Bridging extramural English and formal instruction

Abstract This article reports on a study of Norwegian hybrid general study and vocational students’ extramural English (EE) engagement and vocabulary acquisition, the synergies they saw between vocabulary gained in this way and the linguistic demands of the classroom and workplace, and how they sought to leverage their EE engagement to support classroom learning. Semi-structured, face-to-face group interviews, together with language diaries, were used to gather data. The findings revealed that EE activities facilitated general and informal vocabulary learning, yet provided minimal exposure to academic and vocational registers. Participants emphasised the critical role of explicit in-class instruction for mastering academic and vocational vocabulary, rejecting the wholesale integration of EE into the language curriculum. Instead, they advocated for specific EE content and extending mandatory English instruction beyond the current one-year requirement to consolidate domain-specific language skills. The study challenges assumptions that EE inherently complements formal instruction.