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EFFECTS OF A TWO-WEEK EDUCATION ABROAD PROGRAM IN JAPAN: NUTRITION, EXERCISE, FOOD & CULTURE PROGRAM ON STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CONFIDENCE

S Takahashi

Abstract

Shinya Takahashi1

1University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska

The importance of global intercultural communication competency has been emphasized as society has become drastically diverse. In the current investigation, the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES) which had a total of twenty Likert-scale questions was used in the faculty-led education abroad program in Japan which focused on exploring, comparing, and analyzing how eating and physical activity/exercise habits, and the countries’ cultures influence individuals’ well-being between the United States and Japan specifically. PURPOSE: To examine how the faculty-led education abroad course affected students’ intercultural communication confidence based on the IES. METHODS: A total of fifteen students participated in this study. The IES was used before and after the course to assess the students’ confidence levels of intercultural communication. The students spent two weeks in Tokyo and surrounding areas in Japan. The course intentionally focused on interactions with local Japanese students including a middle school, a high school, colleges and universities, and other individuals from community-based or public organizations while most activities were kept within the context of nutrition, exercise, and other health related topics. The students also completed an anonymous post-trip reflection survey to reflect their experiences. RESULTS: The paired samples t-tests revealed significant differences between the pre and post-trip results in the three items in the IES which were “I find it is easy to get along with people from different cultures” (t(13) = -2.51, p < 0.03), “I am able to answer questions effectively when interacting with people from different cultures” (t(13) = -3.24, p < 0.01), and “I find it is difficult to feel my culturally different counterparts are similar to me” respectively” (t(13) = 2.28, p < 0.05). The post-trip reflection survey results supported the positive impact on the students. CONCLUSION: There were positive improvements on the students’ intercultural communication confidence even with the two weeks. When an education abroad program focusing on nutrition, exercise, and other health topics is designed it not only enhances participants’ knowledge but also improve participants’ intercultural communication confidence.

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