Paper short abstract:

Focused on the speech of female Italian exchange students studying in Japan, this research aimed to clarify the improvement of their plurilingual and pluricultural competence, as well as examine ideal conditions for lifelong career building in the process.

Paper long abstract:

Focused on the speech of female Italian exchange students studying in Japan, this research aimed to clarify the improvement of their plurilingual and pluricultural competence, as well as examine ideal conditions for lifelong career building in the process.

Many European exchange students in higher education institutions in Japan have existing plurilingual and pluricultural experiences, so Japanese language and sociocultural experiences represent a foray into yet another culture. Conversely, Chinese students, the majority of exchange students, and English-speaking exchange students usually arrive in Japan with only one other linguistic and cultural experience. Even with prior cultural experiences, female Italian exchange students are not always comfortable with the challenges of Japan. Nonetheless, some build their career potential by improving plurilingual and pluricultural competence here.

This study focused on six subjects, all female Italian exchange students at high intermediate or advanced levels of Japanese, who had already decided their career path after graduation. Narrative interviews (2-4 hours) were conducted about each exchange student's life and future career Then, in order to visualize each subject's conceptual structure about exchange student life and career, character code data was converted from the interview content and was analyzed using Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). Finally, from each subject's conceptual structure and narrative data, improvement in plurilingual and pluricultural competence, as well as building a lifelong career based on the results, were analyzed.

Through increased language acquisition, interpersonal exchange and sociocultural experiences, in addition to conflict and loss of self-efficacy, these students managed to develop deeper "self-awareness and other consciousness." They also accepted support from empathetic Italians and Japanese, i.e., familiar people, as cross-cultural translators. This research showed these students internalizing Japanese language and Japanese sociocultural elements, thereby improving plurilingual and pluricultural competence by making successful distinctions among various identities, which indicates flexible adaptability, They also produced original work that crossed sociocultural boundaries between the homeland and Japan, which resulted in lifelong career building.

It is the author's belief that the results of this research may be able to contribute to fostering the type of plurilingual and pluricultural competence that leads to lifelong career building.