The effect of “cross-cultural language practice activities” on anxiety relief in sino-foreign cooperative education programs

Abstract Background The internationalization of higher education has intensified challenges for students in Sino-foreign cooperative programs, including language barriers, cultural differences, and academic pressure, which often lead to significant anxiety and hinder learning effectiveness and cross-cultural adaptation. Existing interventions frequently detach psychological support from academic contexts, resulting in inadequate targeting. This study therefore proposes a systematic and structured "cross-cultural language practice activity" as an embedded intervention. By creating a practice environment that integrates cultural awareness, situational simulation, and authentic interaction, the program aims to enhance students’ communicative self-efficacy and provide empirical evidence for innovating support systems in cooperative education. Methods A total of 120 children aged 3-6 years clinically diagnosed with ASD were enrolled and randomly divided into an intervention group (n = 60) and a control group (n = 60). The intervention group received 12-week special preschool education intervention (5 sessions/week, 60 min/session), including social skills training, emotional regulation training, and sensory integration activities. The control group only received routine daily care and regular game activities. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) were used for psychological assessment at pre-intervention (T0), mid-intervention (Week 6, T1), and post-intervention (Week 12, T2). Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for statistical analysis with a significance level of p.05, and Cohen’s d effect size was calculated to evaluate the magnitude of intervention effects. Results The experimental results are shown in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the total GAD-7 score of the experimental group significantly decreased from 10.2 ± 3.1 at T0 to 5.8 ± 2.5 at T2 (p.001), indicating a significant alleviation of generalized anxiety symptoms. Similarly, the total FLCAS score of the experimental group significantly decreased from 98.6 ± 12.4 at T0 to 76.3 ± 10.9 at T2 (p.001), demonstrating a substantial reduction in foreign language classroom anxiety levels. In contrast, no significant changes were observed in the scores of the control group on either scale from T0 to T2 (p.05). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant interaction effects between time and group for both GAD-7 and FLCAS scores (GAD-7: F = 15.83, p.001; FLCAS: F = 20.14, p.001). Discussion Following the 12-week intervention, students in the Sino-foreign cooperative program showed significant alleviation of anxiety. The intervention not only reduced generalized anxiety but also notably lowered foreign language classroom anxiety. These findings suggest that structured cross-cultural practice in a supportive environment can enhance students’ self-efficacy, providing empirical support for designing embedded and experiential support systems in such programs. Future research could extend follow-up periods to assess long-term effects and compare the efficacy of different activity modules to develop more targeted and personalized intervention strategies.