Natural Sciences or Humanities? A Case Study of Japanese University Students’ Awareness in Second Language Learning

This study investigates how university students implicitly position second language learning in relation to other subjects, based on their experiences within the pre-college curriculum in Japan. Factor analysis of preference data collected from 793 university students across 20 subjects, including English (as a second language), revealed no overarching factors that connected English with other disciplines in models with fewer factors. However, when the number of factors was increased to seven, English demonstrated a moderate loading (0.5), but this factor also exhibited an association with P.E. Rather than forming a distinct thematic category, it appeared to group of “miscellaneous” subjects. Alternatively, it might represent the “subjects involving intentional activity,” depending on factor loadings. The supplementary regression analysis suggests that preferences for subjects other than English and their English proficiency are not significantly related. Nevertheless, as only five factors accounted for statistically significant variance in the observed data, the results suggest that rigidly categorizing second language learning within a specific academic domain may have limited interpretive value.