De-foreignizing English Outside Class: Junior-Secondary-Level English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners’ Extramural English Engagements and Listening and Reading Proficiency

Abstract

Being cognizant of the indispensable role of abundant language input, scholars have given more attention to learning beyond the foreign language classroom in recent decades. This is especially important because there is usually limited time and exposure to authentic input in class. Contexts in which English is regarded as a foreign language warrant scrutiny since English is now highly accessible to learners at virtually all ages, worldwide, at no/low cost, thanks mostly to technology. The present longitudinal study set out to examine 350 Hong Kong junior-secondary-school learners’ informal engagements with extramural English activities (e.g. watching videos; playing computer games). The relationship between their engagements and language proficiency was also investigated. The findings revealed that as many as 90% of the participants had informal extramural exposure to English. This exposure was classified into seven categories. Overall, the three most popular types of engagement were videos/movies, songs, and communication (e.g. face-to-face chats; text messages). Intriguingly, the overall levels of engagements were correlated significantly and positively with proficiency scores for the average- and high-proficiency groups, but no such relationship was found for the low-proficiency students. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the findings.