Commonly, in Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classes, students use English communicatively with classmates who are primarily Japanese nationals. Consequently, their receptive and productive English language learning skills are limited to interactions with their teacher and other Japanese nationals. Unfortunately, in most Japanese EFL classes, learners can easily rely on using their first language (L1), Japanese, to clarify meaning or resolve conversation disfluency and misunderstanding. Ideally, Japanese EFL learners can better develop their English oral fluency skills if they converse in English with non-Japanese students, both native English speakers and other non-native English speakers, so that they are incapable of relying on Japanese for alleviating communication breakdowns, avoiding grammatical confusion, and preventing vocabulary errors (Yashima, 2009). Most Japanese universities have international exchange students enrolled in study abroad programs; however, many of their classes in Japan are populated with other international exchange students so they often don’t have the opportunity to collaborate with native Japanese students in or outside of the classroom (Yamada, 2021). Japanese EFL students want to improve their English-speaking skills and speaking confidence (Wojtowicz, 2019) and international exchange students hope to interact more naturally with Japanese students and learn about authentic Japanese university life (Taniguchi, Takai, & Skowronski, 2022; Hennings & Tanabe, 2018). To help stop this unnecessary and unwanted segregation, unique courses combining regularly enrolled Japanese students and international exchange students in student-centered classes that promote multicultural and multinational collaboration are becoming more prevalent at universities in Japan (Nam & Cheng-Hai, 2022).

The researchers involved in this research project designed a special course at a university in Japan that allows international exchange students and Japanese national students to enroll together. The course outline explains that students taking the course will gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of international cultural perspectives on various issues, both in Japan and globally. Foreign exchange students will also be able to gain firsthand insight into modern Japanese daily life and regularly enrolled Japanese students will be able to learn about challenges and benefits of studying abroad directly from their international classmates. This course focuses on student-generated discussions based on personal cultural backgrounds and foreign cultural interests. All students must engage in phatic conversation each lesson and actively contribute to building a comfortable, interactive, and communicative class atmosphere. It is not a lecture course.

The following two research questions were addressed to better understand if both international students from globally diverse cultural backgrounds and Japanese national students can not only benefit socially and academically from a multicultural collaboration class, but also become more confident and comfortable engaging and interacting with an assortment of students from an array of ethnical backgrounds:

1. How confident and comfortable do university students from a multitude of nationalities studying in Japan feel interacting and working together socially and academically with multifarious international exchange university students and domestic Japanese university students before and after the completion of a one semester mixed multicultural collaboration course?

2. How beneficial for students with multifarious cultural backgrounds is a one semester university course structured on in-class phatic interactional discussions as well as working together in ethnically mixed groups on academic cultural research projects?

This empirical research explores the belief that a need exists for global universities to provide domestic and international students with more opportunities to interact authentically with each other academically and socially without worrying about being assessed on English language skills or abilities. This research also aims to show that international exchange students studying abroad in Japan want to have more opportunities to engage and interact communicatively, culturally, and interactively with Japanese students in face-to-face classes.

The research conducted in this study employed a mixed-methods research design. Quantitative and Qualitative data were collected from students enrolled in a course designed specifically for international exchange students studying abroad in Japan and Japanese regularly enrolled domestic students entitled “Multicultural Collaboration in English”. The study was conducted during the Spring 2025 and Fall 2025 semesters at a Japanese university. Data were collected from a total of 60 participants (N = 60) at the start and end of the Spring and Fall 2025 semesters from two different classes of the same Multicultural Collaboration in English course. One in the Spring semester and one in the Fall semester. The 60 participants were of the following 19 nationalities: Japanese (17), American (12), French (4), South Korean (4), German (3), Chinese (3), Australian (2), Canadian (2), Italian (2), Norwegian (2), and one each of Austrian, British, Dutch, Latvian, New Zealander, Swiss, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese. No English or Japanese language proficiency test score requirements existed for the international exchange students; however, the regularly enrolled Japanese students needed a TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) proficiency test score of 600 or above (about CEFR B1 Intermediate level) to enrol in the course. For this study, non-probability convenience sampling was utilized since all participants were students taking courses taught by the researchers conducting this study. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a Google Forms survey. The survey consisted of questions based on a five-point Likert scale for respondents to rate how confident and comfortable they felt interacting and working together with multifarious international students socially and academically at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course. The survey also included a question based on a five-point Likert scale asking respondents to rate how beneficial they thought the course was for them after its completion. As for qualitative data, the survey contained an open-ended, written-response item that encouraged the participants to freely explain reasons for their answer to the question asking how beneficial the course was for them. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis to summarize and present the data in a relevant and incisive manner. The qualitative data collected through the open-ended question were analyzed using thematic quantitative content analysis (adapted from Cohen et al., 2011).

RQ1 was answered by analyzing the before and after Likert scale survey responses. Pre-course Low Confidence Ratings (1-2) accounted for 22.7%, however the post-course Low Confidence Rating (2) dropped to 3.8% and there were no (1) Low Confidence Rating responses. This shows that the course was effective in reducing low confidence and discomfort. The percentage of Moderate Confidence and Neutral Comfort Rating (3) from pre-course to post-course responses decreased from 26.4% to 13.2%. The reduction of Moderate Confidence and Neutral Comfort Rating responses mainly moved to Higher Confidence Ratings. Pre-course High Confidence Ratings (4-5) accounted for 50.9% of responses but the post-course responses spiked to 83%. Post-course responses show that most respondents reported feeling confident and comfortable working with international students both socially and academically. RQ2 asked students’ how beneficial the Multicultural Collaboration Course in English was for them. The Likert scale quantitative survey response data analysis showed that 53% of the responses were of the highest rating (5) and the (4) rating was chosen by 34% of respondents. 9% of responses indicated a neutral or mild benefit rating of (3) with only 4% of the students selecting a low rating of (2). There were no (1) ratings. Overall, the responses indicate that the course was highly beneficial for most students. Open ended qualitative survey results were analyzed by identifying and quantifying specific themes from the data. The quantitative thematic analysis results for noticeable common themes in the course benefits show the most frequently identified benefits of the course were increased confidence (20%), social connection (17%), improved communication skills (15%), intercultural understanding (14%), teamwork building (12%), enjoyment and motivation (10%), future planning, and lastly vague limited benefits (4%). Ultimately this suggests the course had a meaningful and beneficial impact on students.

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