future profession (teaching).

At the same time, a trend is visible in primary and especially secondary education towards plurilingual schools. A structural approach to the training of future teachers at these schools is needed, as is a structural approach to the international and intercultural aspects of teaching at monolingual and plurilingual schools.

In the third place, the increasingly multicultural population of the primary and secondary schools requires teachers who have acquired linguistic and intercultural awareness.

Finally, in many European countries the number of teacher education students has decreased at an alarming rate in the past decade. Partly, this can be attributed to preconceptions among potential students about the teaching profession as being static. More emphasis on the international and intercultural aspects of teaching may help combat this perception.