Extramural English activities and their relationship with L2 English proficiency at a Turkish university context

Although Extramural English (EE) has been widely studied in various international contexts, research in Türkiye remains limited, particularly regarding the relationship between EE engagement and English language proficiency. This study aims to address this gap by profiling Turkish university students’ engagement in EE activities and examining whether the frequency of such engagement correlates with English proficiency. Data were collected from 59 English-major students (average age = 19.74) at a university in Istanbul. Participants reported their weekly engagement in six EE activities via a questionnaire and submitted scores from an English proficiency exam comprising reading/listening, speaking, and writing components. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used for analysis. Results showed that participants spent the most time on EE listening and EE watching activities. Four EE activities—listening, watching, spoken interaction, and writing—correlated positively with overall proficiency and reading/listening scores. EE reading/listening, and writing were also related to speaking scores, but no EE activity correlated with writing proficiency. EE gaming showed no significant relationships with any proficiency measure. While the popularity of EE activities in Türkiye aligns with international findings, the skill-specific correlations show a more complex picture. Implications for language learning and directions for future research are discussed.