Students’ voices about English language learning in school and beyond

Abstract

Abstract The research was carried out in a public secondary school with 16 to 18-year-old students in a context usually considered as an EFL one. The main goals were to discover what students said about learning English in and beyond the school and what led them to use English autonomously outside the classroom. A qualitative methodology was used. First, a questionnaire was proposed to 122 students to find out the uses of English outside the school; then, I selected students who were considered good learners of English by their teachers and who had learnt English only in secondary school and autonomously outside school. Based on that criterion, I investigated nine learners using a Facebook survey, two focus groups and learning logs. The idea of good language learners (GLLs) of English described by the teachers focuses on the relationship the learner establishes with the L2 and the external perceptions of what they do with it. On the other hand, GLLs do not share common features that can be generalized; every learner establishes a unique relationship with the L2 and uses varied and changing strategies. What GLL do share is an agentive approach to learning the L2 and a positive appreciation of its cultural artefacts. Learners mainly accessed these artefacts through ICTs working as learning affordances.