The consequences of digital extramural activities for the formal classroom

Abstract: The purpose of this independent project is to give teachers of young ESL-students a collected knowledge of what kind of digital extramural activities the students often do on their spare time and what consequences this have for the formal primary classroom and students’ vocabulary skills. The studies used are found on EBSCO’s ERIC and SwePub, peer reviewed, published between 2010 and 2020, and all available in full text through Malmö university. Informal learning is shown to have a big impact on formal learning, especially for boys who learn mainly through gaming. Girls still score higher on English tests within formal learning, though boys who are frequent gamers score higher within the studies. Gaming seems to help boys keep up with girls in formal English as a second language. The main skill which gaming gives the students is to communicate, hold a conversation and increase their vocabulary. Since gaming is the extramural activity which seems to give the student the most, and at the same time there are students whose families could not afford to game due to costs of computer, tv, games and, in some cases, internet. This could become a socioeconomic factor which the school and the teacher need to consider, especially since results from some of the studies claim gaming to be how the boys keep up with the girls. Not to forget the students who, thanks to informal learning, speak English on a higher level and their right to be educated at their own level.