Section 2 Extracurricular Activities

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I.Thinking

【Case Reflection】

Ms B is an English teacher who recently graduated from a teacher training university. In order to make student extracurricular activities more engaging, Ms B organized English Corner for the whole class once a week. Before each English Corner, Ms B gave students a topic and asked them to have a discussion about it. At the beginning students were very interested in this, but after a period of time, Ms B found they lost interest. Finally, Ms B had to cancel this activity.

Why do you think the English Corner was finally cancelled? Do you have any good suggestions to help Ms. B solve this problem?

II.Learning

The National Curriculum Standards includes the principle of maximizing opportunities for learning and using language. This suggests teachers should make full use of different resources and techniques to help students maximize opportunities for learning and using English. The National Curriculum Standards also emphasizes developing various extracurricular activities and improving student interest in learning language. This means teachers should start with real needs of students and try to search for effective teaching strategies which can improve overall student development. In China, as insufficient English learning time in the classroom will exist for the foreseeable future, extracurricular language learning activities will remain important teaching activities in elementary and middle school. The following are some common English extracurricular activities in elementary and middle school.

III.Mini-activities

Mini-activities are common extracurricular activities. These activities can be carried out by an individual student or a group. Teachers can themselves design mini-activities which are suitable for their own students according to their specific teaching needs. For example, in the design of English extracurricular activities for elementary school, teachers could ask students to draw an imaginary zoo in their spare time after students have learned some animal names, and then ask students to draw those animals of which they have learned the names, and label them accordingly. Then, teachers can ask students to introduce their zoos to each other. Through this activity, students can consolidate the language they have learned.

The following are some extracurricular mini-activities which are used in teaching:

(I) Playing games

Existentialist philosopher Huizinga claims that games are forms of human existence. Playing games is natural for teenagers, so having students carry out English learning activities in their favorite games can raise student interest in learning English. According to the principles of The National Curriculum Standards, current English materials (especially English materials for elementary school) should include many language games. Language games include language presentation games, language practice games, language performance games, etc. The following games, for example, can be played by teachers and students together or by students after class.

1.Simon Says

Teachers give verbal instructions and students do the movements in response to show their understanding. Teachers can use various approaches, such as humorous ways to give instructions. Teachers and students can give instructions to each other. During the break time, students can play this game among themselves.

2.Passing the message

This game can be carried out according to the seating arrangement in the classroom. The teacher or student representatives pass one word or one sentence in a soft voice to the first student in each group and then the message is passed from one person to the next. The last student in each group stands up and repeats the word or the sentence. Teachers can strengthen the complexity of the content to let students practise their listening and speaking skills.

3.Acting and guessing

One student in a group imitates one animal or one action, and another student in another group tries to guess what the animal is in English. These animals and actions can be familiar to the students; for example, when teaching the word “dog”, teachers can ask students to imitate the bark and then guess the animal. Students should say the word “dog”.

4.Getting to know yourself

Students attach a piece of paper to their backs. There is a person's name or the name of an object on the paper, but the wearer can't see it. When the game begins students walk around and at the same time ask each other questions about the content of the paper, but they can give only “Yes” or “No” answers. When someone has guessed the content of the piece of paper on his/her back, the piece of paper is removed.

5.Linking words

The teacher or a student says one word and the other students try to link this to another word by using the given word's last letter as the first letter of a new word and then link other words in turn. This game is very helpful for enlarging vocabulary and at the same time helping students to review and consolidate words that they have learned.

(II) Songs and rhyme

Singing is a favorite with teenagers. When starting to learn English, learning to sing songs is helpful in lowering the difficulty of learning a new language. Singing can also develop confidence in mastering the language and help teenagers strengthen their fluency. It is equally an important and effective way to present new language. Rhymes in singing can help students understand English and strengthen their confidence in learning.

Songs and rhymes are effective ways of learning English pronunciation, and especially effective when it comes to the pronunciation of vowels. Songs and rhymes are also an effective way of practicing new language content (including grammar structures) because rhythm and rhyme strengthen language fluency by helping students memorize what they have learned.

(III) Telling stories

Students in elementary and middle schools enjoy telling stories very much. Therefore, in the process of teaching, teachers can use storytelling to present new text and can also transform a text into stories or adapt stories from a text so as to help students better understand it.

Teachers can use stories to present new language and also use stories to make students practise the language. Teachers can organize a storytelling activity and ask students to tell stories which they have learned or made up themselves.

Middle school students are in adolescence and have a strong desire to learn. They are also developing autonomous learning and analyzing skills, so the main goal of carrying out extracurricular teaching activities in middle school should be to cultivate autonomous learning skills.

(IV) Writing diaries in English or diaries about English learning

Writing diaries in English is one of the best ways for students to use English. Teachers should encourage students to write diaries or blogs in English. Teachers should encourage those who have difficulty in writing diaries or blogs in English to write diaries about learning English.

(V) Reading extracurricular English materials and share reviews

Teachers should encourage students to read extracurricular English materials, such as English stories, English cartoons, etc. based on students' particular needs and approaches to learning. Not only can this cultivate good reading habits, but it can also help students find their favorite English materials. Teachers can also encourage students to form reading groups and communicate their feelings with each other about what they have read in a written or oral form in English. This can further cultivate interest in learning English.

(VI) Doing mini-fieldwork and visits

Teachers can encourage students to do mini-fieldwork or visits in their spare time or holidays. Students can write down their experience in the mini-fieldwork and share with other students. Since students have little social experience, doing mini-fieldwork and visiting places of their choosing can provide good opportunities for students themselves to experience what they may otherwise only experience in textbooks. This can broaden students' horizons and create good opportunities for learning English.

IV.Large-scale Activities

The National Curriculum Standards emphasizes that students need to use English to do things. Students' language skills, thinking skills, and communicating and cooperating skills are developed in the process of doing things. Language learning requires a good language environment and a lot of language practice opportunities. Language learning also should make students themselves experience, feel, practise, participate and communicate so as to form good language awareness. Therefore, regular large-scale extracurricular activities will be very helpful for forming a good learning environment.

(I) Drama performance

Role-play is a good outlet for student curiosity about trying different roles in society and, not surprisingly, a favorite activity.

A drama performance can be a consolidating activity after students have learned the text and can serve the purpose of checking whether students have understood the main idea of the story. A drama performance can be a student performance based on the content of the text, or it can be their creative interpretation of the content of the text. This kind of activity can make students use English in a creative way and it is a good practice activity. It can cultivate and improve students' English pragmatic awareness. Role-plays can also improve students' cooperation with each other.

(II) Establishing English newspapers or English programs

Teachers can organize students to establish English newspapers (even hand-written copies), or English programs for the class, or for the whole school (assuming permission is given by the school to do this) .

(III) Creating websites in English or English learning websites

If students have the ability and are interested in website design, teachers can encourage them to create websites in English. Teachers can also encourage those who have difficulty in creating websites in English to make English learning websites.

(IV) Making exhibitions of English handwriting or contests on English pronunciation

Activities like exhibitions of English handwriting or contests on English pronunciation can help students to improve their English handwriting and pronunciation.

(V) “English Festival” or “English Corner”

Projects like “English Songs Contest”, “English Party”, “English Performance”, “English Week”, “English Month”, “English Corner”, “English Exhibition”, “English Expo”, “An Exhibition of English Handwritten Newspapers”, etc. can provide good opportunities for students to use English in a creative way. At the same time, these projects are very helpful for the cultivation of a sense of cooperation, giving students a feeling of achievement in using English in a creative way. Each project should have a topic and clear guidelines about activity steps. There should also be relevant illustrations and explanations. These activities should consolidate what students have learned and develop their overall competence, and should be carried out at an appropriate time. Usually, these can be carried out in the middle of the term or at the end of the term. They can also be carried out during a student art festival. While students are working on a project, teachers should ask them to use English and this can also be regarded as an important factor in assessing their work. These activities can be carried out class by class with the school choosing the best work from each grade. These activities can also be carried out by cooperating with organizations, such as TV stations, or newspaper offices.

【Practical Analysis】

The following are two simple drama performance activities designed by Mr. Guo for elementary students in Grade 3.One is called “Rabbit and Fox” adapted from a famous American folk story. The other is a Chinese folk story “Monkey and the Water Sprite”. Please analyse whether the activities can be effectively carried out based on the following activity schedule. (Barbara Agor & Chen Lin, 2007: 7)

Practicing

【Designing】

Please design relevant English extracurricular activities based on the following classroom teaching activities.

Travel (Unit 4, Book 3, Junior English from People's Education Press)

The main content of this lesson is based on the topic of “Travel”. It reviews communicative expressions concerning travel, making it necessary for students to talk about their travel in their own words thereby improving their language competence.

(1) Warm-up activity

Song: My love . Through the English song, the teacher creates a harmonious and happy teaching atmosphere so students concentrate on the English learning in this lesson.

The teacher gets the students to look at some currently popular Chinese celebrities, and elicits their names: Liu Xiang, Ren Changxia, Xu Benyu, Yuan Longping, etc.

The teacher gets the students to summarize what they have in common and their differences: they have received a “Move China” honor; they have different jobs; they work in different positions, but they have devoted themselves to China. The teacher can conclude by saying that jobs are very important to our society and the day's lesson includes this.

The teacher gets the students to get out their cards about occupations and some other related vocabulary they have researched on the Internet. The teacher asks the students to review these and then asks questions such as: Have you ever traveled out of the country? What places of interest have you traveled to? Which is the most interesting place you have traveled to?

The teacher then asks students to show him/her their homework (some travel photos) and invites some of the students to briefly describe their own travel experience in front of the whole class while other students try to guess what place is being talked about.

(2) Exploration

Students play the game, “Miss Yu says”. (Make sure the expression “In my opinion, traveling can open my eyes” is highlighted) .

The teacher then asks a student: “What did Miss Yu say? ” and elicits the answer using the object clause. (Miss Yu said that traveling could open her eyes.) The teacher can also ask a few students to give their opinions. They can add some negative points about traveling.

(The teacher gives his/her opinion on travel and asks students to restate them by using the object clause which is the key grammar item of this unit and elicits the key topic of this lesson: Travel. The teacher can also ask some students to give their opinion on travel by using one sentence and then asking other students to report it.)

Today we are going to talk about travel.

V.Chapter Summary

Classroom teaching activities are more goal-oriented than extracurricular teaching activities and their learning efficiency is higher. English classroom activities for elementary and middle school can be divided into four types: start-up, language learning, language performance, and summary. Start-up is the beginning of classroom activities and its success directly impacts the success of classroom learning. Teachers should pay close attention to how to start a lesson. Language learning is the aim of classroom activities, so teachers should try to use the best possible approach to carry out specific teaching activities, such as new language lead-in, new language presentation, task presentation, and new language learning. Language performance is the soul of the classroom teaching activities. Specific activities in practice and production should see cultivating students' overall language competence as the final aim. They should not only help students consolidate the new language which they have just learned, but also cultivate students' language competence in a real communicative context. The end of classroom activities should be regarded as the point at which students have effectively grasped the new content which they have learned. This can be enhanced through summary and homework which is learner-centred, flexible and diverse. Extracurricular teaching activities are an extension of classroom teaching. Extracurricular teaching activities, such as reciting, speech contests, class trips, mini-fieldwork, parties, etc. all can be used in teaching English. Authentic and interesting extracurricular activities can improve students' English learning, and give them better contact with real world information resources. Students' awareness and participation will gradually strengthen how they communicate and can transform their communication from a classroom style into real world communication. Close cooperation among teachers, students, families, and the society is necessary in order to make English extracurricular activities better. Making English extracurricular activities better will not only help through “learning in playing, playing in learning”, but also will enrich student spare time and improve their interest in learning English. In addition, extracurricular activities can encourage students to learn English autonomously and cultivate their independent learning skills and learning awareness.