Page 24 [24]
EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
encounter opportunities to exploit self-instruction; as autonomous learning,
to some extent, involves the ability and willingness to engage in the weaker
form of self-instruction.
2.2.1.2 Naturalistic language learning
The second category in Benson’s (2001) classification is naturalistic language
learning, which takes place through “direct communication with users of the
target language” (Benson 2011b: 77). The term naturalistic is used because
this kind of learning imitates how children naturally acquire their L1 through
communication and constant feedback. Communication in this respect would
require mutuality and at least two real-time parties; however, offline single¬
player video games in the target language offer opportunities for learners to
come into contact with a given L2, and here, there are no “real” L2 users, even
though there may be “communication” or at least interaction, to some extent,
between the parties involved. In contrast, films in the L2 of a learner provide
stimulus. However, there is only one-way communication. That is, the learner
or viewer watches and receives information but obviously there is no interac¬
tion between the learner and the movie. Benson (2011b: 78) therefore points
out that “it could also be extended to situations in which learning takes place
mainly through interaction with target language texts.” The notion that natu¬
ralistic learning is of key significance for successful foreign language acquisi¬
tion is supported by Krashen (1982), who holds that interaction with speakers
of an L2 offers access to comprehensible L2 input, which is an important
component of language acquisition as it can facilitate it by extending learners’
L2 knowledge.
2.2.1.3 Self-directed naturalistic language learning
The third category of out-of-class language learning is self-directed natural¬
istic language learning, which is a blend of self-instruction and naturalistic
language learning. Tekkol and Demirel (2018) refer to Knowles (1975: 2) when
he defines self-directed learning as the
[I]ndividuals’ ability to taking initiative to identify their own learning needs, their
ability to determine their learning goals, their ability to define the sources they
need in order to learn, their ability to choose/use appropriate learning strategies
and evaluate learning outcomes with or without help from an outsider.
This means that learners plan, carry out and evaluate their own learning pro¬
cess as well as learning experiences (Merriam et al. 2007). Naturalistic
2°