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STUDY ONE
attempts to deliberately grasp the meaning of the encountered vocabulary
items. He said that he uses the online version of Oxford Learners Dictionary
to check the meaning of previously unknown words or phrases because, as he
claims: "I trust its authenticity [...] and I think you can better describe the
meaning of English words [in English] than in Hungarian”. This high level of
awareness is likely rooted in the fact that Charlie’s mother is an EFL teacher,
who might have equipped him with learning skills and strategies.
Finally, one participant, Victor, claims that he only does his homework. He
says that “I have to do it because, if not, I get a bad grade. I don’t really study
otherwise”, which means that in EFL at school, he does not seem to be moti¬
vated to study and prepare for the lessons. This reflects what Henry (2013) calls
the authenticity gap, which refers to the discrepancy between students’ percep¬
tions of in-class EFL lessons and extramural English. The former may be of
less interest to students than the latter, which could more likely involve students’
own interests.
4.5.2 Going abroad and using English in different situations
The second theme was traveling to foreign countries and using English for
intercultural communication. The importance of using English when interact¬
ing with friends and other people with different L1s, in general, is also empha¬
sized in the literature (Crystal 2003, De Wilde et al. 2019, Djigunovic 2018,
Sauer—Ellis 2019, Sayer—Ban 2014, Sundqvist—Sylvén 2014, Sylven-Sundgvist
2012) and the main benefit is that this kind of communication provides learn¬
ers with a plethora of L2 input in a contextualized and interactive environment.
As for traveling abroad, all participants have already been abroad at least
once, yet only five of them have been to a country where English is an official
language. Most students have visited some of the neighboring countries of
Hungary, such as Austria, Slovakia, and Romania, where there is a significant
Hungarian minority, and also Croatia, a typical holiday destination for Hun¬
garian people. These foreign trips had mainly three purposes; there were school
trips to the UK organized by the participants’ secondary schools for language
learning practices and school trips organized by the participants’ secondary
schools to neighboring countries of Hungary for recreational purposes (e.g.,
sightseeing). Finally, there were individual family trips organized by the par¬
ticipants’ parents.
For instance, on the school trips to England students had to participate in
an intensive EFL language course, where they learned English. In addition,
participants’ Hungarian EFL teachers created further tasks for students to
make the most of the time spent in the UK. In Valentina’s words:
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