EXTRAMURAL ENGLISH ACTIVITIES AND INDIVIDUAL LEARNER DIFFERENCES
research as the selection of single- or multiple-item scales is dependent upon
what it is that the researcher wishes to measure, i.e., whether the construct
investigated is concrete or abstract. A construct is concrete if it is unidimen¬
sional and unambiguous to all raters, and raters clearly understand the construct
the same way. Examples of concrete constructs include price perception and
buying intention (Rossiter 2002), and, in the scope of this research project,
engagement in and time spent doing different EE activities. Since all learners
know what it means to, for instance, play a video game for an hour, etc., adopt¬
ing single-scale measures in the case of EE activities seemed a reasonable
approach.
As for subtitle use, secondary school students’ willingness to use subtitles
in English and Hungarian was measured in the case of different EE activities.
Here, students’ attitudes were measured by asking them to what extent they
enjoyed doing EE activities while using subtitles in different languages. In
order to quantify students’ responses, a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(not at all) to 5 (very much) was used. The constructs with an example in each
case are detailed below:
1. EE activities (18 items): the frequency of different extramural English
activities secondary school students could possibly engage in. Sample
item: “Watching movies in English.”
2. English subtitle use (5 items): to what extent do participants enjoy engag¬
ing in an activity while using English subtitles. Sample item: “Watching
movies in English with English subtitles.’
3. Hungarian subtitle use (5 items): to what extent do participants enjoy
engaging in an activity while using Hungarian subtitles. Sample item:
“Watching movies in English with Hungarian subtitles.”
The purpose of the second part of the questionnaire was to measure par¬
ticipants’ attitudes towards and perceptions about in-school EFL learning,
extramural EFL learning, and the incorporation of EE activities into EFL les¬
sons at school. Some of the constructs were adopted from previously vali¬
dated questionnaires. In-school motivated learning behavior was adopted from
Csizer and Dörnyei (2005), while extramural motivated language use, extra¬
mural learning beliefs, and in-school learning beliefs were adopted from Lajtai
(2020), while the other three constructs in this part were created and vali¬
dated by myself. In order to make participants’ responses quantifiable, a 5-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (“I do not agree at all”) to 5 (“I completely agree”)
was used. The constructs with an example in each case are detailed below:
4.In-school motivated learning behavior (4 items): participants’ motiva¬
tion to learn English in EFL lessons and how much effort and time they