An Integrated Conceptual Framework for Understanding Learners Experiences in Japanese Language Learning: Bridging Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Intercultural Communicative Competence

Abstract

This paper proposes an integrated conceptual framework for understanding learners’ experiences in Japanese language learning by bridging Adler’s Cross-Cultural Adaptation Theory and Byram’s Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) model. While existing research in Japanese language education has extensively examined linguistic challenges, motivation, and pedagogical practices, these dimensions are often treated in isolation, resulting in a fragmented understanding of learners’ developmental trajectories. Positioned as a conceptual article, this study does not report empirical data but instead advances theoretical clarification. It argues that language learning, particularly in culturally dense contexts such as Japanese, is best understood as an intercultural, emotional, and identity-related process rather than a purely technical acquisition. Adler’s framework contributes a developmental lens that illuminates psychological transformation, disorientation, and identity negotiation, while Byram’s model specifies the architecture of intercultural capabilities including attitudes, knowledge, skills, and critical cultural awareness. By integrating these perspectives, the paper reconceptualises learner challenges not as deficits but as meaningful stages of intercultural becoming. The resulting framework offers a coherent theoretical lens for future research design, interpretation, and pedagogical reflection in Japanese language education and other interculturally embedded language learning contexts. The contribution of this article lies in conceptual synthesis rather than empirical generalisation, providing a theoretically defensible foundation for understanding language learning as an intercultural developmental process.