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

Global Take on Bilingualism and Co-curricular Activities

ELL students must have one-on-one interaction with their teachers to enhance their English proficiency, but this is challenging when students are incorporated into mainstream classroom environments. Creating chances for interaction, fostering engagement, implementing different teaching techniques, allowing learners to make decisions, and cultivating friendliness may help solve these and other issues (Sheokarah, 2021). Children's language acquisition is enhanced through communication and social involvement, making language development more meaningful. In this context, extracurricular activities have the potential to promote ELL students' social-emotional well-being and language growth in the classroom (Park, 2015). Extracurricular activities expose children to a wide range of new and different experiences while also allowing

them to interact and connect with their classmates in a less formal learning setting than the classroom (Donroe, 2020).
With an increasing number of migrants, Canada experiences challenges in incorporating Language Learners into mainstream classrooms. English Language Learners face difficulties learning the English language and require special assistance. When it comes to transitioning to the Canadian educational system, ELLs face various problems, such as culture shock, which can influence students' social and emotional well-being, confidence, and academic progress. (Park, 2015). Teaching ELL kids is very tough, and one of the difficulties teachers encounter is integrating ELL students into regular classrooms. However, learners will gain lasting benefits from their language learning experience if culture is incorporated into the study of language (Nguyen, 2017). The research concludes that extracurricular activities can help ELL students acclimatize to school by giving them an opportunity to form meaningful relationships with instructors and classmates and a secure learning environment, and a sense of self-worth (Park, 2015).
Academic friendship, for example, is helpful in the growth of language acquisition, as evidenced by the collaboration that supports learners' triumphs and develops positive attitudes toward learning (Sheokarah, 2021). Other opportunities could include taking risks, trying new things, sharing and widening interests, and providing extra opportunities to practice English (Park, 2015). Like Canada, schools in South Africa are trying to uncover new strategies to facilitate English learners' language acquisition. Even though English is the primary language of learning and teaching in South Africa, most instructors and students are not native English speakers (Msimanga et al., 2017). Most schools in South Africa utilize an African language as the medium of teaching for the first three years of school, then convert to either English, primarily, or Afrikaans in the fourth year. Several students speak English as a second language
yet are taught in English. Poor literacy scores have been discovered in literacy research performed with South African English Second Language learners (Sheokarah, 2021).
Sheokarah discusses his research project, which entails collaborating with an English Language Club to help students learn English. The research was divided into four cycles, with the first focusing on listening and speaking, the second on spelling and vocabulary, the third on reading, and the fourth on writing. The research concludes that many impediments, such as the curriculum, learning environments, a lack of resources, and language obstacles, can make it difficult for second language learners to learn English. However, creating chances for interaction, promoting participation, employing new teaching techniques, empowering learners to make decisions, considering learners' diversity, and cultivating tolerance can all help handle these and other issues.
One of the most evident factors for second language acquisition success is motivation to learn a language (Meenakshi, 2012). Besides allowing students to apply what they have learned in class in a real-world setting, extracurricular activities can also serve as a motivation to learn a second language. The degree of motivation of students is recognized as a critical factor impacting the quality of foreign language instruction (Albayrak et al., 2021). In Sweden, for example, students have a lower motivation to learn a language at school. According to the findings, kids love the autonomy that video games allow, making them a better alternative for learning English (Richtoff et al., 2022). Another research in Turkey analyzes whether extracurricular activities and exposure to the target language substantially impact students' motivation to learn English. In Turkey, foreign language instruction is currently incorporated in the second year of elementary school. Even though it is required, the total weekly hour of English classes in primary school is just two hours, as determined by the Board of Education and Discipline. Because English is extensively taught using conventional techniques in primary,
secondary, and even higher education, it falls short of meeting the fundamental goal of foreign language education, which is to provide learners with the ability to communicate in the target language. The findings demonstrate that students who participate in extracurricular activities are more motivated than those who do not (Albayrak et al., 2021). A degree of freedom in the content and types of work used enhances students' general knowledge and offers a positive climate for language acquisition.