Using Life Stories of International Students to Understand the Process of Making a career plan

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370594
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: Saga University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAYAMA AKIKO 佐賀大学, 全学教育機構, 准教授 (20549141)
• Research Collaborator: SATO Masanori
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ライフストーリー / 学部留学生 / 留学 / 韓国人留学生 / 中国人留学生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In our research, eleven life stories of Chinese and Korean undergraduate students ― who are studying or have studied in Japan ― are examined with two main questions in mind: how do they make their career plan such as where find a job or going to graduate school? And what are the significant issues in making these visions? Life stories made from the interviews indicate that a) having a comfortable place to speak Japanese is necessary in making a decision for finding employment in Japan; and b) having a good role model plays a crucial role in shaping their career plan. Our research also suggest that alternative Japanese teaching ― in which the emphasis is placed on helping the learner build a positive Japanese speaking self. In the future we want to refine our research methods and use life stories as part of the classroom curriculum and evaluate how effective they are in improving students’ sense of self as Japanese language users.

Free Research Field

日本語教育