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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The term extramural English (EE) activities may be similar to the term
extracurricular English activities. Sundqvist and Sylvén (2016: 221) defined
extracurricular activities as activities where learning occurs “in the pursuit of
reaching higher levels of L2 proficiency”, usually connected to an educational
setting, for example, English-language film clubs, or different games or ac¬
tivities organized by the school which a learner attends, where the emphasis
is placed on language learning or teaching. On the other hand, activities where
learners encounter the English language outside of an educational institution,
and teaching or learning is not emphasized, are categorized as EE activities.
These terms and their attributes are summarized in Table 1 below.
Table 1. An overview of the concepts of extracurricular activities
and extramural activities
Extracurricular Extramural
Activities Activities
Part of formal education yes no
Initiated by the teacher yes no
Purpose pleasure / learning pleasure / learning
Consciousness yes yes / no
As Table 1 shows, both types of activities may be pursued for seeking pleas¬
ure as well as for learning purposes. The fundamental difference between them
lies in whether they are initiated by the learner themselves or the learner’s
teacher, and whether the particular activity takes place within the framework
of formal education or not. Finally, in the case of extracurricular activities,
learners are most likely to be well aware of the language learning purposes of
the event or program; their attendance and engagement in said activities are
normally consciously planned. In contrast, the pursuit of EE activities may be
solely for entertainment purposes, yet learners may consciously decide to
engage in EE activities to improve their general foreign language proficiency.
Involvement in either extracurricular or extramural or even both types of
English activities may accelerate the second language learning speed (Nunan¬
Richards 2015). Moreover, such activities may also promote the functional
practice of a particular L2 (Bialystok 1981) when learners can learn an L2 by
using it, which is an important aspect of the language learning process.
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