Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 13 (2022) Issue 1
Effects of Out-of-School Exposure to English Language Learning
Vi Thanh Son (Gothenburg, Sweden) & Joost van de Weijer (Lund, Sweden)
Abstract
The out-of-school exposure to a foreign language has been found to enhance the development of lexical and grammatical knowledge of that language. In this study, we compared how English is used or encountered in out-of-school contexts in different contexts for Vietnamese and Swedish groups, and investigated whether out-of-school exposure to English as a foreign language had an impact on the learning outcomes in a group of Vietnamese children and another group of Swedish children. A demographic questionnaire and a test of procedural and declarative knowledge of English third-person singular -s were distributed to the children. Correlation coefficients between the eight demographic variables and the tests separated by the two groups of participants were analyzed. The results show that pupils’ estimated out-of-school exposure was significantly correlated with the Vietnamese children’s lexical repertoire, but not with their procedural or their declarative knowledge.
Keywords: English, out-of-school exposure, learning outcomes, correlation
1 Introduction
The out-of-school exposure to a foreign language and its benefits for English as a foreign language learning have been found to be effective. The out-of-school contact with a foreign language plays an important role in language proficiency, both for pupils (De Wilde, Brysbaert, Eyckmans 2020, De Wilde & Eyckmans 2017, Malmberg, et al. 2000, Muñoz & Lindgren 2011, Sundqvist 2009, Sundqvist & Sylvén 2014, Sylvén & Sundqvist 2012, Piirainen-Marsh & Tainio 2009 and Turgut & Pelin Irgin 2009) and for university students learning a second language (Forsman 2004, Pearson 2004). Length and intensity to out-of-school exposure has been found to correlate positively with the development of lexical and grammatical knowledge (e.g. Lindgren & Muñoz 2013, Sundqvist 2009, 2011).
The present study has two aims. Firstly, we will compare how English is used or encountered in out-of-school contexts in Vietnam and Sweden. Secondly, we will investigate whether out-of-school exposure to English as a foreign language has an impact on the learning outcomes in learners from the two groups. The focus is on the third-person singular -s since the acquisition of English subject-verb agreement has long been discussed on a large scale as it has been a common error for learners of English (Andrews 2007, Goldschneider & DeKeyser 2001, Källkvist & Petersson 2006, Köhlmyr 2002, Larsen-Freeman 2003)
2 Literature Review
The term Extramural English, which originated from the Latin adjective extramural, was defined by Sundqvist as “English that learners come in contact with or are involved in outside the walls of the classroom “(2009: 24). We use the term out-of-school exposure to English in a similar concept in which learners are exposed to English activities and use English in their lives, for example by reading English books, communicating with others in English, watching films and TV news in English, by listening to English songs, playing games in English or by using any social networks and media.
Because of its status as a global lingua franca, English is the language for which these observations have been demonstrated most extensively. Extramural activities (e.g. digital games, music, TV programmes) have been shown to promote English language learning in a variety of Western European countries (De Wilde, Brysbaert, Eyckmans 2020, De Wilde & Eyckmans 2017, Olsson, 2011, Statens medieråd 2017, Sundqvist 2009, Sundqvist & Sylvén 2014, Sylvén,, 2006). Sundqvist (2009) found positive correlations between Grade 9 students’ oral proficiency and vocabulary, and the amount of time spent in digital gaming and visiting English Internet sites. Olsson (2011) found as significant a correlation between the use of English out of school (e.g. watching films and TV, visiting Internet sites, playing digital games and music) and writing proficiency for Swedish students at highschool as Sundqvist (2009) did. Gaming, being active on social media and speaking English are the most beneficial types of input on language production for Dutch-speaking pupils, aged 10-12 (De Wilde, Brysbaert, Eyckmans 2020). Additionally, De Wilde & Eyckmans (2017) reported that 11-year-old Flemish children (n = 30), who had learnt English through gaming and computer use had good communication skills in spoken and written English (according to the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)) before starting any formal instruction.
The Asian context, however, has not been studied as extensively as the European context. There are only a handful of the studies focusing on learners’ out-of-school exposure to English (Barbee 2013, Baki, Leng, Ali, Mahmud & Hamzah 2008, Lai & Gu 2011, Butler, Someya & Fukuhara 2014) presumably because the exposure to English, through movies, music or video games, is not as frequent in Asian as it is in Western countries. However, the results from the existing studies suggest a relation between out-of-school exposure and learners’ foreign language proficiency in these countries as well. For instance, Barbee (2013) found that Japanese high-school students learning English as a foreign language who were frequently exposed to English via music, online media, movies and interaction with English speakers, were more motivated and experienced more enjoyment in learning English than students who were not. Similarly, Baki, Leng, Ali, Mahmud & Hamzah (2008) found through an in-depth interview with eight Malaysian secondary school students that video games helped them to enrich their vocabulary and as well as their reading comprehension. However, the authors also stated that the overuse of video games may have negative effects on the players’ learning processes, and therefore recommended that teachers and parents should guide the children in using the video games to engage them in learning (ibid.: 20). Lai & Gu (2011) surveyed and interviewed 279 language learners who were taking foreign language courses at the University of Hong Kong. The participants were studying a variety of languages, including Chinese, English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Korean. The findings pointed out that students' use of technology outside the classroom to self-regulate their language learning contributed to shaping a positive learner identity and maintaining motivation for learning. However, the study did not specify which types of activities were the most effective ones. Butler, Someya & Fukuhara (2014) studied the effects of game-playing behaviour of approximately 4,000 Japanese children between four and twelve years of age. They found that children who frequently played games learned words and phrases mainly through written and spoken interactions with other players.
In Sweden, extramural English is “omnipresent” (Sundqvist 2009: 28). English is common in the media, music and on the Internet, and is increasingly used by young people (Swedish Media Council 2017). In addition, TV series which are popular among young people are usually broadcast in English. A large selection of pedagogical movies and TV series for young learners of English is available through the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company. An example is the series Pick a Colour, suitable for children from six to seven years old. The series teaches the basics of English in an accessible and inspiring way (Lundberg 2016). The Swedish syllabus for English at primary education (Skolverket 2021) highlights that pupils should be given the opportunity to explore different contexts and cultures in which English is used, and that they should be able to select English texts and documents of spoken English in English from the Internet and other media.
The situation in Vietnam is not similar to the one in Sweden, at all. There is an increasing use of the Internet but it is unknown whether English is the dominant language for Internet use in Vietnam, as it is in Sweden (Cimigo 2011). Vietnam Television (VTV) is the national television broadcaster of the country. Most TV series are dubbed. However, paid TV channels accessible via satellite and digital cable offer movies and childrens’ programs with English subtitles.
In 2019, the population of Vietnam reached approximately 97 million people, with an urban population rate of 36%. In the same year, there were 64 million Internet users, which represents an increase of 28% as compared to 2017. Out of all Internet users in Vietnam, the number of users accessing the Internet via mobile devices was 61.73 million in 2019 (Vnetwork 2019). The use of smartphones and social media is very common among children and adults across most emerging economies, including Vietnam (Pew research center, 2019). A survey conducted by an anthropology research association in four major cities Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh city and Cantho in Vietnam found that up to 78% of Vietnamese kids under six years old use digital devices such as tablets and smartphones (Tuoi Tre News 2014). According to a recent consumer survey conducted by the marketing consulting firm Influence Central (vpnMentor 2020), on average, parents give their children a smartphone at the age of 10, mostly for safety considerations. Children can, for example, use their smartphones to let their parents know that they safely arrived at school, to call parents to pick them up or to report an emergency. Inversely, parents can use the phone's GPS to track their child's location.
At the same time, private language schools emerge rapidly throughout the country in order to increase learners' exposure to English (Hoang 2011, Le 2000, Nguyen, Hamid & Renshaw 2016, Nguyen 2011). These schools are also popular in other Asian countries since there is a belief and culture of encouraging children to start learning English as early as possible to create a sound basis for their later learning and for the preparation of internationally recognized language tests (Pinter 2017). Finally, private tutoring in English is very popular in Vietnam while it is not in Sweden.
In the present study, we compare the types and the extent of out-of-school exposure to English in Sweden and Vietnam, and evaluate the effects that this exposure may have on pupils' language proficiency in the two groups.
3 Data Collection
3.1 Pupils
Data were collected from 32 Swedish and 44 Vietnamese pupils (Son 2018 for additional details). The pupils were recruited from two Swedish and three Vietnamese schools. They were 11 to 12 years old. The Swedish group consisted of 11 girls and 21 boys, while the Vietnamese group consisted of 26 girls and 18 boys. The group sizes and the distribution of genders are different in both groups, which is not a problem, however, as, on the one hand, the present study does not claim to be representative and on the other, potential gender differences are not to be considered here. Most pupils exclusively spoke the native language at home, but some lived in families in which an additional language was spoken (Son 2018).
3.2 Demographic Questionnaire
The pupils were distributed a demographic questionnaire which consisted of two parts and was inspired by Dörnyei 2003 and Sundqvist 2009 (Appendix). The first part contained questions about the pupils' name, age, native language, country, and the language used at their homes. The second part consisted of ten items which were concerned with contextual factors of English learning (movies, friends, emails, mobile phone, books or newspapers, music, television, and travel). Pupils rated how often they used English in each of these situations, on an ordinal five-point scale (1) every day, 2) some days per week, 3) some days per month, 4) some days per year or 5) never). In addition, pupils were given the opportunity to report other activities in response to an open question (Forsman 2004, Pearson, 2004).
3.3 Test of Procedural Knowledge
All pupils performed a spoken language production task. In this task, they were asked to describe their daily habits on the basis of an image. This task has been used before and provides pupils with a natural communicative context (Pienemann 1998, Pienemann & Mackey 1993). The task was implemented to assess children's procedural knowledge of the third person singular -s in English and to estimate their productive lexical repertoire (i.e. the numbers of types and tokens in the respective narratives). The pupil's procedural knowledge was measured using the emergence criteria of Pienemann’s (1998) Processability Theory, i.e. examples of the third person singular present -s in combination with two different lexical verbs (e.g. he eats at 7.30 a.m. or he takes a shower in the morning).
The participants’ recordings were transcribed and coded for the subsequent analysis.
3.4 Test of Declarative Knowledge
Additionally, the pupils performed an acceptability-judgement task inspired by the STRIMS project (Malmberg et al. 2000). In this task, they were shown four written sentences such as He drive a taxi. The pupils were asked to indicate whether the sentences were grammatically correct or not, and to motivate their answers (Son 2018 for additional details).
4 Results
4.1 Demographic Questionnaire
Figure 1 shows the distribution of responses to eight of the ten demographic items in the Swedish (top row) and the Vietnamese (bottom row) group. Speaking English at home was not included, as most of them reported that they only spoke the native language at home. Some pupils did use English at home, but to a very limited extent, for example, a few English words or chunks occasionally. Additionally, the category of having a private tutor at a language school was excluded from the current analysis, as some Vietnamese children reported that they had such a private tutor, while none of the Swedish children did:
Figure 1: Results of the Demographic Questionnaire
Figure 1 shows that many Swedish pupils used English via music, television, movies, computer or mobile games, and television on a daily or weekly basis. The majority of their most common interactions involved listening activities. Reading books, newspapers, travelling and meeting friends, on the other hand, were less common contexts in which the Swedish pupils were exposed to English.
The response pattern in the Vietnamese group was quite similar to that in the Swedish group. The most common forms of exposure to English for Vietnamese children were computer and mobile games as well as television. It is true that computer and mobile games are very popular among young people worldwide. However, Vietnamese children's exposure to English within these contexts was, on average, smaller than that in the Swedish group, more often extending to some days per month (as was the case for Vietnamese children), rather some days per week or every day (as was the case for Swedish children).
4.2 Procedural Knowledge and Lexical Repertoire
On average, the Swedish children needed 10 minutes to complete the procedural-knowledge task, while the Vietnamese pupils needed 12 minutes. A total of 12 Swedish pupils consistently produced an -s in verbs in third-person singular contexts while only 1 of the 44 Vietnamese pupils did. The average number of correct answers to the procedural test among the Swedish pupils was 1.75 (range 0-7) while that in the Vietnamese group was 0.27 (range 0-3). Consequently, the Swedish children scored higher on this test than the Vietnamese children did.
Table 1 shows the minimum, maximum and average numbers of tokens, types, T-units, and turns per pupil in the two groups. The averages show that the Swedish narratives were approximately twice as long as the Vietnamese ones, while, at the same time, the average number of turns in the Swedish narratives was lower than that in the Vietnamese ones. In other words, the Swedish pupils produced more T-units per turn than the Vietnamese pupils:
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of the Procedural-Knowledge Task
4.2 Declarative Knowledge
The average number of correct answers to the declarative-knowledge test among the Swedish pupils was 2.39 (range 1-10) while that in the Vietnamese group was 7.13 (range 0-12). Consequently, the Vietnamese children on average scored higher on this test than the Swedish children did. In addition, the amount of variability was larger in the Vietnamese group. All but one of the Swedish children had a score of between 1 and 5 on this test. In the Vietnamese group, on the other hand, 27 children had a score of 6 or higher.
4.2.1 Correlation between Exposure and Declarative and Procedural Knowledge
Table 2 shows nonparametric correlation coefficients between the eight demographic variables and the tests separated by the nationalities of the pupils. The numbers above the diagonal represent the correlations for the Swedish pupils, while the numbers below the diagonal are the correlations for the Vietnamese pupils. For ease of comparison, the cells are shaded such that negative correlations are given in red-shaded cells while positive correlations are given in blue-shaded cells. The strength of the correlation is indicated by the degree of darkness of the shading.
The correlations within the Vietnamese group are generally higher than those in the Swedish group. This is the case for the correlations between the demographic variables, but also between the demographic variables and the numbers of types and tokens that the Vietnamese children produced. In addition, between the demographic variables and the procedural or the declarative test, there were no strong correlations in either group. Overall, with one exception, there are no strong negative correlations.
Table 2: Nonparametric Correlations between the Variables among the Swedish Pupils
(above the diagonal) and the Vietnamese Pupils (below the diagonal).
The top four rows to the right of the diagonal show the correlations between the demographic variables and the tests for the Swedish children. The only sizable correlations that emerge are between the pupils’ frequency of travel and the numbers of types and tokens that the pupils produced in the procedural test. This correlation is surprising since pupils of this age are not expected to travel to English-speaking countries very often. In fact, all but one pupil chose the options "never" or "some days per year" in reply to this question. One pupil, however, chose "some days per month". Undoubtedly, the high correlations between travel, and types and tokens are caused by this pupil, who produced an exceptionally long narrative consisting of 189 word tokens.
Surprisingly, there is a strong negative correlation between watching movies and travelling in this group. The origin of this correlation is unclear. There is a large positive correlation between the use of a mobile phone and the frequency in which the pupils interact with friends. This result reflects the fact that mobile phones play an important role in the lives of today's pupils in Sweden. Finally, there are some strong correlations between listening to music, reading books and watching TV, which may suggest that these three variables are aspects of a common underlying factor.
In sum, the effect of the demographic variables on English declarative and procedural knowledge in the Swedish group is rather weak. The only variable that correlated with the outcome variables was travel, and on closer inspection of the data, this correlation appeared to be caused by a single pupil.
The three columns to the left of the diagonal, show the correlations between the outcome variables and the demographic variables in the Vietnamese group. The correlations between the demographic variables on the one hand and types and tokens on the other are considerably higher than those in the Swedish group. Travel is the only variable that does not correlate with these variables. Again, this is not surprising, since only five Vietnamese pupils reported that they travelled to an English-speaking country some days per year, while the rest of them indicated that they had never done so. The remaining demographic variables showed relatively large positive correlations with the numbers of types and tokens that the children produced. None of the variables, however, correlated strongly with the scores on the declarative and the procedural tests.
Another difference that distinguishes the Vietnamese from the Swedish pupils is that correlations among the demographic variables are much higher in the Vietnamese group. The frequency of the use of English on all variables was higher in the Swedish group than in the Vietnamese group, and the amount of variation was therefore smaller. In this case, correlations were higher, presumably because the amount of variability in the Vietnamese group was larger than that in the Swedish group .
Finally, it is interesting to note that in either group, there were no strong correlations between any of the demographic variables with scores on the declarative or the procedural test. Out-of-school exposure to English therefore seems to be most beneficial for productive language use, especially for the development of lexical repertoire, and less so for the implicit or explicit knowledge of grammatical rules of the language.
5 Discussion
In the present study we compared the effects of out-of-school exposure on English procedural and declarative knowledge in a group of Vietnamese and Swedish pupils. These effects were limited in the Swedish group: we did not observe strong correlations between the demographic variables and the tests. In the Vietnamese group, on the contrary, nearly all demographic variables correlated positively with the numbers of types and tokens that the pupils produced as part of the procedural test. We also observed that correlations among the demographic variables were generally higher in the Vietnamese group than in the Swedish group.
Cultural differences may have played a role in the differences observed between the two groups: English may overall be more present in the Swedish society than in the Vietnamese society. As mentioned in the introduction, the amount of English in Vietnam is growing but it has not reached the level which it has in Sweden today. Sweden is a country in which it is practically unavoidable to be exposed to the English language, through radio, TV, movies or the Internet. In addition, Sweden is surrounded by countries in which the presence of English is equally noticeable.
Differences in the school systems and the view on teaching a second language in the two countries may contribute to explaining the differences. Sweden uses a communicative approach to the teaching of English in primary education (Lundahl 2012, 2014, Son 2018, 2022), while form-oriented instruction, i.e. the teaching of grammatical structures and new words, is more prominent in Vietnam (Moon 2009, Le & Do 2012, Nguyen 2011,Son 2018, 2022). It may be just because of these diverging views that the Vietnamese children scored higher than the Swedish children on the declarative test, while the Swedish children had higher scores on the procedural test.
Sundqvist (2009) found significant correlations between vocabulary size and learners’ total amount of out-of-school exposure to English in activities like digital gaming and Internet use. For our Swedish participants, a similar correlation between out-of-school exposure to English and lexical repertoire size was not seen in the present study. The reason for this difference in results may be that Sundqvist’s (2009) study involved a more elaborate assessment method, i.e., five interactional speaking tests and two written vocabulary tests, than the one used in the present study.
As teachers can hardly include all kinds of activities in their classrooms, they should make good use of the fact that many children are exposed to English outside of the classroom. In order to support this positive phenomenon, it is advisable for teachers to encourage pupils to explore out-of-school exposure even more frequently so as to learn English. This can be done by connecting take-home tasks to out-of-school activities in which the young learners make use of the media in English in order to have more interaction using English outside the classroom. In the 21st century, teachers of English definitely need to bring out-of-school exposure to English into the classroom, especially when instructing young language learners.
Lundberg (2016) stated that children who watch English TV series, for instance via the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company, learn a remarkable number of English words and phrases. In addition, Vietnamese teachers could encourage their pupils to learn English via music and games. Experience shows that these activities are enjoyable for most children, and they are likely to raise their motivation to learn the new language. The growing use of the Internet can contribute to this positive effect. Children’s interest in the Internet can be used by teachers to stimulate their pupils to visit sites about their own fields of interest, which are written in English. For example, children can listen to English songs, sing karaoke in English and watch series in English, listen to podcasts, watch films or read stories in English and then retell them to their classmates, chat with friends or gamers in English or even act out as YouTubers using English.
In the present article, we have demonstrated a number of differences between two groups of pupils learning English, one in Sweden, the other one in Vietnam. The most frequent contact with the English language in both groups was via video games, music, mobile phones, and television. Our findings show that the Swedish pupils had more contact with the English language than the Vietnamese ones. In the Vietnamese group – not, however, in the Swedish group –, the variables correlated with the pupils’ language proficiency, especially their lexical repertoire. We suggest that teachers exploit more than ever today's opportunities to come in contact with foreign languages to stimulate their pupils’ foreign language knowledge and contribute to their educational and personal development in general.
Finally, it is important to note that our findings only represent two relatively small groups of pupils. Due to this small number, these findings cannot be generalised. A longitudinal study providing larger data scale, possibly combined with additional qualitative data (e.g. interviews with pupils), would certainly yield deeper results. In future studies, the analysis of potential differences between individual pupils, also related to gender, would be equally interesting.
Appendix
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Authors:
Vi Thanh Son, Ph.D
Senior Lecturer / Assistant Professor
University of Gothenburg
Department of Education and Special Education
Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Email: vi.thanh.son@gu.se
Joost van de Weijer, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Humanities Lab – Lund University
Box 201, SE - 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Email: joost.van_de_weijer@humlab.lu.se