The English language as a reflective judgement component in the intercultural Erasmus exchange to and from Poland

: In the empirical study of intercultural exchange presented in this pa-per, we assessed Erasmus students for knowledge of English as a foreign language (EFL) and their level of reflective judgement, to test for correlation between the two variables. The basic theoretical framing was derived from King and Kitchener’s (1994) reflective judgment model (RJM), based on 3 different levels of reflectivity, connected to progressive cognitive development of adults: pre-reflective, quasi-reflective and reflective. The results of the study show that the students displayed high levels of reflective judgment and importantly, we found a correlation between their standard of English and their level of reflectivity. The ability to communicate in English is a prerequisite to participation in the Erasmus programme, therefore it was expected that the students would score well for English knowledge. However, the results of the study suggest that being competent in the use of English as a foreign language may be a predictor of higher reflectivity amongst students in higher education. This creates a controversial pedagogical implication suggesting that learning English as a foreign language to a high standard fuels reflectivity. no connection between level of reflective judgement and previous studies or stays abroad as an adult and no connection between the level of the second foreign language and the reflective judgement level. However, we found connection between EFL skills and reflective judgment levels. There was a weak statistical correlation between level of reflective judgement and having been abroad as a child, and a stronger connection between level of reflective judgement and the level of English as a foreign language. The results were indicative of tendency to link EFL skills with reflective judgement and vice versa.