Congratulations to English Department colleague Tone Stuler Myhre, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on 06 May 2025 at the university’s Levanger Campus.
Her dissertation, titled “Foreign language learning and outdoor education at lower secondary school: A mixed-methods study on experiences, emotions and motivation,” examines how outdoor education can influence language learning, with a focus on student experiences, emotional responses, and motivation.
Opponents were Professor Pia Sundqvist from the University of Oslo and Associate Professor Emilia Fägerstam from Linköping University, Sweden. As part of the defense, Myhre also delivered a trial lecture on “L2 English beyond the classroom: Affordances of digital and non-digital arenas (other than outdoor education) for learning and teaching.”
Reflecting on the completion of her PhD, Myhre said:
Now that my PhD is complete, I am looking forward to using my increased knowledge in various courses at Nord including PPU and also MA supervision. My PhD journey was long and not always smooth. However, I think my experiences can be useful in a role as supervisor.
I also have several new research projects planned: I have data transcribed for a quantitative article on fluency among lower secondary students, I plan to turn the trial lecture into an article, and I would like to look more into boredom in Norwegian English classrooms and maybe also foreign language anxiety among teachers. I hope to collaborate with some of my international contacts and attend relevant conferences.
Congratulations to Dr. Stuler Myhre!
Brief summary of the thesis:
This PhD thesis explores the potential for learning spoken communication in English as a foreign language outside the classroom at lower secondary school in Norway and it consists of three sub-studies. It seeks to explore if outdoor education will influence young teenagers’ potential for developing English communication skills by reducing foreign language anxiety, increasing foreign language enjoyment and motivation, and hence their willingness to communicate.
The thesis is based on two rounds of data collection taking place at two schools in 2018. Participants were 13-14 years of age. The design of the second data collection was a pre-post intervention study with an experimental group and a control group and a six-week intervention. Data were collected through questionnaires, group interviews with students and teachers (separately), as well as a socioeconomic questionnaire for parents. In addition, observations and recordings of students’ speech during activities were conducted.
The thesis indicates that practicing spoken English in outdoor environments is experienced as positive; it reduces foreign language anxiety, increases foreign language enjoyment, motivation for speaking and hence a willingness to communicate, due to different affordances outdoors. Implication for practice is that teaching speaking skills in a foreign language should not be restricted to the classroom but be supplemented by teaching outdoors because outdoor environments offer an informal setting including open space where students are not constantly observed when speaking.
