Research abstract & findings: The effects of The Community English Club’s Activities on English competence and professional skills of students at SFL, TNU

The objective of the research entitled “The effects of The Community English Club’s Activities on English competence and professional skills of students at The School of Foreign Languages (SFL), Thai Nguyen University (TNU)” was to find out whether or not CEC activities had positive effects on students’ English competence and students’ professional oriented skills.

The research used mixed methods; finding the effects by collecting, analyzing data, and “mixing” both quantitative and qualitative research. Concretely, the real effects of CEC activities on students’ English competence and professional oriented skills were found and assessed through comparing academic documents of two groups (the students who participated in CEC activities and those who did not), analyzing the data collected from different types of instruments such as observation, questionnaires and interviews for lecturers and students at the SFL.

The subjects of this research were the students who are in course K34. Fifteen students at the course K34 who joined CEC, fifteen students at the course K34 who did not join it, 30 current CEC members, 10 graduate students who used to be CEC members and 10 lecturers were chosen randomly as the sample.

The collected data were analyzed through Pair Sample T- Test, data interpretation and description by tables, bar and pie charts. The result of English Written and Oral Proficiency – Advanced 1 showed that the CEC members’ score was lower than non-CEC members’ score. In contrast, the result of English Written and Oral Proficiency – Advanced 2 indicated that the CEC members’ score was higher than non-CEC members’ score.

Combining with the data collected from questionnaires and interviews, it can be seen that CEC members studied in the research made a better progress in academic achievements than those who did not participate in CEC activities; and it is concluded that CEC activities had positive effects which could promote students’ English competence and professional oriented skills

General effects of CEC on students’ development

It can be shown in the research that Community English Club – a student organization and a model of extracurricular activity which is led by students under the control and advised of Department of English at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University has been creating a lot of weekly, quarterly and annually online and offline activities such as: “Meet up”, “Talk show”, “Language Camps”, “CEC Bi-Zine”, “Teaching English for disadvantaged students”, etc for both students who are members of CEC and other students at SFL to participate freely besides their studying in academic classrooms at SFL.

All CEC activities, especially five activities studied in the research (“Meet up”, “Talk show”, “Language Camps”, “CEC Bi-Zine”, “Teaching English for disadvantaged students”) have been proved to connect and support training programs at SFL and these activities have created friendly and active practical environment with the targets of promoting students’ English competence and professional oriented skills.

And 100% of students who are current members of CEC answered that they were keen on participating CEC activities a lot and their participation in CEC activities has been a big motivation for them in studying and cultivating English competence and professional oriented skills. Lecturers who directly taught those who are CEC members also commented that CEC members are more motivate and enthusiastic in learning than those who are not.

Effects of CEC activities on students’ English competence

The research has indicated that CEC activities have created a practical environment for students to practice and cultivate their English competence at all English skills such as: listening, speaking, reading and writing through activities such as: weekly meeting to communicate to other students and foreigners in 59 English, talk show in which both lecturers and students have chance to do presentation about their interests, CEC Bi Zine in which students can practise their English reading, writing and translating skills, “Teaching English for disadvantaged students” in which they can combine using all English skills, and “Language Camps” in which they have conditions to use English directly.

And students’ participating in CEC activities has led to a better progress in learning and achieving academic results at subjects of English Competence such as English Oral and Written Proficiency.

The research also shows that students who participate in CEC activities are ready to use their English to communicate English with others, especially foreigners (current CEC members) and then actively use their English in their job (graduate students who used to be CEC members).

Effects of CEC activities on students’ professional oriented skills

Besides English competence, it is also indicated in the research findings that CEC activities have effective impacts on students’ professional oriented skills.

The biggest impact on students here is the self-confidence CEC members can get for themselves through participating in CEC activities. The self-confidence encourages students who are CEC members to be brave to express themselves and study new knowledge and professional skills.

Besides self-confidence, CEC members can learn other necessary professional skills such as: convincing and negotiating skills, Ms Office and I.T skills, time management, flexibility, public relation, public speaking, communication, self-expression, doing presentation, problem solving, writing memos/ letter/ proposal/reports/speeches/ lesson plans/ etc, Supervision & management, designing, organizing events, planning, team building, leadership, innovation, creativity, development, authentic learning (learning through reality), translating skill, critical thinking and project management.

And assessments from SFL lecturers attending this research show that CEC members are more confident, creative, active, enthusiastic and motivate in learning and social activities than those who are not CEC members.

Significantly, the professional skills CEC members get from attending CEC activities are proved to contribute to orient future career for CEC members. Especially, students who are CEC members can understand their strength, weakness and real passions so that they can determine their target of occupation after graduating. Professional skills CEC members get from attending CEC activities are also proved to strengthen students’ dream.

Moreover, those professional skills are useful in their jobs (for graduate students who used to be CEC members) because those skills support their jobs and help them complete their jobs better.

The factors of CEC activities that impacted effectively students’ language competence and professional skills

It can be concluded from the data collected from questionnaires for current CEC members and interviews for graduate students who used to be CEC members and lecturers at SFL that CEC activities had itself these following factors hat help students reinforce their English competence and professional skills.

Firstly, CEC activities studied in this research (“Meet up”, “Talk show”, “CEC Bi-Zine”, “Teaching English for disadvantaged students”, “Language camps”) helped students develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing through activities such as: weekly meeting to communicate to other students and foreigners in English, talk show in which both lecturers and students have chance to do presentation about their interests, CEC Bi Zine in which students can practise their English reading, writing and translating skills, “Teaching English for disadvantaged students” in which they can combine using all English skills, and “Language Camps” in which they have conditions to use English directly.

Secondly, besides developing those English skills, the content and operation of CEC activities also gave students opportunities to develop their professional skills. For instance, by attending “Meet up”, students were able to reinforce their communication skills. By joining in “CEC Bi-Zine”, students could practise their 61 team-work skills. The descriptions of these skills were performed clearly in the Table 1, 2, 3 at Chapter 4 of this thesis.

Thirdly, it can be concluded that the real factors that CEC activities brought for students were its creating practical environment for students to practice their English competence and professional skills and encouraging students to attend in those activities actively and enthusiastically. Concretely, 96.7% of students who are current CEC members answered that they enjoyed attending CEC activities.

Moreover, the real factor that led to students’ development in English competence and professional skills was the self-confidence students could get from participating in CEC activities. 100% of students who are current CEC members attending this research mentioned that attending CEC activities made them more confident in themselves because they could understand their strength and weakness.

Furthermore, the close connection between the content of CEC activities and curriculum at SFL, TNU proved at the table 2 and 3 in Chapter 4 was also another factor leading to students’ development in English competence and professional skills. For instance, 93.3% of students who are current CEC members attending this research claimed that participating in CEC activities helped them learn and complete their English Courses at SFL, TNU with higher academic results. And these results were proved at the previous chapter in this thesis.

In general, it can be analyzed that the factors impacting effectively students’ English competence and professional skills included these factors:

- CEC activities created practical environment for students to practice English competence and professional skills in reality.

- Attending CEC activities made students more confident in themselves and helped them understand their strength and weakness.

- The content of CEC activities had a close relationship with curriculum at SFL, TNU.

Bui Thanh Huong (author of this paper)

Source: The effects of The Community English Club’s Activities on English competence and professional skills of students at The School of Foreign Languages (SFL), Thai Nguyen University (TNU) – The School of Foreign Languages (SFL), Thai Nguyen University (TNU)