Japanese University Students’ Pre-Course Perceptions of American Society, Group Formation, and Discrimination: Implications for Needs Analysis in Intercultural Teaching

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted as a pre-course survey in a university class on American society and culture to identify students’ perceptions before formal instruction. It aimed to explore how these initial perceptions could inform intercultural teaching and learning, particularly regarding classroom design. Students’ pre-course responses were treated as a form of needs analysis, examining what they suggested about designing a course on American society. Text mining and co-occurrence network analysis were used to examine the responses of 127 Japanese university students to open-ended questions. The analysis focused on how students described American society, group formation, and differences between discrimination and distinction. The results suggested that students often described positive values and social issues. They emphasized psychological factors in group formation and evaluated discrimination by considering fairness in specific situations. These patterns suggest that students do not enter the classroom with fixed views. Students’ initial ideas can provide starting points for classroom discussions, reflections, and activities, encouraging them to reconsider their interpretation of cultural differences. The findings also suggest how text-mining tools can turn students’ words into concrete input for course design, indicating a practical, low-cost model for technology-enhanced needs analysis that could be used in other language and intercultural classrooms.