The English language plays a major role in the global world as both a means of information and communication. It is therefore vital that the school system provide the necessary education for students of English. This thesis is therefore analyzing three textbooks adapted for English 5 in Swedish Upper Secondary School, to establish how they support vocabulary teaching. To determine this, the textbooks’ high frequency nouns are analyzed to see if they support incidental learning. This has been done through a quantitative approach with the help of a corpus analysis. Additionally, the textbooks’ exercises have also been analyzed in order to see how they support vocabulary learning. The results show that a majority of the nouns in the texts are not frequent enough to support incidental learning without additional work. It is also evident that the exercises are not optimal for vocabulary learning, though they do offer some support.

The English language plays a major role in the global world as both a means of information and communication. It is therefore vital that the school system provide the necessary education for students of English. This thesis is therefore analyzing three textbooks adapted for English 5 in Swedish Upper Secondary School, to establish how they support vocabulary teaching. To determine this, the textbooks’ high frequency nouns are analyzed to see if they support incidental learning. This has been done through a quantitative approach with the help of a corpus analysis. Additionally, the textbooks’ exercises have also been analyzed in order to see how they support vocabulary learning. The results show that a majority of the nouns in the texts are not frequent enough to support incidental learning without additional work. It is also evident that the exercises are not optimal for vocabulary learning, though they do offer some support.

The purpose of this study is to provide additional research on the topic of the relationship between extramural English activities and performance on vocabulary tests among Swedish school learners. Data were collected from English L2 learners in Swedish upper secondary school (English 6 course). A questionnaire about participants extramural English activities was filled in. Participants then took a receptive vocabulary test of 140 items. The participants (N=74) were aged 17, with the exception of one 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds and got divided into two main research groups: gamers and non-gamers. The results from the vocabulary test revealed that gamers had a higher mean score than non-gamers on the test. However, the non-gamers trailed behind with a barely notable distinction. When examining the gamer group more closely, the findings show that participants who spent more time gaming also had the highest scores, compared to lower frequency gamers. Additionally, gamers spend more hours per week on other English-related media (excluding tv-series, movies and gaming) than the non-gamers. This makes it possible to conclude that there is, to some extent, a connection between extramural English activities and better receptive vocabulary. However, while extramural activities influence vocabulary, so does length of instruction in a language. The non-gamers caught up to the gamers, one reason as to why being a result of the length of instruction in English, which may even out large differences between gamers and non-gamers for more advanced learners (Peters, 2018). / Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med ytterligare forskning om ämnet extramurala engelsksaktiviteter och deras inverkan på svenska skolelevers vokabulärinlärning. Data samlades in från elever som har engelska som andrahandsspråk och som gick på gymnasiet (och deltog i engelska 6 kursen). Deltagarnas uppgift var att fylla i ett frågeformulär samt ett engelskt vokabulärtest som bestod av 140 ord. Deltagarna (N = 74) var 17 år gamla, samt en 19-årig elev och två 16-åriga elever, och delades in i två huvudgrupper: spelare (gamers) och icke-spelare (non-gamers). Resultaten från vokabulärtestet avslöjade att spelarna hade ett högre medelvärde än icke-spelare på testet: Dock hade icke-spelarna nästan samma  medelvärde. När man undersöker den gruppen som spelar spel närmare, visar resultaten att deltagare som tillbringade mer tid på spel också hade de högsta poängen jämfört med spelare som spelade mindre frekvent. Dessutom tillbringar spelare i genomsnitt fler timmar per vecka på annan  engelskrelaterad media (exklusive tv-serier, filmer och spel) i genomsnitt än icke-spelarna. Detta gör det möjligt att dra slutsatsen att det i viss utsträckning finns en koppling mellan extramurala engelskaktiviteter och högre ordförrådsförmåga. Peters (2018) slutsats visade att även längden av engelskstudierna kan ha en inverkan på vokabulären och för äldre elever kan möjligen effekten av exempelvis dataspelande jämnas ut desto längre de studerat engelska.