A Longitudinal Study of Junior-secondary EFL Learners’ Enjoyment, Exposure to Audiovisuals, and Proficiency

This presentation focuses on findings from a study that examined EFL learners’ extramural engagement with watching movies/videos and/or listening to songs in the context of Hong Kong. 435 Grade-7 EFL participants completed the study. Their amounts of exposure to these audiovisual materials, levels of enjoyment of English learning through them, and listening and reading proficiency scores across 1.5 academic years were analysed. Four instruments were used to collect these data: Multiple out-of-class English exposure surveys, enjoyment questionnaires, proficiency tests, and semi-structured interviews. Using linear mixed-effects modelling with random intercepts for participant and time, enjoyment and its interaction with exposure, but not exposure itself, were found to be positive predictors of overall language achievement. Follow-up interviews provided some insights into the presence or absence of significant relationships. We argue from the findings that extramural FL audiovisual exposure alone may not be sufficient for effective language learning. Enjoyment of learning the FL through audiovisuals, rather than just enjoyment of audiovisuals per se, seems to play an instrumental role in facilitating FL proficiency development.