English Learners Outside the Classroom: The Effects of Participating in Extracurricular Activities

Reasons not to participate in Extracurricular Activities

Learning a new language can be stressful for many students. Anxiety has been found as a significant barrier to language learning (Naser et al., 2019). The responses given by all three students identify fear of not pronouncing English words as one of the most significant factors for them to choose not to participate in extracurricular activities. Student 1 mentioned that he did not want to hold back the team if they had to stop to repeat directions to the team because he did not

understand the directions. Student 2 also mentioned the pressure of not knowing English as a primary factor to refrain from participating in extracurricular activities. She experienced students, primarily bilingual students making fun of her accent which made her feel not ready to join a club or team where communication is key. However, she decided to join the dance club because the teacher in charge speaks Spanish, and the music was also in Spanish which alleviated her fear and anxiety to communicate with club members and the teacher. By joining a team where she felt secure and it was an easy transition to start speaking English outside the classroom, the student levels of anxiety decreased. This contributes to the idea that extracurricular activities can provide a climate in which communication surrounds learners, resulting in a strong inclination toward learning a different language (Camacho, 2015). Even though there is research that testifies that extracurricular activities are beneficial as they introduce students to real-life contexts in which the language is applied, EFL tasks assist students overcome their fear of learning a language from a different culture. (Chakraborty et al., 2021).
On the other hand, Student 3 prefers to learn more English before she commits to participate in activities outside the classroom, which contributes to previous research. For example, Martin- Beltrán et al., 2019 states some newcomer students are reluctant to associate with students who speak the dominant language.