Today the majority of children and teenagers in many countries spend a great deal of time doing extramural English activities, where playing games is included. It is therefore important to study how extramural English activities affect students’ proficiency. This thesis aims to investigate how games as an extramural activity, and extramural English activities in general could benefit upper secondary EFL and ESL students’ English language proficiency. The method used was that of a systematic literature review where six studies from varying places and with participants of varying ages and levels of education were analyzed and compared. The results show that five of the articles found a positive correlation between time spent on extramural English activities and English grades and/or vocabulary, while on study showed that there was no correlation between time spent on extramural English activities and development of academic vocabulary in students who had already reached a high level of proficiency. More research is needed in the field, particularly studies establishing causation rather than just correlation, longitudinal studies, as well as studies investigating whether gender is an important factor affecting the potential benefits of extramural English activities.

Swedish learners of English have problems in managing the subject-verb agreement rule (Källqvist and Petersson 2006, Estling Vannestål 2015). Studies show that extramural activities in English improve language acquisition and language production (Sundqvist 2009). The aim of the essay is to investigate whether extramural activities affect students’ ability to correctly apply the subject-verb agreement rule. A google questionnaire was handed out to 64 students in the course of English 5 in upper secondary school. The students were asked to answer questions about their extramural habits and to do a test on subject-verb agreement. The results indicate that students have knowledge of the subject-verb agreement rule to some extent and that extramural activities in English may possibly have some impact on the ability to correctly apply the subject-verb agreement rule. The results could also be due to the academic motivation. The results show that the difference across gender is negligible but that there is a slightly larger difference across preparatory programs and vocational programs.

In a world where we are increasingly connected to one another, the English language surrounds us here in Sweden. Children today grow up in an environment where they are exposed to the English language and the Swedish language simultaneously through various media and activities. The informal learning that children gain through their activities has received more and more attention in recent years. The English that pupils learn outside of school has become known as extramural English. Thus, it is of interest to investigate the perspectives of English teachers in Sweden regarding extramural English and to what extent they incorporate it into their teaching. This study briefly explains extramural English as a phenomenon, discuss relevant theories and delve into previous research on the subject. The methods that are used for this investigation is a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The target group for the research methods are English teachers with varying backgrounds. The results suggest that the majority of the participants perceive extramural activities as a valuable asset. However, the results further indicate that the teachers have a greater reluctance to integrate it into their teaching, and rather recognise it as a complementary tool to education. The study draws attention to the strengths of pupils' extramural activities, how motivation is a key factor in second language learning, as well as the complications in implementing these activities into teaching. The discussion further highlights the syllabus' connection to the results of the study.

This paper investigates the informal environment that pupils ages 3-12 are a part of while they are not in school and how extramural tools aid their vocabulary learning. According to Sundqvist and Wikström (2016) children today are growing up in a world of digital development and advancement and at the same time being a part of it. This study will discuss if pupils are in the mindset of learning when using digital tools within an informal environment or not. Previous research within this field provide key information regarding pupils who were gaming in their free time using the English language daily playing games, interacting and producing the language was key for vocabulary development (Russell, 2016). This paper will investigate different aspects that may have an effect on the students’ vocabulary learning within the classroom. Furthermore, this paper will review and discuss how this way of learning may be transmitted over to the formal environment in the classroom.

This study examined the extramural activities, that is, what a language learner does with the target language outside of class time, in Japanese of adult beginner level foreign language learners of Japanese studying at Stockholm University, Sweden, and how these activities relate to Japanese language proficiency. The study looked at both extramural activities and foreign language proficiency from a holistic and quantitative perspective. The participants' extramural activities were measured through self-reported data in a questionnaire, and several measures; a cloze test, earlier grades, and self-evaluations; were triangulated and used to provide an adequate measure of general Japanese language proficiency.    The results indicate that extramural activities which provide a foreign language learner with enough time for thorough processing of input and support through the usage of several cooperating modalities seem to have a positive effect on general foreign language acquisition.

This study investigates two vocabulary exercises where the participant students receive an assigned set of words to put into sentences, one being a more traditional written exercise, the other being an exercise where students make a vlog using the assigned words. Two upper secondary school classes in Sweden participated in the experiment, including responding to a Likert attitude questionnaire. The hypothesis used in this paper is derived of Pegrum’s third category, of higher integration between school and everyday life, and that this would lead to better results for the students who completed the vlogging exercise. The two participating classes were each divided into two group halves, and each group half received one written exercise and one vlogging exercise – consequently each class half acted as a control group for the other half. The responses gathered were divided into three categories, ‘Correct’, ‘Undetermined’, and ‘Failed’. The results disprove that the vlogging exercise offers a significant improvement over the traditional written exercise, and thusly confirms the No Significant Difference phenomenon.

Extramural English (EE) activities are activities in English that students spend time on outside of school. Previous studies have often concluded that EE activities have a positive effect on students’ English proficiency. The phrasal verb is a language feature which often causes problems for learners of English as a second language. Phrasal verbs are multi-word phrases whose meaning cannot be guessed by the learner, often causing them to avoid using them. This study investigates the phrasal verb usage among Swedish secondary school students and if it is possible to link the usage to level of engagement in popular EE activities. The source of data for this study is the Swedish Learners English Corpus (SLEC), which contains texts written by Swedish secondary school students. An important feature that makes this corpus suitable for this study is that the metadata contains information about time spent on EE activities among the students. The analysis of the phrasal verb usage is structured around a three-level analysis of phrasal verb constructions. Although some differences in the use were noted, the study shows that phrasal verbs are a language feature which is not affected by amount of time spent on EE activities to a significant extent. / Extramural engelska (EE)-aktiviteter är aktiviteter på engelska som elever spenderar tid på utanför skolan. Tidigare studier har ofta kommit fram till att EE-aktiviteter har en positiv effekt på elevernas engelska kunskaper. Frasverb är en språkfunktion som ofta orsakar problem för elever som studerar engelska som andraspråk. Frasverb är fraser som består av flera ord och vars betydelse inte kan gissas av eleven, vilket ofta får dem att undvika att använda dem. Denna studie undersöker användningen av frasverb bland svenska högstadieoch gymnasieelever och om det är möjligt att koppla användningen till hur mycket tid de spenderar på populära EE-aktiviteter. Datakällan för denna studie är ’Swedish Learners English Corpus’ (SLEC), som innehåller texter skrivna av svenska högstadie- och gymnasieelever. En viktig del som gör denna korpus lämplig för studien är attkorpusens metadata innehåller information om hur mycket tid som läggs på EE-aktiviteter bland studenterna. Analysen av användningen av frasverb-konstruktioner är uppbyggd kring en analys i tre nivåer. Även om vissa skillnader i användningen noterades, visar studien att frasverb är en språkfunktion som inte påverkas av mängden tid som spenderas på EE-aktiviteter i betydande utsträckning.