This essay aims to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ extramural reading (ER) habits as well as if and how these habits affect students’ attitudes toward and motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom. The research questions addressed are: “What are Swedish upper secondary school students’ extramural reading habits?” and “Do students’ extramural reading habits affect their a) attitudes toward, and b) motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom? If yes, in what way?” As engagement in extramural English is suggested to both motivate and demotivate students to read in school, this essay can provide insights into how students’ extramural reading habits affect the reading they do in school. A questionnaire is used to collect data from 99 Swedish upper secondary school students from all three English courses. The questionnaire consists of closed-ended and open-ended questions about the students’ extramural reading habits, attitudes toward and motivation for reading in the L2 English classroom. Quantitative content analysis is used to analyse the data. The findings of this essay reveal that the reading habits of the participating students are varied. While some students read extramurally in English frequently and in a large quantity, others never read extramurally in English. The most commonly read text types are web texts and subtitles. Furthermore, the results show that some aspects of students’ attitudes toward reading in the L2 classroom are significantly affected by the students’ ER and that 77% of the students agree to some extent that their extramural reading provides them with more motivation to read in school. To conclude, pedagogical implications in relation to the findings of this essay are discussed.

This study explores the integration of extramural English in school teaching of English and use among students outside the classroom. With the growing exposure to English through digital media, a new concept of "prosumer" is being created, a role that students increasingly fulfill where they are active both as consumers and producers. It is at this stage that I become more interested in this field of study and begin to think about how the school world addresses and includes students' extramural English, and how students use the English they learn at school in their spare time. Is there a link between these two types of English?  By interviewing seven teachers and twelve students from year 6 in southern Sweden, this study investigates how extramural English is used in teaching. The results show an awareness among teachers about how students learn and interact with English language learning outside of school, but a lack of concrete methods of how this knowledge is integrated in the classroom. The students report that they use their “school taught English”  mainly in social media and online games, which promote and develop their communication skills, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary. / Denna studie utforskar integrationen av extramural engelska i skolans engelskundervisning och dess användning bland elever utanför klassrummet. Med den växande exponeringen för engelska via digitala medier har det uppstått en ny roll som i litteraturen benämns som “prosumer”, en roll som eleverna uppfyller alltmer där de är aktiva både som konsumenter och producenter. I detta stadie väcks ett stort intresse hos mig och jag börjar fundera på om och i sådana fall hur skolans värld bemöter och inkluderar elevernas extramurala engelska, och om och hur eleverna i sin tur använder sig av den engelskan de lär sig i skolan på sin fritid. Finns det en länk mellan dessa två typer av engelska? Genom att intervjua sju lärare och tolv elever från årskurs 6 i södra Sverige, undersöker denna studie hur den extramurala engelskan tas tillvara i undervisningen. Resultaten visar en medvetenhet hos lärare om elevernas engelska språkinlärning utanför skolan, men en brist på konkreta metoder för hur denna kunskap integreras i klassrummet. Eleverna rapporterar att de använder sin skolengelska främst inom sociala medier och onlinespel, vilket främjar deras kommunikativa förmåga, uttal, stavning och ordförråd

Abstract This empirical study investigates how students in secondary school 7-9 learn the English language outside of school, in an informal setting, and how they can benefit from it in a formal setting in school. The usage of digital technology is more common nowadays amongst youngsters than it used to be before. Digital technology has become a part of young people’s daily lives, whether it is for social media, schoolwork, gaming or blogging. Most students in Swedish secondary schools have their own computers, mobile phones, and have the opportunity to borrow an iPad from school, if needed. For this reason, it is relevant and interesting to investigate how students use their informal knowledge of English in a school setting, and how teachers take advantage of that knowledge. The research focused primarily on how the incorporation of extramural English can be used as a motivating factor for students to develop their English language in a formal setting. The results showed that students who are given the opportunity to use their previous knowledge in the classroom, appeared to be more encouraged to engage in classroom activities. They were also more motivated to work with the assignments handed to them. Teachers who involved students’ interests and previous knowledge in the classroom were experienced in the use of different media in the classroom and had good knowledge about students’ daily lives and experiences, something that helped them establish a positive teacher-student relationship. Keywords: extramural English, out-of-school English, teaching materials, motivation, informal- and formal settings, students’ perceptions.

Second language acquisition is a field that has fascinated linguists for numerous years and is a topic that is very much connected to how English teachers in Sweden try to teach the English language to the students in their classrooms. In 2009 Sundqvist examined what possible effects extramural English could have on learners' oral proficiency and their vocabulary. In her study she found out that extramural English “is an independent variable and a possible path to progress in English” (Sundqvist, 2009, p. i).  In 2014, three Swedish secondary- and upper secondary school teachers started a project for the Erasmus+. These three teachers tried to create better teaching conditions and to come up with new methods for teaching English. During their investigation they noticed that students who had only been in Sweden for four years or less, seemed to get less exposed to English in their spare time than native Swedish students, which created a disadvantage for them. Since the time when these two studies were carried out, the number of immigrants has increased drastically, which creates the need for further investigation within this area of second language acquisition. In this study, I therefore investigate how much and in what way students come in contact with the English language outside of school. I also examine if there are any differences between native Swedish students versus non-native Swedish students and if so, how this might affect the students and their grades in English. The study was conducted through the use of questionnaires and through observations of different teaching situations, including the participating teachers' methods and the participating students' reactions. The results show that there are differences between native- and non-native students when it comes to extramural English activities. The results also show that these differences seem to affect the students' grades in English, in favour of the native Swedish students. The native students tend to spend more time on extramural English activities, especially in connection to the Internet and computer games, than the non-native students. These results indicate that something needs to be done in order to compensate for the non-native students' disadvantage.

The aim of this study is to investigate Swedish senior high school students’ Extramural English (EE) activities and their beliefs about learning English inside and outside of the classroom. EE is defined as English language activities that learners are engaged in outside the classroom, and includes activities such as listening to music, reading, writing, speaking, surfing the Internet, playing computer games, watching TV, YouTube and movies (Sundqvist, 2009, p. 1). The study also investigated possible gender differences related to students’ reported EE activities, and their reported attitudes about English. This study is based on questionnaire data. Twenty students participated in this study. 9 of 10 participants indicated that they believed that they are learning most of the English they know outside of school by daily contact with popular EE activities such as listening to music, followed by surfing the Internet, reading, watching YouTube, watching TV, playing computer games, writing, speaking and lastly watching movies. Boys reported a greater exposure to EE overall compared to the girls, more specifically, in their contact with music, computer games and writing and speaking in an EE context. Most of the students reported positive attitudes to English both inside and outside the classroom, but overall students reported more positive attitudes to the English that they use in their free time. The study has found no strong gender differences concerning students’ attitudes to learning English.

Today’s primary school pupils encounter English in a wide variety of ways through the use of various forms of media. This thesis aims to research how the very youngest pupils in the Swedish primary school encounter the English language in their time outside of school and whether or not it has any impact on how they relate to the subject in school. Teachers’ views on their pupils’ habits will also be compared, as well as whether they see encounters outside the classroom as having any visible effects on the pupils. Through the use of interviews with both seven- to eight-year-old pupils and teachers, it was possible to find common forms of extramural English (EE) among the pupils, but little evidence it contributed to their views on English at school. Teachers were largely aware of their pupils’ interests and were positive towards using EE content in class, but did not feel it was possible to do so. / <p>Engelska</p>

In Sweden today, the English language is a part of our everyday lives. This means that from very young ages, children encounter the language in many different ways, media being one of the most common. This thesis aims to research if and how teachers in F-3 include this type of English in their teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL). In particular, the focus is to gain knowledge of how music/songs are being used in the classroom, and if the teachers incorporate the music that the pupils listen to in their spare time when working with music/songs. Their attitudes towards doing this is what this thesis is interested in. An empirical study was carried out with the use of interviews as data collecting method. A total of six lower primary school teachers (grades 1-3) spread out geographically in Sweden were interviewed. The results show that teachers report that they are aware of the many places where pupils encounter English, but only one of the teachers incorporate this in teaching EFL. However, the others do seem positive towards working with this and they mention many benefits in doing so. When it comes to music and songs, all teachers work with this in the subject, but once again five out of six do not include the songs that the pupils listen to, except when they in some cases pick something up in the moment. Again, even though some difficulties are mentioned, they seem positive towards this and they believe there is a possibility in including this in their teaching of EFL. However, as seen in the conclusion, time seems to be a big issue for doing so. / <p>Engelska</p>

In der Vergangenheit wurde gezeigt, dass Altersbilder von Zahnmedizinern auf deren Bereitschaft älteren Menschen zahnärztliche Dienstleistungen anzubieten Einfluss nehmen können. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie war die Beschreibung der Altersbilder von Zahnmedizin-Studierenden und deren Veränderung während der Teilnahme an einer prägraduellen gerostomatologischen Ausbildung. Ein Frage-bogen wurde an 160 (31 % männliche) Zahnmedizin-Studierende der Universität Leipzig im Alter von 19,2 – 30,5 (Mean 21,7; SD + 2,3) Jahren, jeweils vor Beginn (T1) und beim Abschluss (T2) des gerostomatologischen Kurses, ausgehändigt. Es wurde eine Definition vom Jung- und Altsein sowie von Hoffnungen und Befürch-tungen bezüglich des Alterns erbeten. Das „Semantic Aging Differential“ (SAD) wurde verwendet, um die studentischen Altersbilder in drei Kategorien zu messen. Die statistischen Auswertungen beinhalteten durchschnittliche geschlechtsspezi-fische Altersdefinitionen und Mittelwerte des SAD bei T1 und T2. Das Alter wurde mit einem Beginn zwischen 56 und 64 Jahren definiert. Weibliche Studierende betrachteten bei T1 eine Frau bis zu 35,8 Jahre als jung, für männliche Studierende war eine Frau nur bis 33,5 Jahre jung. Männliche Studierende betrachteten Männer ab 60,1 Jahren und Frauen ab 55,7 Jahren als alt. Befürchtungen angesichts des Alterns bezogen sich hauptsächlich auf die Verschlechterung der Gesundheit und den Verlust naher Angehöriger. Hoffnungen auf Erholung, Ruhe und Gelassenheit waren vorrangig. Die SAD-Ergebnisse waren in allen drei Dimensionen nahezu neutral. Es traten geringfügige Veränderungen zwischen T1 und T2 auf. Schlussfolgernd waren die studentischen Altersbilder ausgewogen. Spezifische Barrieren zur Bereitstellung zahnmedizinischer Versorgung für ältere Menschen, ausgehend von negativen Einstellungen oder Ängsten seitens der Zahnmedizin-Studierenden, wurden nicht identifiziert.

This study investigates the relationship between extramural English and levels of English vocabulary as defined by the CEFR framework and word frequency among pupils at year 5 in a Swedish primary school. 25 pupils from two different classes participated in the study. Pupils were divided into two groups based on their usage of and exposure to English in their spare time, referred to as the high exposure and low exposure groups respectively. The results from this study show a connection between an extensive exposure to extramural English and the development of a more advanced vocabulary of English words as defined by the English Vocabulary Profile scale, in turn based on the CEFR levels A1-C2 and corpus-based word frequency derivations. One interesting aspect that came up was that while both of the groups were using almost the same level of low frequency words, the high extramural English group used more difficult, higher level words. A conclusion is that the most common extramural activity amongst these pupils, that of playing computer games, might explain this group's acquisition of higher level, more specialized vocabulary items in comparison with the other group which encountered extramural English less often.

The present study examines students’ use, attitudes and preferences, when it comes to EE (Extramural English). EE is defined as English language activities that learners are engaged in outside their ordinary language class, such as reading books, reading newspapers/magazines, watching TV, watching films, surfing the Internet, playing video games, listening to music, etc. The results of the study are based on data that was collected from Swedish upper secondary-school learners of English over a period of one term on several occasions. Information about students’ EE activities was collected by quantitative questionnaires, including both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. The results showed that Swedish upper-secondary school students were engaged in many different extramural activities. The extramural activity that the students were most often engaged in, was watching English language movies. The second most popular extramural activity was watching TV-programs in English with Swedish subtitles. Furthermore, according to the surveyed upper-secondary students, most of their language skills they develop with the help of their Extramural contacts with the English language. These are for example understanding of spoken English, speaking English, understanding of English vocabulary and understanding written English. However, when it comes to the written English and the development of English grammar, it appears that the students see themselves as developing these language skills more successfully within the language classroom than in their free time. The results also showed that, whereas the above-mentioned extramural activities were preferred by both boys and girls, there were also some differences in their use of extramural activities. Whereas boys rather preferred such activities as "English-speaking role-playing or computer games", girls, according to their answers, preferred such activities as "reading texts in English". The results of this study have shown that, according to the students’ responses, there is no strong gender difference when it comes to attitudes about learning English in school versus outside the school.