‒ Students consume plenty of English media and they start young. YouTube, music, and gaming are super popular among the first, sixth, and tenth graders in our study.
Pia Sundqvist, principal investigator of the STAGE project (STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Norway and Flanders) and professor of English education at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, explains that young people learn English incidentally through their engagement in these “extramural English” activities.
That is, activities that they initiate themselves outside the walls of the classroom, often in the home and through digital devices.
Driven by pure interest, their use of extramural English kick starts their learning even before they receive English lessons in school.
They do not only learn individual words, but can pick up grammar and idiomatic expressions as well.
‒ An interesting finding from the project so far is that Norwegian first-graders know, on average, around 850 English words at the beginning of schooling – but the individual differences are large.
The individual differences are also large when it comes to engagement in extramural English, and it varies a lot how much time they spend with English content.
Surrounded by English
A select group of students enjoy being immersed in English, typically through either gaming or reading, or both. Nasrin Ulfat, PhD student in STAGE, calls them “escapers”. She has interviewed escapers in grade 10 and found that they prefer to escape in English since it does not work in their first language, Norwegian, because it would be too similar to their daily lives.
Sundqvist adds: ‒ There does not seem to be any useful term in Norwegian for these escapers, who have internalized the language. They think and dream in English, and it feels totally natural to them.
That said, there are lots of individual differences.
‒ Some youngsters barely consume any English content, Sundqvist explains.
This means that when students start school, there is already different pre-existing knowledge of English. These differences are seen also in grades 6 and 10, so it can be challenging for teachers to tailor instruction and lessons to suit all individual needs.
Breaking the usual language learning mold
Students’ engagement with various media platforms, entertainment content, and game universes leads to increased English competence, but they do not necessarily learn what school expects them to know.
Ulrikke Rindal, researcher in STAGE and associate professor at the department, explains that their English usage strays from typical learning paths, which traditionally would start with basics like “Hello, my name is”, followed by colors and weather, and then build from there.
‒ Kids often believe they’re learning more English outside school. But it’s not enough.
Their interests largely skew towards entertainment, which doesn’t cover all the bases needed in school. Considering long-term needs, for what do students need English? Rindal asks. Many students are versed in words from niche areas or can use terms that are not among the common ones to learn, even in early grades, such as a term like “saturation”, which they have picked up from color settings on screens.
Beyond the Syllabus
Students often switch to English when chatting about specific activities, like posting on Instagram, adding friends on Snapchat, or checking out YouTube streamers. They know lots of words, though not always the ones school expects them to know.
So,it is important for teachers to get informed about what students do outside school, preferably in a systematic way and already from 1st grade.
‒ But teachers certainly do not need to know the same things as their students know, Sundqvist explains.
However, the teacher can acknowledge what students have picked up extramurally in their instruction and lesson planning, and peers can learn from one another. At the same time, it is essential for teachers not to come across as intrusive, since most students appreciate their personal sphere.
‒ It is a balancing act that English teachers need to deal with daily. We hope the results and pedagogical implications of STAGE will be helpful, especially for those teachers who find this balancing act challenging, says Sundqvist.
It would be risky if the English school subject were left to YouTube.
English teachers who successfully learn about their students’ extramural English and passions beyond the classroom and the syllabus, and bridge the gap between English in and outside school, get a lot of free mileage.
‒ They pave the way for lifelong learning, Sundqvist concludes.
► Welcome to the STAGE Research Webinar September 18th 2025
About the STAGE Project
• Researchers identify student engagement in English activities outside of school, extramural English, in grade 1, grade 6, and grade 10, in Norway and Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.
• They compare learning outcomes (vocabulary knowledge, reading, and speaking) between Norwegian students who start English early (in first grade) with Belgian (Flemish) students, who start English late, in seventh or eighth grade. The results of the cross-national comparison will be published later.
• The project examines whether Norwegian students benefit from an early start of formal English instruction in school.
• The STAGE project is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Researchers from the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, are collaborating with a number of researchers from Norway, Sweden, and Belgium.
Sources
Henrik Gyllstad, Pia Sundqvist, Elke Peters, Ulrikke Rindal, Gustaf B. Skar, Nasrin Ulfat (2025). Young learners’ receptive L2 English vocabulary knowledge in relation to extramural English exposure at the onset of formal instruction in Norway.
Pia Sundqvist, Elke Peters, Gustav B. Skar & Henrik Gyllstad (2025). Study Protocol: STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Norway and Flanders (STAGE).
Nasrin Ulfat (2024). Language learning and escapism: how five Norwegian adolescents escape reality through reading and/or gaming extramurally in L2 English.