Due to the indispensable role of abundant input for successful language learning, researchers and teachers have given greater attention to learning beyond the foreign language (FL) classroom in very recent decades. Thanks to technology, foreign languages are now highly accessible to many learners at no/low cost worldwide. In this presentation, I will cover two related topics based on two submitted manuscripts. I will report some findings from an ongoing longitudinal study that examines secondary-level learners’ exposure to English outside class (e.g. watching videos; playing computer games) and their English proficiency in the context of Hong Kong. Succinctly, the findings showed that around 90% of the participants exposed to out-of-class English informally, which could be classified into seven categories. Interestingly, the overall amount of exposure was found to be significantly positively correlated with proficiency scores for the average- and high-ability groups, but no such relationship was found for the low-attaining students. I will end the presentation with a discussion of these findings and describe a holistic framework of understanding and analyzing out-of-class language exposure I recently created.

Authors:
Art Tsang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Art TSANG is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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