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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
rules of it are, and how it is possible to further acguire it once a given foreign
language course is over as then there will be no teacher who can provide help
to the learner.
Besides traditional classroom research investigating EFL learning in EFL
classes, a growing body of literature discusses foreign language teaching and
learning beyond the classroom (Benson 2011b, Benson-Reinders 2011, Murray
2017, Nunan-Richards 2015, Reinders-Benson 2017, Richards 2015). Benson
(2011a, 2011b) uses the term out-of-class learning when referring to activities
with no direct relationship to an educational institution. Benson (2011b: 139)
also adds that out-of-school learning is “typically initiated by the learner, makes
use of authentic resources, and involves pleasure and interest, as well as lan¬
guage learning.” This aligns with the definition of extramural activities by
Sundqvist (2009). Moreover, according to Benson (2001: 69), out-of-school
learning refers to “any kind of learning that takes place outside the classroom
and involves self-instruction, naturalistic learning or self-directed naturalistic
learning.” These types of learning are adopted by Sundqvist (2009), who claims
that learning through extramural English activities may involve any of these
types of learning. Therefore, the next sections define these terms, more spe¬
cifically self-instruction, naturalistic learning and self-directed naturalistic
learning and their relationship with extramural English activities.
2.2.1.1 Self-instruction
The first type of out-of-class learning is self-instruction. According to Jones
(1998: 378), self-instruction is “a deliberate long-term learning project insti¬
gated, planned, and carried out by the learner alone, without teacher interven¬
tion.” Self-instruction in L2 learning, therefore, means that learners deliber¬
ately and knowingly decide to improve their L2 skills by exploiting and making
use of various resources. These resources may be designed specifically for
self-instruction, but learners can also use coursebooks originally designed for
classroom use.
Self-instruction may be divided into a strong and a weak form (Dickinson
1987). The former posits that learners study alone with no or only little contact
with teachers. In contrast, the latter holds that self-instruction may be epi¬
sodic, i.e., it occurs periodically and can take place in a classroom setting as
well as outside the classroom. Such episodic instances of self-instruction may
include watching a tutorial video on the Internet at home on how to use a
certain grammatical structure or even doing homework set by the teacher of
the given learner. Graham et al. (1992) claim that self-instruction requires the
learner to internalize the self-instructional process, which means that during
formal instruction, teachers should continuously have their students
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