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Volume 176, Issue 1
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Abstract

This study examines the effects of informal English exposure on vocabulary, grammar, and writing. A total of 178 Galician adolescent learners of English completed a placement test, a language background and an out-of-school English activities questionnaire, and three language tasks: a grammaticality judgement test, a vocabulary test, and a writing task. Findings revealed that the most common out-of-school activities were listening to music, watching films without subtitles, and gaming. Positive correlations were found between learners’ performance on the language tasks and the activities of watching films without subtitles, watching films with captions, reading, writing, and, to a smaller extent, listening to music, gaming, and speaking online. Gender-related differences were noticed in the frequency of some out-of-school activities and the correlations with learners’ performance on the three language tasks.

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2025-02-17
2026-05-19

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Adolescents’ informal exposure to English as a second language in the context of Galicia
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 176, 76 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.23010.alo
/content/journals/10.1075/itl.23010.alo
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): adolescent learners; English as a second language; gender-related differences; informal learning; out-of-school activities; writing skills

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