Abstract:

A private university in Puebla, México, has created different activities to attract foreign students, as part of its internationalization strategy. One particular action has been increasing the number of courses being taught in English. Courses in English have also attracted local students who want to improve their language skills.

The Business School offers a wide array of courses that are taught in Spanish and English, having the students the opportunity to choose the same content in a different language.

Over the last five semesters, several studies have been conducted to determine the outcomes of the courses taught in both languages. The level of English language was not analyzed. The overall results of students, as well as the positive impacts on both local and foreign students while participating in multicultural classrooms were the focus of the studies.

Three courses were selected for the analysis: Family Business, Strategic Alliances, and Leadership and Change Management. The control groups were the same courses taught in Spanish, in which only local students participated.

Professors teaching the courses in English received special training for dealing with multicultural groups, which helped them develop specific activities to integrate local and international students which in the end created a learning environment characterized by “positive contamination” in working practices leading to better results than those in the groups integrated exclusively by local students. Student’s perspectives about their integration to the group, learning experiences, participation and overall performance were analyzed.

Keywords:

Multicultural courses, comparative studies, positive contamination.