Review of Informal Contact with English: A Case Study of Italian Postgraduate Students (2020) by Maria Pavesi and Elisa Ghia. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 176 pp., ISBN: 978- 884675936-8

Abstract

With the explosive expansion of digital content in the present media landscape where almost every aspect of our lives is intertwined with the online interconnected spaces, extramural English—otherwise known as informal learning of English—has gained remarkable popularity among the youth, most notably the digital native generation or the tech-savvy. Informal learning of English in general, and extramural English in particular, occur outside of classroom settings—be it online and in real life—through learner-initiated activities. Notable examples of such activities include, among other things, watching films and TV shows, listening to songs, or playing video games (Sundqvist, 2024). Indeed, (online) informal learning of English, as Lee and Lee (2021) and Jurkovič (2019) note, consists of self-directed activities in digital settings, often driven by personal interests and undertaken independently, without teacher supervision. Typically, users engage in these activities without the explicit intention of improving their L2 skills. On this ground, the legitimacy of researching informal contact with English is rooted in a confluence of various factors, including contemporary communication practices, the evolving nature of language learning and the proliferation of free and user-friendly online resources and technologies worldwide.