English through extracurricular activities

Teaching English language has five important components-pupils, a teacher, materials, teaching

methods and evaluation. But what about extracurricular activities? How can we use them to draw

pupils’ attention? Extracurricular activities have many advantages like increase in sociability, learning

new things and better motivation for school. Below is a presentation of some extracurricular activities

involving the use of English.

I love teaching English. I’ve been teaching it for almost eight years now and I’ve discovered that pupils

become more and more fond of English if they are involved in extracurricular activities. And not only

that, but they also improve their pronunciation, vocabulary, communicative skills as well. I have

developed a sort of a special programme containing several activities with the following content: two

clubs, a general knowledge quiz contest (twice a semester) and a special fun activity which I use to

celebrate British or American holidays (Thanksgiving day, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, Christmas ,

Easter).

I’ll start with the two clubs: one is an English Club –teaching English through games and songs - and a

Drama Club - teaching English through plays .It’s true, there are English lessons which use songs and

games and short role plays but we cannot use them all the time, we have to teach grammar, to have

pupils practise it through worksheets, we also have to teach reading and writing. So that’s why I came

up with the idea of these clubs. They take place once a week after lessons . Why did I think of Drama ?

Well it’s a fun way to learn and practise English on the one hand ,but on the other hand it allows

students to communicate with and understand others in new ways. Students who have participated in

Dramatic activities are less likely to have difficulty speaking in public, will be better able to put

themselves into others' shoes and relate to them, and will have a more positive, confident self image.

Participation in Dramatic activity requires self control and discipline that will serve the student well in

all aspects of life. Students in Drama will learn to work together, to cooperate and to find the best way

for each member of a group to contribute. How does a Drama lesson “work”? Well, students start with

some warm up activities such as “Mirrors” or tongue twisters (great for voice techniques, rhythm,

pronunciation). Mirroring is a way of developing concentration skills and it goes on like this: everyone

takes a partner.  (If there is an odd number, the teacher pairs with someone.)  Partners stand facing

each  other, about three feet apart.  One is the leader, the other, the "mirror."  Moving only from the

waist up, the leader begins to make simple gestures or movements.  The "mirror" duplicates the leader's

movements exactly--just as a mirror would.  Then students go on rehearsing certain parts they have in

a play, if they have a play to prepare for a certain occasion, or at other times I use skits- short

humorous performances or pieces of writing . Other activities that I use in the Drama Club are :

“Gibberish Sentences”, “Rhyme Charades”, “ The Martha Game”, “What are you doing?”,” Musical

freeze improves” etc.. All of them are very well explained on www.childdrama.com, where you can

also find other activities and plays. And speaking of plays, there is a large variety for children of all

ages on the Internet. I’ll mention some sites at the Bibliography section at the end of this paper.

The English Club idea is not new, there are many teachers who have such a club in their schools. What

I would like to say regarding it is that children simply love coming here. There is a certain problem

with the number of students attending it (there are too many who want in) and I have decided to allow

only pupils who are good at English . I was surprised to find out that some pupils improved their

English only because they wanted to come to this club. So one objective has been reached- motivating

pupils to learn English. Other objectives are : having pupils develop speaking, listening, reading skills.

We also do some writing activities from time to time ,but I focus mainly on the others mentioned

previously. Games are at the top of the list: whether they are vocabulary , grammar or communicative

games they are my pupils’ favourite. Some that I’ll mention are : Bingo (which I’m sure many of you

use in the lessons), board games , crosswords, wordsearches and many others.. Apart from games I also

use songs to practice certain grammar structures or vocabulary. Or I make up lines for well-known

songs like the tune of Frere Jacques or I’ m a little teapot etc. For example if I want to practice

physical appearance I could write something like” I have brown hair ,I have brown hair, What about

you, what about you, I have brown hair, I have brown hair, What about you?(X 2)” on the tune of Frere

Jacques. Or I use different activities involving songs: gapped text, matching pictures (I give them some

pictures related to the song, they listen and put them in the order in which they hear them in the song),

sing along (the aim is to have the pupils learn the tune in order to sing with the original recording)

Another extracurricular activity liked by pupils is the General Knowledge Quiz Contest that I organise

twice a semester. It has different sections according to pupils’ ages: 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders and

consists of 15-20 questions from Geography, History, English, Music, Sports, Maths, Romanian,

Biology , Chemistry, cinema, Internet. I choose to present the questions on Power Point slides through

a video projector on a screen /wall. The questions are either true /false ,multiple choice or “write the

answer “ type. Pupils are divided in groups of four per class (my school is small , there aren’t many

classes per level, but bigger schools can use only two pupils per class) and are given markers, blank

sheets of paper and four cards with the options A,B,C and D on them. This type of activity aims to

improve pupils’ reading skills in English, to check their general knowledge on the one hand, and their

English grammar and vocabulary knowledge on the other hand, since there are many questions

regarding English language. It also stimulates competition between classes and raises pupils’ interest in

the English language. At the end I give them certificates or I sometimes find other means of rewarding

them.

The last extracurricular activity so dear to the pupils is the special activity organised to celebrate

Anglo-Saxon holidays. It doesn’t have a fix name –it’s always different , according to the holiday. For

example around Halloween time the activity is called “Autumn Carnival” and it is a time for a lot of

fun while practising English. At the beginning I show them a Power Point presentation with the

history of the holiday, how it’s celebrated in Great Britain or USA. Then it continues with activities

which can be adapted to each holiday: Diamond Poem Contest (writing a poem consisting of five

lines ,the first line being the theme, the second two adjectives about the theme, the third three –ing

verbs, the fourth, a four-word sentence and the fifth a synonym to the theme; an example of a

Diamond Poem is this: “ Halloween/ Dark, scary/ Playing, tricking, laughing/ Children love this

holiday/ Pumpkins”.), Song Contest (related to the holiday- I use Power point slides with the songs

projected on a screen and everybody sings them , then I ask pupils to decide who wants to participate

and give them sheets of papers with the songs), Bingo ( I give them squared sheets of paper with words

or pictures on them, and call different words and they have to cross them ;the first one to cross all the

words and pictures shouts “Bingo” and is the winner ), Pin the hat on the scarecrow, or the tail on the

black cat, or the nose on the pumpkin- it can be adapted according to the holiday, Costume Contest-

pupils dress up in different costumes-usually related to the holiday- and introduce themselves in

English, Musical Freeze Frame (they dance and when the music stops they freeze- I try to find funny

songs, if possible, again ,related to the holiday). I usually add one or two more activities in which to

make use of English in some way, But I always try to mix fun and English practice. It really works! At

the end they get small rewards: certificates, reward stickers, balloons, bookmarks etc. You can imagine

it’s their favourite activity. Not only does it promote English, but it can also be used to motivate them

to learn English. Those who improve their marks will be invited to take part in the activity as well as

those who are good at English and show interest.

At the end of my presentation I only have to say that YES, it takes some time to prepare, organise and

participate in such extracurricular activities, it requires passion and respect for your job and for your

pupils, but there is a great satisfaction and that is when children come to you and say that they love

English because they do a lot of activities, or when they say that they’ll try to study more or when they

give you a card made by them thanking you for all the things you taught them, or simply give you a

hug. All these are worth much more then any reward in the world.

Bibliography:

1. “The Practice of English Language Teaching”, Jeremy Harmer, Pearson Longman;

2. “Learning Teaching”, Jim Scrivener, Macmillan;

3. “Primary Communication Box”, Caroline Nixon, Michael Tomlinson, Cambridge University

Press

4. “Shenanigames”, James Kealey, Donna Inness, Pro Lingua Associates;

5. www.macscouter.com (skits)

6. www.kidsinco.com (plays)

7. www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm (playscripts)

8. www.learenglish.org.uk (poems, plays, songs, activities)

9. www.genkienglish.net (songs)

10. “Games for Vocabulary Practice”, Felicity O’Dell, Katie Head, Cambridge University Press;

11. “Primary Grammar Box”, Caroline Nixon, Michael Tomlinson, Cambridge University Press;

12. “Super Songs and Activities”, Gill Mackie, Thomson Heinle