The relationship between extramural English and learners’ listening comprehension, reading comprehension, motivation, and anxiety

Abstract

Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in the relationship between extramural English and learners’ language proficiency. However, the majority of the studies have focussed on vocabulary knowledge. Less is known about extramural English and learners’ motivation, reading and listening proficiency. Further, few studies have focused on English-as-a-foreign language learners attending technical education. The main objective of this study is to investigate whether extramural English is related to the motivation, language anxiety, listening and reading proficiency of three distinct groups of participants: grade 6 (age 11-12), grade 8 (age 13-14) and grade 10 (age 15-16) learners. Data were collected with 108 learners. All participants were administered a questionnaire and a listening and reading comprehension test. The findings suggest that learners are frequently exposed to English in their spare time. The results also indicate that grade 6 learners were already capable of performing listening tasks at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, even though they had not had any English lessons in school yet. Watching non-subtitled TV in English appeared to be positively related with both listening and reading proficiency. Finally, relationships were found between various extramural English activities and factors concerning motivation and anxiety.