Creating a more inclusive international experience: Facilitating peer interaction in multicultural classrooms

Emma Duffy is a Lecturer in TESOL. Emma is also Programme Leader of the BA Languages, Linguistics and TESOL programmes and the Pre-sessional English courses at the University.

Context

International students bring valuable cultural and educational perspectives to UK higher education but creating an international experience that is genuinely inclusive involves more than bringing students from different countries together. Universities also need to consider how differences in previous educational experiences, cultural expectations and confidence can affect students’ participation in classroom activities. 

Peer interaction is particularly important in language education. Interaction gives students opportunities to use English, negotiate meaning, learn from their peers and develop confidence in communicating. However, international students may arrive with very different experiences of classroom interaction. Some may have had limited opportunities to speak English or participate in discussion and debate, while others may be more accustomed to teacher-led approaches.

This was the starting point for my MA dissertation, which investigated the effect of culture on peer interaction in a multicultural pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom at Manchester Metropolitan University. The research asked two questions: how does culture affect peer interaction, and how can teachers facilitate interaction between students from different cultures? The study used classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with students and teaching staff.

What did the research find?

One important finding was that culture did have an influence on peer interaction, but not in a straightforward or predictable way. Students’ previous educational experiences appeared particularly significant. Some participants described having had relatively few opportunities to communicate in English with their peers in their previous education. This could mean that students arriving in a UK classroom, where discussion, collaboration and student participation are often expected, were being asked to participate in ways that were unfamiliar to them.

The research also identified the influence of religious culture and gender. In the particular cohort studied, some Muslim students preferred to work with members of the same gender. However, this did not represent an insurmountable barrier as students did interact across genders when teachers facilitated the groupings appropriately.

Interestingly, some perceptions about nationalities and interaction were not supported by classroom observations. Participants and teachers sometimes associated particular nationalities with being quieter or more vocal but observed behaviour did not always correspond to these expectations. This highlights an important danger of treating culture as fixed or assuming that nationality determines how an individual student will behave.

The strongest finding was therefore not that particular cultures interact in particular ways. Rather, students need to feel comfortable and supported if they are to participate confidently with their peers.

What can teachers do?

The research identified several practical strategies that can help create the conditions for interaction.

First, teachers can deliberately create opportunities for students from different cultural backgrounds to work together. Students were often more likely to use English when working with peers who did not share their first language. However, this needs to be balanced with sensitivity to individual circumstances and cultural or religious preferences.

Second, group size matters. Students in the study generally found pairs or groups of two or three more comfortable for interaction. Larger groups could result in stronger or more confident speakers dominating, while less confident students sometimes became reluctant to contribute. At the same time, students progressing into higher education need opportunities to develop the confidence to participate in larger seminars. A useful approach may therefore be to scaffold participation, moving from smaller groups towards larger-group discussion rather than expecting students to make this transition immediately.

Third, the classroom environment matters. Students described wanting to work with peers who would support rather than ridicule them. Teachers can contribute to this by explicitly establishing expectations around respect, encouraging students when they participate and providing opportunities for students to get to know one another. Familiarity can help students feel more comfortable, while changing groupings can also encourage them to develop relationships beyond their immediate friendship groups.

Finally, interaction needs to have a purpose. Students reported that personal topics, relevant academic tasks, games and competitive activities could all provide reasons to communicate. Academic tasks were particularly valuable because they simultaneously developed interaction and prepared students for the collaborative demands of their future university studies.

What does this mean for the international experience?

The research suggests that an inclusive international experience cannot simply be created by putting students from different countries in the same classroom. Interaction needs to be facilitated. This has implications beyond the EAP classroom. If students are reluctant to communicate with peers because they are unfamiliar with collaborative learning, worried about making mistakes or uncertain about what is expected of them, they may have fewer opportunities to develop relationships and participate fully in university life. Teachers therefore have an important role in helping students understand the expectations of the academic environment while also respecting the experiences they bring with them. The aim should not be to suggest that one culture is better than another, but to make expectations explicit and give students opportunities to develop the skills and confidence they need to operate successfully in a new academic context.

Next steps

The key implication is that supporting international students should involve deliberate, sustained work on classroom interaction, rather than assuming that students will naturally integrate simply because they are placed together.

In practice, this means thinking carefully about groupings, group size, classroom layout, task design and opportunities for students to build confidence. It also means recognising that ‘quiet’ does not necessarily mean ‘unwilling to participate’. A student’s previous educational experience, confidence and familiarity with the classroom environment may all be contributing to their behaviour.

Ultimately, creating a positive international experience means creating classrooms where students are not simply present alongside difference, but are supported to learn, communicate and collaborate across it.

References

Aubrey, S. (2011) ‘Facilitating interaction in East Asian EFL classrooms: Increasing students’ willingness to communicate’, Language Education in Asia, 2(2), pp. 237–245. Available at: https://leia.org/LEiA/LEiA%20VOLUMES/Download/LEiA_V2_I2_2011/LEiA_V2I2A06_Aubrey.pdf (Accessed: 27 August 2026).

Cao, Y. and Philp, J. (2006) ‘Interactional context and willingness to communicate: A comparison of behaviour in whole class, group and dyadic interaction’, System, 34(4), pp. 480–493. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X06000820?via%3Dihub (Accessed: 27 August 2026).

De Saint Leger, D. and Storch, N. (2009) ‘Learners’ perceptions and attitudes: Implications for willingness to communicate in an L2 classroom’, System, 37(2), pp. 269–285. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X09000116?via%3Dihub (Accessed: 27 August 2026).

Gozcu, E. and Caganaga, C. (2016) ‘The importance of using games in EFL classrooms’, Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences, 11(3), pp. 126–135. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1140747.pdf (Accessed: 27 August 2026).

Jin, L. and Cortazzi, M. (1996) ‘This way is very different from Chinese ways: EAP needs and academic culture’, in M. Hewings and T. Dudley-Evans (eds), Evaluation and Course Design in EAP. Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd, pp. 205–216.

Xiuwen, Z. and Razali, A. (2020) ‘Challenges with intercultural communication faced by international Chinese students and the importance of developing intercultural communicative competence’, Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(13), pp. 644-650. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiuwen-Zhai/publication/354495852_Journal_of_Critical_Reviews_CHALLENGES_WITH_INTERCULTURAL_COMMUNICATION_FACED_BY_INTERNATIONAL_CHINESE_STUDENTS_AND_THE_IMPORTANCE_OF_DEVELOPING_INTERCULTURAL_COMMUNICATIVE_COMPETENCE/links/613b24c9d17f314a0239a459/Journal-of-Critical-Reviews-CHALLENGES-WITH-INTERCULTURAL-COMMUNICATION-FACED-BY-INTERNATIONAL-CHINESE-STUDENTS-AND-THE-IMPORTANCE-OF-DEVELOPING-INTERCULTURAL-COMMUNICATIVE-COMPETENCE.pdf (Accessed: 27 August 2026).