Giving room to the voices of learners as the most important stakeholders in informal language learning processes, this paper provides insights into Austrian teenagers’ perceptions of extramural English, informal learning outside school, and the link between out-of-school English practices and English teaching at school, before drawing conclusions for ‘EE-sensitive’ teaching.
Informal second language learning as an emerging research area has received growing attention over the two last decades (e.g. Benson & Reinders 2011, Sockett 2014) and previous research has shown that engaging with languages, in particular with English, through informal leisure activities has positive effects on language development, for instance on vocabulary (e.g. Lee 2019, Peters 2018, Sundqvist 2009) or the four skills (e.g. De Wilde, Brysbaert & Eyckmans 2019, Lefever 2010, Verspoor, De Bot & Van Rein 2011). However, so far, little attention has been given to the voices of the learners, although they are arguably the most important stakeholders in informal language learning processes.
This paper provides insights into Austrian teenagers' views on learning English in and outside the classroom. In a mixed methods study, data on engagement with extramural English (EE, Sundqvist 2009) were gathered from 201 15/16-year-old learners attending tenth grade in academic secondary schools in Vienna, Austria. In addition, 30 students took part in focus group interviews which allowed a more detailed exploration of teenagers' practices and beliefs.
After a brief introduction to the research context and the wider study, the focus of this presentation will be on the qualitative insights provided by students in the focus groups, in particular on their perceptions of the English language and extramural English activities, informal learning processes, and the link between out-of-school English language practices and English language teaching at school. Based on these qualitative results, suggestions are then made on how ELT at schools could become more 'EE-sensitive' without formalizing, and thus likely inhibiting, students' informal language learning. Acknowledging age-related differences, ideas from linguistic landscaping and the language awareness approach are considered as one way towards engaging younger learners in project work to integrate informal language learning practices and ELT and take changed teaching and learning environments in the 21st century into account.
