Abstract
This research sheds light on the orientation of science students toward English language learning and provides suggestions for educational intervention. Two research questions are based on this objective: RQ1 “What is the relationship between proficiency and goal clarity?” and RQ2 “What is the relationship between emotional polarity and proficiency and learning?” The survey was conducted with students in the science department of a private Japanese university; they answered open-ended questions in a free writing format. The answers were scored on the degree of abstractness and emotional polarity, while statistical analysis and text mining were also conducted. From RQ1, we found that high-proficiency students tend to have clearer goals and emphasize the acceptance of content in English, while, for low-proficiency students, the act of using English itself is the purpose. From RQ2, we found no correlation between proficiency and emotional polarity, but that high-proficiency students tended to strongly emphasize pragmatic extrinsic motives over intrinsic motives. These results suggest that, for science students, it is more effective to emphasize English language learning’s practical aspect, and that it is particularly important to inform low-proficiency students that English is a tool that can be used to expand their options.
https://ror.org/020wjcq07 
