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OCR
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND F. Teacher-initiated English activity but with strong learner input; at the school but outside the classroom; learner and other peers; for the purpose of learning English; G. Teacher-initiated English activity in the classroom at the desk; learner alone; for the purpose of learning English; H. Learner-and-teacher-initiated English activity in the classroom but not at the desk; learner and one peer; for the purpose of learning English (Sundgvist— Sylvén 2016: 12-13). There are certain complex activities, such as studying abroad, which may not be considered a single activity and may involve activities carried out in a classroom and activities carried out outside of school. In Sundqvist and Sylvén’s (2016) model, even these activities are treated as a “single” activity where the most dominant dimensions of them are taken into consideration when placing them on the axes in the model. Studying abroad, for instance, would be placed at the left top corner of the model covering a larger area as such activity is usually not initiated by a learner, especially in the secondary context, so several factors should be considered. It should be noted that the vertical axis showing the learner’s physical location may also be rather misleading in the case of internet-based activities. An MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) player, for instance, physically may be sitting at home, but psychologically could be in a distant English-speaking digital world, which can also be considered a “complex activity” and would be difficult to place on the vertical axis. It would be important, therefore, to fine-tune this model so that such complex activities could be better placed into the model. From the visual representation and the descriptions, it transpires that activities A-B-C-D are EE activities because they are all learner-initiated and are pursued outside of school. As in this research project, the main focus is placed on EE activities and Hungarian secondary school learners’ engagement in them. Only these types of activities (A-B-C-D) are included in the investigation. In the context of EFL learning through EE activities, it may be concluded that learners may acquire the different elements (e.g., grammar and vocabulary) of a particular L2 provided that they are exposed to comprehensible input (Krashen et al. 2018). Krashen (2003: 81) explains that “we acquire language and develop literacy when we understand messages, that is, when we understand what we hear and what we read, when we receive comprehensible input.” By comprehensible input, Krashen (1982, 2009) means the kind of L2 input the learner can acquire and which is not much above their current L2 proficiency. Consequently, learners often engage in EE activities that they can understand; in other words, they will not necessarily start watching a series that is overwhelmingly difficult to comprehend.
