In a society with reports of increasing mental health challenges and decreasing school motivation, English teachers are tasked with developing the English proficiency of students who simultaneously access an abundance of English-language content in mass and social media. Assuming that students’ reported experiences can give valuable insight into the dynamics of the socially situated language classroom, this study explores students’ experiences of their English instruction. A Tripod survey was administered to three cohorts of lower secondary school students between 2015 and 2022 (N=316), and descriptive statistics were used to explore differences across classrooms, time points, and gender. The results showed that student experiences were, for the most part, in line with teacher instruction that predicts higher student achievement, engagement and motivation. Students reported to experience academic press and personal support from their English teachers to a considerable extent, while boys reported to experience curricular support more than girls. No significant differences were found across time or classrooms or between genders. Rather, considerable within-classroom variation highlights the individual student and the role of the English teacher in the socially situated practice of classroom instruction. A negative development in the reported intelligibility of the teacher’s spoken English from pre- to post-Covid-19 suggests the importance of the personal and academic communication between students and teachers when they are physically present together in the classroom. The study highlights the need to focus on the role of the English teacher in a society with a considerable presence of English.