{"id":2858,"date":"2015-05-05T15:29:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T13:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.narodnaosvita.kiev.ua\/?page_id=2858"},"modified":"2015-06-22T10:42:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T08:42:28","slug":"muntyan-svitlana-gennadi%d1%97vna","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.narodnaosvita.kiev.ua\/?page_id=2858","title":{"rendered":"Muntian, S.G. The extracurricular activity: a key to improving the quality of foreign language training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u0423\u0414\u041a 378.147.88.016\n<\/p>\n

\n\tS.G. Muntian<\/a>,
\n\tSenior teacher at the Department for foreign languages 
\n\tTavria State Agrotechnological University\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe extracurricular activity: a key to improving the quality of foreign language <\/strong>trai<\/strong>ning<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\tAbstract.<\/em><\/strong> The present paper disentangles the theoretical issues of the extracurricular foreign language training and develops a practical perspective on the organization of extracurricular activities as a part of educational technologies.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKey words:<\/em><\/strong> extracurricular activities, foreign language training, academic process.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \n<\/p>\n

\n\tProblem setting<\/strong>.<\/strong> The quality of foreign language training today is justly considered as a prerequisite for the professional self-identification of graduates. Given the current autonomy of higher education institutions, trainers are grappling with the design and implemention of pragmatic educational techniques that would fit the formats of the training process at specific foreign language chairs. This is why the issue of intensifying the extracurricular activities urgently cries for action, especially now that foreign language training in higher educational institutions with professional focus is becoming increasingly shorter and is often limited to 2-3 first semesters of bachelor programmes. On the top of this is a discrepancy between the steadily rising requirements regarding the expected foreign language command level for professionals and their de facto<\/em> inability to apply the knowledge in their professional career. All these considerations point to the need for expending ever more effort on the quality of foreign language training and explain the importance of the issue at hand.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLiterature<\/strong> review<\/strong>. There is a vast array of works dedicated to key concepts of extracurricular training activities (I. Zimnyaya, O. Verbitskiy, V. Yakunin, A. Rubanik, A. Godlevs’ka, A. Kaps’ka and others), such as the definition and structure of extracurricular training activities (L. Sokolova, V. Lis, L. Petrychenko, L. Smerchak, O. Stoyan, G. Ovcharenko), the relevant organizational approaches (L. Onuschak, L. Yakushkina), and the role of extracurricular training activities in students’ personal development (T. Ivanaiska, M. Donchenko, I Karpova, N. Galeyeva, N. Rudenko, O. Tepla).\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe extracurricular foreign language training activities are commonly defined as a means to intensify foreign language training and to encourage students’ personal and professional development (L. Luzhnyk, E. Kravchenko, O. Obdalova, N. Skrypnyk). For all its indisputable value, this definition however tends to downplay the complementarity of extracurricular training activities and in-class foreign language training.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe objective<\/strong> of the present paper is to address the theoretical issues of the extracurricular foreign language training especially with regard to its complementary nature with the in-class training process, as well as to present a practical perspective on the organization of extracurricular training activities.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKey <\/strong>argument<\/strong>.<\/strong> There exists a broad consensus to the effect that the instructional systems of specific university chairs arise out of the combination of the teaching and educational processes, each of which bears the imprint of discipline-specific peculiarities. The vast academic, pragmatic and educational potential of foreign languages allows for a balanced synthesis of the mandatory in-class instruction and targeted extracurricular activities. Given that the training in foreign languages offered at specialized higher educational institution is rather condensed in terms of the number of credit points and in-class course hours, the extracurricular educational activity takes on a major role in improving the quality of students’ foreign language proficiency, especially with a view to ensuring the continuity of the foreign language instruction process and improving the skills and competencies over the course of the entire instruction period.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSetting up an extracurricular activities system requires clarity about the term “extracurricular activities”. The term can be taken to mean any student activities undertaken outside the academic process, with a view to reinforcing students’ personal development and interests, expanding and deepening their professional knowledge and competencies [1].\n<\/p>\n

\n\tExtracurricular training in foreign languages is especially effective if naturally integrated in students’ leisure activities, for the latter allows students to cater to their own needs, thereby giving a boost to their self-actualization, self-affirmation and self-improvement. Extracurricular training within students’ leisure activities hence presents a setting where knowledge, skills and competencies – either acquired during the in-class instruction process or auto-didactically – come to be experientially embedded. It is in this context that scholars refer to the essential educational, developing, stabilizing, integrating and compensating potential of the extracurricular foreign language training [3] and indeed view it as a unique social and cultural phenomenon underlying the self-development and self-realization of students’ creative competencies [9].\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe organization of extracurricular foreign language training activities must do full justice to the peculiarities of the foreign language training outside the class room. It has to complement the relevant in-class instruction process and be aligned with the logic and requirements of the in-class training process. Among these, the key elements are academic nature, relevance to day-to-day life, socially useful orientation, and pedagogical suitability [7]. Thus the basic component of extracurricular foreign language training is a conglomerate of various activity types organized outside the in-class training process [9].\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe efficiency and the effectiveness of the extracurricular training in foreign languages have been found out to depend on the following principles [2]:\n<\/p>\n