Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka kopplingar mellan användande av MMO-spel och ökad engelsk språkutveckling hos elever i svensk skola ur ett lärarperspektiv. För att besvara syftesfrågorna i studien användes en kvalitativ metod. Fem lärare som undervisar eller har undervisat i engelska i årskurserna 4-6 intervjuades om sina erfarenheter. Studien har inspirerats av fenomenografi och fokuserar på lärarnas upplevelser och erfarenheter av MMO-spelande elevers språkutveckling i engelska.  Resultatet i studien visar att lärare har följande uppfattningar: elever som spelar MMO-spel har en ökad engelsk muntlig förmåga, mer tillgång till det engelska språket ett naturligt sammanhang för det engelska. Samtidigt finns det nackdelar med MMO-spelens inverkan på elevernas engelska språkutveckling. Dessa nackdelar består av negativt språkbruk, avsaknad av abstraktionsförmåga och svårigheter med att skilja på formellt och informellt språkbruk. / The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between the use of MMO games and increased English language development among pupils in Swedish schools from a teacher perspective. To answer the research questions of this study, a qualitative method was used. Five teachers who teach or have taught English to grade 4-6 pupils were interviewed about their experiences. The study has been inspired by phenomenography and is focused on how teachers experience the phenomenon of MMO playing pupils and their English language development. The result of the study show that teachers hold the following perceptions: pupils have an increased English verbal ability, more access to the English language, and that the MMO games give a natural context for the English language. At the same time, MMO games may have a negative impact on pupils English language development. These disadvantages consist of negative language, lack of abstraction ability, and difficulties in distinguishing between formal and informal English language use.

The objective of this study is to investigate a connection between pupils’ self-confidence and extramural English. This is a quantitative survey study made among 37 fifth-graders in the Aland Islands, where a group of pupils were given questions about how they feel about English as a subject in school, and particularly about spoken English. There were also questions about their exposure to English at home. The results of the survey show that there is a connection between confidence and extramural English. Especially among the pupils playing computer games, the result shows that they are more self-confident when speaking English than the pupils who do not play computer games.

This study explores the motivation that students in Swedish upper secondary school have for engaging with, and learning, English both in and out of school to find out if there is a gap between them and find a way to possibly bridge this gap if it exists. Students’ motivation has been described as important for their learning and motivation and its effects have been studied in several ways. A study with focus on how informal learning and out of school (extramural) English improve students’ English proficiency have been conducted by Sundqvist (2010) and Socket (2013). The effect of schools, and teachers in particular, on students’ motivation in school or during class has been studied by Sundqvist (2015), Bernaus and Gardner (2008) and Ushida (2005), while a study on what actually motivates students was done by Saeed and Zyngier (2012). This study is conducted through group interviews with four focus groups made up of three students each which come from two different upper secondary schools in Sweden. The results of these interviews are analysed through Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory (2000) to determine how motivated the students are and how their motivation is affected by different factors. The results show that students are highly motivated to engage with English activities on their own volition, and that they are highly motivated to learn English. The results also show that teachers have a great effect on students’ motivation and can both raise and lower it depending on how they conduct their lessons. Students want more choice, to learn through authentic English experiences and a teacher that they can relate to.

Abstract This study aimed at investigating some of the possible effects of the computer on adolescents’ language development. As a base for the study Sundqvist’s (2009) study on extramural English (EE) was used. The work of David Crystal provided a substantial background on the English language, which was complemented by the work of Halliday among others.          In the study ten national writing tests were examined and analyzed, and a small survey of the ten students’ Internet habits was performed. The mistakes and errors made by the students in the tests were compared to their value of exposure to Internet English (EIE) in order to establish possible links between their Internet habits and their writing mistakes. The study found that the five boys that took part spent more time online and engaging in activities where English was used than the girls of the study. It was also found that the students who spend the most time online made substantially more errors and mistakes regarding the apostrophe, mainly in contractions. It was also found that the students who spent little time online and had a low value of EIE were more likely to make mistakes and errors regarding verbs and agreement.                       Although the study was too limited for any generalizations to be made, it hinted at some possible links between Internet habits of adolescents and their performance on the national test and their general language proficiency.

Technology advances at a fast rate and pupils encounter a larger amount of English outside school than they do in the EFL classroom. In addition, an update to the Swedish curriculum (LGR 11), that concerns digitalization takes effect in July this year (2018). That is why this thesis aims to explore Swedish EFL teachers’ use of pupils’ extramural (out-of-school) English experience of new media in the EFL classroom. New media is a means of mass communication, a product or service that provides entertainment or information through a computer or the Internet. New media is generally created by the users and for this thesis, relevant new media are social media, social networks sites, online streaming, fan sites and gaming. The results of this study show that about two-thirds of the 27 teachers surveyed in this study have used new media in their English teaching sometime in the last two years. Most of the teachers use it because they are interested in new media, to catch the attention of the pupils or because they find the content of new media useful for their teaching. One-third of the teachers did not use new media and reported that they did not have sufficient knowledge on how to use new media in their English teaching. The results also show that even though new media is used by many of these teachers, the use of it is basic and few reflections are made during the use of new media. Further research about why teachers lack knowledge and how the use of new media can be extended would arguably give a better understanding of teachers’ use of pupils’ extramural English experience of new media. / <p>Engelska</p>

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.

The aim of this study was to show whether there was a correlation between teachers’ opinions on the use of English in the EFL classroom and the students’ grades. The participants were four classes consisting of 75 students and four teachers from two Swedish upper secondary schools. A mixed-method was used consisting of two questionnaires and the students’ final grades from their English 5 course. The questionnaires were self-administrated and distributed via Google drive. Findings from this study indicate that there was no relationship between the teachers’ opinions and the students’ grades, but that Extramural English seems to affect the students’ grades. The extent of this has, however, not been established in this study. Further research within this area is needed.

Syftet med denna studie är att synliggöra lärares uppfattning av ett för eleven vardagsnära innehåll, och dess möjligheter och utmaningar i engelskundervisning. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats, då den ämnar undersöka lärares uppfattningar. Den insamlade empirin baseras på en kvalitativ enkätundersökning som publicerats i Facebook-gruppen Engelsklärare årskurs 4-6. Enkätundersökningen har även mailats till rektorer för Karlshamn kommun och Malmö stad för vidarebefordran till behöriga och verksamma engelsklärare för årskurs fyra till sex. I resultatet framgår att engelsklärare för årskurs fyra till sex har tagit reda på vad som är elevers vardag. Engelsklärare för årskurs fyra till sex uppfattar att ett för eleven vardagsnära innehåll skapar möjligheter i form av att: eleven kan relatera till innehållet och ser en nytta med det engelska språket samt skapar intresse för lärande. Tidsbrist och lärobok med ett förutbestämt innehåll uppfattas som utmaningar.  Vidare syftar även studien till att undersöka vad undervisande engelsklärare för årskurs fyra till sex har för uppfattning kring hur de extramurala sammanhang där elever möter engelska påverkar engelskundervisning. I resultatet framgår att lärare uppfattar att den engelska elever möter utanför skolan bidrar till ökad heterogenitet i engelskklassrummet, eftersom extramural engelska korrelerar positivt med elevers kunskaper i engelska. Vidare framkommer att lärare uppfattar en skillnad mellan den engelska elever möter i och utanför skolan, där man skiljer på skolengelska och extramural engelska.

This study explores the possible relationship between extramural English (EE) and students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in the EFL classroom in the Swedish upper secondary school. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, and the data was collected through a questionnaire and interviews. The results of the study suggest that EE usage positively affects students’ language proficiency and their self-perceptions of their English ability, which in turn is beneficial for their WTC in all contexts inside the classroom. The results also show that the students who spend the most time in EE contexts reported higher levels of WTC than the non-frequent users of EE. Productive EE activities were also found to be more beneficial for raising students’ WTC than receptive activities. The connection between EE and WTC is, however, not absolute since a minority of the students reported a high frequency of EE but low WTC, which indicates that several other factors might also be influencing upper secondary school students' WTC.