Beyond English Language Classroom: an Investigation into Libyan Undergraduate Petroleum Engineering Students Improving of Language skills

Abstract

In the Libyan educational system where English is taught as a foreign language, the need to maximize students’ exposure to the language is essential. This study aims to use a mixed method approach to investigate the out-of-class activities that undergraduate petroleum engineering students carry out to improve their English language skills. The participants in the present study were 41 students in the petroleum department at the Sabratha Faculty of Engineering. Data were collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, and they were analyzed through content analysis procedures. The findings show that watching television, listening to music, surfing the Internet, and using social media and video games are the common activities in which students engage. In addition, engineering students spend more time performing receptive activities such as watching TV and listening to music than doing more productive activities such as speaking. These findings suggest that English language teachers should consider out-of-class activities in developing their materials and activities to establish the link between classroom-based learning and out-of-class learning.

Keywords

• libyan learners
• out-of-class learning
• motivation
• autonomy
• efl
• self-directed language learners