Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context

Although Extramural English (EE) has been widely studied in various international contexts, research in Türkiye remains limited, particularly regarding the relationship between EE engagement and English language proficiency. This study aims to address this gap by profiling Turkish university student...

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Main Authors: Mehmet Sercan Uztosun, Pia Sundqvist
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Literacy Trek 2025-06-01
Series:Literacy Trek
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/93418/1691753
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author Mehmet Sercan Uztosun
Pia Sundqvist
author_facet Mehmet Sercan Uztosun
Pia Sundqvist
author_sort Mehmet Sercan Uztosun
collection DOAJ
description Although Extramural English (EE) has been widely studied in various international contexts, research in Türkiye remains limited, particularly regarding the relationship between EE engagement and English language proficiency. This study aims to address this gap by profiling Turkish university students’ engagement in EE activities and examining whether the frequency of such engagement correlates with English proficiency. Data were collected from 59 English-major students (average age = 19.74) at a university in Istanbul. Participants reported their weekly engagement in six EE activities via a questionnaire and submitted scores from an English proficiency exam comprising reading/listening, speaking, and writing components. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used for analysis. Results showed that participants spent the most time on EE listening and EE watching activities. Four EE activities—listening, watching, spoken interaction, and writing—correlated positively with overall proficiency and reading/listening scores. EE reading/listening, and writing were also related to speaking scores, but no EE activity correlated with writing proficiency. EE gaming showed no significant relationships with any proficiency measure. While the popularity of EE activities in Türkiye aligns with international findings, the skill-specific correlations show a more complex picture. Implications for language learning and directions for future research are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-c6b83f5c2f5c4e27b870764c4085c8cc2025-08-21T07:14:48ZengLiteracy TrekLiteracy Trek2602-37682025-06-011115678Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university contextMehmet Sercan Uztosun0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0122-0406Pia Sundqvist1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0511-4624Norwegian University of Science and TechnologyUniversity of OsloAlthough Extramural English (EE) has been widely studied in various international contexts, research in Türkiye remains limited, particularly regarding the relationship between EE engagement and English language proficiency. This study aims to address this gap by profiling Turkish university students’ engagement in EE activities and examining whether the frequency of such engagement correlates with English proficiency. Data were collected from 59 English-major students (average age = 19.74) at a university in Istanbul. Participants reported their weekly engagement in six EE activities via a questionnaire and submitted scores from an English proficiency exam comprising reading/listening, speaking, and writing components. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used for analysis. Results showed that participants spent the most time on EE listening and EE watching activities. Four EE activities—listening, watching, spoken interaction, and writing—correlated positively with overall proficiency and reading/listening scores. EE reading/listening, and writing were also related to speaking scores, but no EE activity correlated with writing proficiency. EE gaming showed no significant relationships with any proficiency measure. While the popularity of EE activities in Türkiye aligns with international findings, the skill-specific correlations show a more complex picture. Implications for language learning and directions for future research are discussed.https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/93418/1691753informal language learningextramural englishl2 english proficiencyenglish language learning in türkiye
spellingShingle Mehmet Sercan Uztosun
Pia Sundqvist
Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
Literacy Trek
informal language learning
extramural english
l2 english proficiency
english language learning in türkiye
title Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
title_full Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
title_fullStr Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
title_full_unstemmed Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
title_short Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context
title_sort extramural english activities and their relationship with l2 english proficiency at a turkish university context
topic informal language learning
extramural english
l2 english proficiency
english language learning in türkiye
url https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/literacytrek/issue/93418/1691753
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