Oldal 75 [75]
OCR
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 motivated to study and prepare for the lessons. This reflects what Henry (2013) calls the authenticity gap, which refers to the discrepancy between students’ perceptions 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 interacting with friends and other people with different L1s, in general, is also emphasized 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 learners 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 Hungarian 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 participants’ 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: + 73 +
