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.

Swedish pupils are exposed to English outside school to a large extent today, which makes English Foreign Language (EFL) teaching challenging in several ways. The topic for this study arouse when some pupils expressed that working with text and workbooks or digital teaching materials tended to be boring or lacking challenges. Pupils meet English in various environments and in order to be able to communicate they need to have a language, not just knowing about a language. The Swedish curriculum emphasizes the importance of pupils being presented to teaching aids which can provide them with a rich and dynamic language, as well as authentic content in order to reflect on and enhance their own use of language. Previous research showed that working with authentic materials and authentic recipients may provide pupils with learning situations that promote communication and motivation to enhance pupil’s English knowledge. In order to explore Swedish EFL teachers’ perceptions on working with authentic recipients in grades 4-6, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Results from the questionnaire and interviews show that Swedish EFL teachers include activities with authentic recipients to some extent, but there seem to be a discrepancy between how often they do it and to what extent they wish to do it. The results also show that there is a discrepancy between what kind of activities teachers perform and what kind of activities they would like to perform. The results of teachers’ beliefs in this study may contribute to further research on possibilities to facilitate the use of authentic recipients in EFLteaching, if preferred.

Any activities where English can be encountered in outside of school, have been labeled by Sundqvist (2009) as “extramural English activities”. One of these activities is playing games (both digital and board games), which in accordance to the research by Sundqvist (2009) and Sundqvist and Sylvén (2012) has a great impact on the learner’s English proficiency. In accordance to these prior findings, the focus of this degree project is on the gaming habits of year three students in Swedish elementary school. After presenting a theoretical background and key elements from earlier research, I examine to what extend the students play digital games, what type of games are played and most importantly; do students in year three play digital games in English? Further on, I investigate the student’s vocabulary proficiency and connect the two parts of my research together, searching for correlations between time spent gaming and vocabulary depth. This degree project also includes a gender aspect and compares gaming habits and vocabulary proficiency of girls and boys, along with interviews with four teachers and their perception on students’ participation in extramural activities and English motivation.

In Sweden, 50% of all teenagers between the ages 12-18 spend at least three hours a day, spending their time on anything from digital games to YouTube and homework research. Given the popularity of such activities, it is worthwhile investigating to what degree any one of them might be used to help facilitate English second language learning. Research show that digital games use lead to an enhanced vocabulary comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking comprehension, lowered anxiety level and enhanced willingness to communicate for L2 English learners. In the current study we used a qualitative teacher interviews and a quantitative student questionnaires to determine to what extent Swedish elementary school teachers and students in the southern part of Sweden perceive extramural multiplayer online games as being effective for facilitating L2 learning motivation and vocabulary acquisition, as well as their strategies for implementing digital gaming. The major conclusions of this study from both a teacher and student perception is that the motivation is enhanced in students who are frequent gamers, also enhancing their motivation in the classroom to learn English. Additionally, teachers found a wider vocabulary and knowledge of synonyms in students who frequently play games.

Abstract The aim of this study is to expound on the gender discrepancy that is present in the English subject in the Swedish school, where female students generally and consistently attain higher grades. We do so by investigating any gender differences in motivation to learn a second language (L2). Further, we apply a gender perspective as we research the motivating effect of incidental English as L2 learning through out-of-school activities, known as extramural English (EE) activities. The study provides a summary of five articles that examine the effect that gender has on motivation and four articles that explore how exposure to and use of EE act as a motivator for male and female students separately. The articles show that female students in general are more motivated to learn an L2. Moreover, a possible explanation for this gender difference is different self-constructs and societal expectations. These findings are relevant to the Swedish educational context since the curriculum for the compulsory school states that all teaching should be equivalent, meaning that all students’ different needs and prerequisites should be taken into account. This includes variations in motivation. On the matter of EE activities, there is a stronger connection between time spent on EE hobbies and school performance for male students, especially for those who play digital games with a communicative aspect; this may offer a solution for the aforementioned gender discrepancy in grades. Nevertheless, there needs to be further research on how to bring the benefits from EE activities into the English classroom.

English holds a significant status as a lingua franca in Sweden, offering regular contact opportunities for learners through media consumption and entertainment, starting at a young age. Exposure to English outside the walls of the formal language classroom has been extensively studied especially in conjunction with students’ motivation, vocabulary acquisition, and oral proficiency (cf. Sundqvist & Sylven, 2016). This study examines the impact of self-reported time spent on extramural English (EE) exposure on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of written proficiency among lower-secondary students in Sweden. The research focuses on the quantitative measures of complexity and accuracy in argumentative essays (N=20) as well as quantitative measures of fluency in argumentative essays (N=53) taken from a sample of the corpus of Swedish learners of English (SLEC). The findings show that there are positive correlations between EE and complexity, as indicated by lexical diversity and lexical sophistication. Additionally, the normalized error ratio suggests that EE is associated with fewer errors in students' writing. Fluency, measured by written words per minute, aligns with students' self-reported EE contacts, with high-frequency EE users producing longer essays. While group-level findings indicate a positive influence of EE on written proficiency, individual-level analysis reveals a non-linear and complex relationship between contact with EE and written proficiency components. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating students' EE experiences into the formal language classroom to maximize the benefits of extramural English.

The present study concerns itself with incidental acquisition of vocabulary through the consumption of English language media in an extramural setting by Chinese L1 speakers. The design of the study carried the intent to mimic an incidental acquisition through reading scenario so as to give insight into to what extent extramural English could benefit a demographic whose exposure to English outside of the classroom is low. This qualitative study featured both a treatment group and a control group and implemented a pretest – treatment – posttest structure wherein study data was gathered through four multiple-choice vocabulary tests. Two multiple-choice tests provided contextual examples of the lexical items by means of an example sentence while the other two did not. Both pretest and posttest contained one of each multiple-choice test with the context-free test being administered first and the contextual test being administered immediately upon the completion of the former. The data thus gathered was analyzed statistically and inferentially with results showing that consumption of written English language media lead to appreciable vocabulary gains.

The purpose of this degree paper is to look at some adolescents’ use of English inconversations outside of school. Adolescents in today’s society come into contact with theEnglish language in various different ways and one of these can be through oral interactionwith others.By using a mixed-method approach consisting of a questionnaire and interviews thisqualitative study provides an insight into some adolescents’ extramural Englishinteractions. The goal is to find out why some students at a school in the south of Swedenchoose to speak English in settings where there is no apparent reason for them to do so. Theaim is also to see what the conversations look like and what attitudes the students havetowards English. It was found that the main reason is because the students think it is morefun to speak English than Swedish. They claimed that they can express themselves better inEnglish and that it sounds better to speak English. The conversations occur spontaneouslyand errors are corrected. Two groups of students were interviewed and their answersdiffered, because their attitudes towards English differed. The students, who engaged themost in extramural English conversations, were well aware of the usefulness of English.

This research paper aims to investigate if the incorporation of students’ extramural English (EE) activities, such as watching movies or playing computer games, into the English classroom affect their motivation. This research was inspired by The School Inspectorate’s (Skolinspektionen, 2011) conclusion that too many Swedish students find English lessons un-motivating as well as boring. Partly to blame for this problem is the lack of perceived authenticity in the English classroom when compared to the activities that the students are engaged in outside of school (EE). Since this gap between school English and out-of-school English is creating un-motivated students in the classroom, this paper aims to describe learner motivation towards the English language, and whether incorporating students EE activities can increase their motivation. This is done with the support of different theories of motivation as well as the current globalized landscape, with English being considered a global language. One teacher and 25 of her students were interviewed to hear their thoughts on whether the incorporation of extramural English activities into the classroom would increase motivation. The study came to the conclusion that students wanted to learn English in order to become participants in the globalized world. Also, both teacher and students wanted to incorporate extramural English activities into the classroom and stated that this would increase their motivation in school. However, they also explained that it had to be incorporated, or ‘schoolified’, in a way that increased the students’ knowledge and proficiency, and was in line with the curriculum and its knowledge requirements.

The aim of this study was to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ attitudes toward English in school as well as to identify in what ways and to what extent they interact with English outside of school. An online questionnaire was used to collect data. The participants were three groups consisting of a total of 31 students at a school in northern Sweden. Findings from this study indicate that although the attitudes differ significantly within and between the different groups, the consensus was that English is a moderately difficult subject where they learn as much as or less than they learn outside of school. Additionally, all groups were shown to spend a lot of time engaging in a variety of different English activities outside of school, among which listening to music, using social media and watching different kinds of online visual media were the most prevalent.