Seite 74 [74]
EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
online grammatical exercises to practice the given grammatical phenomenon,
which may be considered a much more contextualized way of learning than
simply checking the explanations in a coursebook. This former learning ap¬
proach of using interactive exercises, at least to some extent, caters to func¬
tional practice (Bialystok 1981) because here, the sentences and the written
texts provide a bit more context for learners than simply memorizing the
grammatical rules from a coursebook.
As for vocabulary learning, Lucas claims that “learning words is not pleas¬
ant, but necessary,” and, similarly to other participants, he often creates paper¬
based word lists and does not prefer to use applications designed specifically
for vocabulary learning. Vera also adopts a similar learning approach, which
she explains as follows: “I take five words at a time and start adding more, and
more and then I try to write all of them down, like a printer.” These learning
methods may work in the short term, and learners may be able to obtain good
grades on tests at school; however, they certainly do not cater to incidental
learning, as writing down the word or expression several times does not en¬
able a learner to encounter, let alone use these words or phrases in context.
Yet, extensive exposure to vocabulary items is a prerequisite for intentional
and incidental learning (Schmidt 1993, 1995, 2001).
Surprisingly, only two participants mentioned that they use smartphone
applications for learning vocabulary. In her interview, Lina explained how
Quizlet works:
[I]t’s a website [...] where you can add words and definitions, but you don’t have to
define them. You can just add their meaning, and, well, it helps memorize things.
You can set it to show only the words, and then you try to guess their meaning in
Hungarian. Or vice versa, you set it to show the Hungarian meaning, and then you
guess the English word.
It is apparent that she clearly understands the benefits of using applications
supporting language learning. Most students, however, only keep reading the
vocabulary items and simply try to memorize them. Only a small proportion
of students try to form sentences with the items or attempt to contextualize
them, which barely supports intentional or incidental learning. Paul, for in¬
stance, explained his learning strategies in the following way:
I use a word collection; these are words I take notes of in class or while doing
homework. I try to memorize these words and expressions, I read them many times,
and I try to form sentences with them so I can associate them with something.
Furthermore, it appears that one of the participants, Charlie, demonstrates
higher linguistic awareness than the other participants and often makes
+ 72e