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Project

STAGE. STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Flanders and Norway

Exposure to foreign language input is crucial for language learning. Learners can be exposed to language input in the classroom (= formal instruction) and/or outside-of-school. For out-of-school exposure to English, the term Extramural English (Sundqvist, 2009) is often used. In regions, where foreign language TV programs and movies are subtitled (= TV with L1 subtitles), English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) learners tend to have large amounts of Extramural English from a very early age (e.g., Hannibal Jensen, 2017; Puimège & Peters, 2019). Consequently, young learners pick up a considerable amount of English outside of school (e.g., De Wilde et al., 2020; Puimège & Peters, 2019). This project aims to advance our understanding of the input-acquisition relationship by investigating the mechanisms underlying language learning by EFL learners who have large amounts of Extramural English, but have different starting ages for formal English instruction. The regions we will investigate are Norway, which has an early start for English in school (grade 1, age 6-7) and Flanders, which has a late start (grade 7, age 12-13 or grade 8, age 13-14). This project’s aim is to investigate whether an early start for formal English instruction has an impact on learners’ English language proficiency and English language development in input-rich contexts.

Date:1 Feb 2021 →  Today
Keywords:Extramural English, Starting age, Language learning, English-as-a-Foreign-Language
Disciplines:Language acquisition
Project type:PhD project