Raising cognitive capacity of pupils by means of extracurricular activities
By Alfiya Uralovna Jafarova
I’d like to start with a quotation of Sukhomlinsky that “All our
plans turn into dust if a pupil doesn’t aspire to study”.
Extracurricular
activities are a useful part of education that will provide positive
gains for students. These activities will motivate students to accomplish
their curricular goals. Extracurricular activities will help students to gain
confidence and enable students to display their skills and abilities with
ease in a classroom practice. These activities will
provide students a language learning environment, and encourage students
to improve their level of English.
Introduction
Extracurricular
activities are student experiences and activities that are not included
in the educational curriculum. These activities are a significant
part of education. It
has been proved that extracurricular activities are as necessary as
regular classes for development of skills (Tenhouse, 2003; Eccles, 2003).
Furthermore, extracurricular activities are good opportunities for students to
achieve their curricular goals. Students discover and develop their skills
through these activities for achievement. Though research to explore the
relationship between extracurricular activities and student achievement
has been continuing, their benefits for higher educational attainment
have been put forward. Extracurricular activities are performed at all
levels of schools in many different ways such as sports, clubs, debate, music,
art, school newspaper.
Extracurricular
activities will lead to higher educational success and they will help
students to get better grades in the examinations (Marsh, 1992).
Students through these
activities get higher scores in tests (Gerber, 1996).Extracurricular activities
will raise aspirations of students and create a positive bond between
students and school. When students are positively connected to their schools,
they will have confidence for a better perception of knowledge that will
lead to efficiency in learning. Extracurricular activities will help
students build good relationships among peers; therefore, when students
participate in these activities, their classroom engagement increases.
Extracurricular activities will provide students practice environments, and
these practice opportunities will enable students to gain confidence. Students
will stand a better chance of displaying their skills and abilities in a
confident classroom practice.
Extracurricular
activities affect students’ positive attitudes towards learning and school.
Those students who perform well in activities will develop self-esteem because
of their accomplishments. Self-esteem will be a key role in promoting
their achievement at school; moreover, extracurricular activities will
establish an environment for students to use the knowledge they have
learnt at school. Students will have an opportunity to practice the knowledge
in real-life settings. Really, the work of teaching and learning are
a time-consuming process and educational interaction between teachers and
students. The aim of the educational interaction deals with three aspects,
as called cognitive, affective and psychomotor. To succeed these both
objectives requires maximum work of a teacher in transmitting of the
material, techniques and methods, classroom management, and so
on. Moreover; teachers
’ being expected to
be more creative to support learning activities in the classroom is
essential and demands some extracurricular activities after lessons.
Extracurricular
activities as above mentioned are "activities conducted outside of
school hours". Extracurricular activities are to be done in school or
out of school depending on the demands and convenience of extracurricular activities.
To be more precise to learn English language, extracurricular activities,
such as extracurricular English language debate, journalism club or
drama club activities are often carried out in or outside the school
to be more fluent in pronunciation and successful in life in general.
Shortly, to brief description above, the extracurricular activity supports
students' learning activities. Students who dealt with extracurricular
activities to be successful in their learning environment shows that; the
majority of students who often take part in student council, English debate,
language labs, and so, also actively participate in learning activities in the
classroom.
The effect of
extracurricular activities on English learning
Extracurricular
activities create a learning environment for second language learners.
Meetings, interviews, presentations, and publication of school newspapers are
useful activities in which students can take part in. Students through
involving them can promote their communication skills. Similarly, the Direct Method
aims to develop students’ communicative competence. Such extracurricular
activities as writing letters to students from other countries, holding
debates and discussions in English where students need to use English at
all times help students improve their English proficiency. The primary
goal of the Direct Method is to get students involved in the target
language. Extracurricular activities that are conducted in English
will enable students to be exposed to the target language which will lead
them to achievement in language learning. Similarly, the goal of
Communicative Language Teaching is to enhance communication skills of students.
Students through games and role plays endeavor to reach a communicative
competence. Extracurricular activities that are carried out in English are
useful in that students will create an environment where they can share
their ideas and opinions. These activities will encourage students to
develop their communication skills. In Task-based learning the students are
asked to complete a task. Task in foreign language learning process is an activity
that necessarily involves language (Richards, Platt, and Weber, 1985). Students
try to create an outcome in task-based learning, and the role of the teacher is
to regulate this process. Students via experimenting with the target language
can advance their level of English, in particular, their communication ability.
Extracurricular activities can teach students how to perform a
task. To complete their tasks students need to discuss, and share ideas
with each other. As a result these activities will highly contribute
to language proficiency of students.
Conclusion
Extracurricular
activities are useful in that they help students create positive attitudes
to develop skills. Students become productive when they are involved in
extracurricular activities. As long as students are encouraged to learn, they
will stand a better chance of achievement. Extracurricular activities can help
students to have a good command of English at the same time. These
activities support the characteristics of approaches we apply in foreign
language learning process. Those students who are involved in extracurricular
activities will create a platform for promotion of
language development.
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