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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 language 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 specifically 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 instigated, planned, and carried out by the learner alone, without teacher intervention.” Self-instruction in L2 learning, therefore, means that learners deliberately 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 episodic, 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 21°
