Sammendrag
This master’s thesis describes a quantitative study on how extramural exposure to authentic English input affects language proficiency. The aim of the study was to investigate how extramural engagement in the activities reading, watching tv, movies and videos on the internet and playing videogames influence language proficiency with receptive vocabulary size chosen as proxy for language proficiency. The study was conducted on 103 15-year-old students attending their final year of obligatory education. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional quasi-experiment, where the participants filled out a questionnaire about their extramural habits and were subjected to the Vocabulary Size Test to measure their receptive vocabulary size. The data from the questionnaire and the vocabulary test was estimated using an ordinary least squares regression analysis. Overall, the study found that reading, playing multiplayer videogames and watching audiovisual media with English subtitles or without subtitles were the biggest predictors of language proficiency in that order for the participants as a whole. However, a significant gender effect was found for the multiplayer gaming variable. The results showed that the highest predictor of language proficiency was multiplayer gaming for the male part of the sample. The study also found a significant curved linear relationship between multiplayer gaming and vocabulary size, meaning that vocabulary size is positively affected by multiplayer gaming until a certain point where it stagnates and starts to decline. In regard to singleplayer gaming, the study found no statistically significant relationship between playing singleplayer videogames and vocabulary size. Lastly, the study found that watching audiovisual media with Norwegian subtitles had a significant negative impact on vocabulary size.