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YouTube cannot replace the English teacher
Students enjoy learning through games, videos, and music, but a recent study shows they still need teachers to learn everything they need.
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“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,” says Pia Sundqvist.
She is a professor of English education at the University of Oslo, and part of the STAGE project (STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Norway and Flanders).
Sundqvist explains that young people learn English incidentally through ’extramural English’ activities. These are things they themselves choose to do outside the walls of the classroom, often in the home and on digital devices.
Driven by pure interest, they start learning English 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,” she says.
The individual differences are also large when it comes to how much English content students engage with and how much time they spend on it.
Surrounded by English
Some students enjoy being immersed in English, typically through either gaming, reading, or both. PhD student Nasrin Ulfat calls them ‘escapers.’
She found that escapers in 10th grade prefer to escape in English because Norwegian, their first language, would be too similar to their daily lives.
“There doesn’t seem to be any useful term in Norwegian for these escapers, who have internalised the language. They think and dream in English, and it feels totally natural to them,” says Sundqvist.
That said, there are lots of individual differences.
“Some youngsters barely consume any English content,” she says.
This means that students start school with very different levels of English. These differences are seen also in grades 6 and 10, so it can be challenging for teachers to adapt lessons to suit all individual needs.
Breaking the usual language learning mold
Students’ engagement with media, entertainment, and games strengthen their English competence. But they do not necessarily learn what school expects them to know.
Researcher Ulrikke Rindal explains that their English usage strays from typical learning paths, which traditionally would start with basics like ‘Hello, my name is,’ followed by colours 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, what do students need English for?” Rindal asks.
Many students know words from niche areas or can use terms that are not commonly taught, even in early grades. An example is ’saturation,’ which they have picked up from colour settings on screens.
Beyond the syllabus
Students often switch to English when using social media or watching streamers. They know lots of words, though not always the ones school expects them to know.
That’s why it’s important for teachers to be informed about what students do outside school, ideally from 1st grade.
“But teachers certainly don’t need to know the same things as their students,” says Sundqvist.
Teachers can acknowledge what students have picked up extramurally in their lessons, and peers can learn from one another. But it’s important that teachers do not to come across as intrusive, since most students appreciate their personal sphere.
“It’s a balancing act that English teachers need to deal with daily. We hope the results 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.
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,” says Sundqvist.
References:
Gyllstad et al. Young learners’ receptive L2 English vocabulary knowledge in relation to extramural English exposure at the onset of formal instruction in Norway, IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2025. DOI: 10.1515/iral-2024-0289
Sundqvist et al. Study Protocol: STarting AGe and Extramural English: Learning English in and outside of school in Norway and Flanders (STAGE), Forum for Linguistic Studies, 2025. DOI: 10.30564/fls.v7i8.10412
Ulfat, N. Language learning and escapism: how five Norwegian adolescents escape reality through reading and/or gaming extramurally in L2 English, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 2024. DOI: 0.1080/17501229.2024.2366266
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