Sammendrag
This presentation uncovers the relation between young second/foreign language (L2) learners’ English vocabulary knowledge (meaning recognition) and their self-initiated use of English outside school, extramural English (EE, Sundqvist, 2009), and details results relating to individually tested vocabulary target items. To date, research has shown that music, digital games, and TV are important sources of EE (De Wilde et al., 2020; Puimège & Peters, 2019) and indicated gender-related differences in EE use and vocabulary knowledge (Hannibal Jensen, 2017; Sylvén & Sundqvist, 2012), but few studies have targeted very young learners. Data were collected from 60 learners aged 5–6 (grade 1) in Norway, consisting of a learner EE questionnaire (individual and oral administration), a parental questionnaire, and a shortened (k=31) Picture Vocabulary Size Test (Anthony & Nation, 2017) based on age-of-acquisition ratings of target items (Kuperman et al., 2012); an “I don’t know” (IDK) option was added. Measurement-wise, the score reliability was somewhat low but acceptable at .79, and the mean item-total correlation was .30. The participants varied widely as to their use of the IDK option (range 0-20; Mean: 3.62; about 30% never used it). Results-wise, despite young age and very little formal instruction in school, participants knew on average 12.32 words (SD=5.13), a finding relevant to teacher practice. Participants who reported playing video games scored higher than non-gamers but only significantly so for specific items. No gender-related EE or vocabulary differences were found. The presentation ends with a glimpse of SYLT-VOC, a test for young learners (the STAGE project).
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