An investigation in to the impacts of out-of-class English activities on the English major students’ achievement at military science academy

 been several claims that out-of-
class language activities do not only contribute 
to the development of students’ academic ability 
but also to their social development, influencing 
personality development and socialization more 
specifically (Terenzini, Pascarella and Blimling, 
1996). In fact, participating in out-of-class language 
activities can promote students’ self-esteem 
and relationships with other peers and teachers. 
As an evidence of this, Higgins (2009) found 
that students who participated in activities that 
were highly regarded and well noticed by peers to 
experience increased intellectual and motivational 
self-esteem. As a result, students who are more 
engaged with these activities are more likely to 
enjoy an increased sense of accomplishment, 
competence and self-esteem. Such benefits of 
participation in out-of-class language activities 
shape students to become well-rounded beings. 
What is more, students who actively 
participate in out-of-class language activities have 
better opportunities in the job market. Rodriguez, 
Kesenne and Humphreys (2011) mention that 
non-cognitive skills which are self-discipline, 
motivation and trustworthiness, are as important 
as cognitive skills such as perceptions, thinking, 
learning, for life success. The scholars state that 
such soft skills which can be learned over a long 
period of time and developed through out-of-class 
language activities provide students with better 
concentration, team spirit, work productivity, and 
leadership skills. Thus, active participation in out-
of-class language activities provides students with 
essential skills to prepare themselves to access 
quality jobs (Nguyễn Thu Hạnh, 2017). 
In conclusion, research findings so far have 
demonstrated that taking part in out-of-class 
language activities has proved to relate to increased 
interest in learning, strengthening students’ sense 
of identity, providing students with a sense of self-
satisfaction, and developing good life skills and a 
sense of belonging. In the following sections, the 
research methodology is presented with an aim of 
answering the research question of whether out-of-
class English activities help the military students of 
English achieve their expected learning outcomes.
4. METHODOLOGY
The data on which the present study is based were 
collected for a bigger project. The research team 
designed a one-school year-long study which was 
carried out among four third-year English major 
classes of the English Department, Military Science 
Academy. The sample consisted of 90 students. 
Every name of students and teachers used is a 
pseudonym, which is to ensure the confidentiality 
of all of the participants. In order to develop a more 
detailed understanding of the impacts that out-of-
class English activities have had on the students, 
the research team have decided to triangulate a 
variety of different method types. This means data 
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v DISCUSSION
for the research were collected with the help of a 
questionnaire, interviews, and students’ language 
diaries. 
Questionnaire 
The questionnaire, based on Likert’s scale of 
agreement, consists of ten statements with a scale 
from ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ 
and ‘strongly disagree’. Open-ended questions 
were also included in this questionnaire in order 
to gain data about the students’ interest in the 
English outside-classroom activities offered in the 
university. Instead of asking intrusive questions 
about the students’ feelings, the researcher team 
centered the statements on the measurable ways 
in which the students were engaged with their 
English lessons: asking and answering questions, 
reading, writing, etc. Additionally, extra questions 
were added to the final section of the questionnaire 
to gather information about how the participants 
found out-of-class activities in English and how 
they believed these activities could be exploited. 
The questionnaire was piloted with several students 
to ensure it was appropriate and comprehensive 
enough for the task. 
Student interviews 
In order to gain a deeper understanding of 
the students’ viewpoints of out-of-class English 
activities and their impacts on the students’ 
achievement in English, the researcher team 
conducted interviews with 10 students who were 
randomly selected. These 15-minute interviews 
were carried out separately to reduce the 
amount of information the students held back, 
especially in the presence the other students. 
Another aim of the interviews was to develop 
the researchers’ understanding of some of the 
students’ questionnaire and diary responses, and 
also to ask further questions about their experience 
of joining in English activities outside the class. 
Additionally, this method helped to bring together 
various attitudes and experiences the students had. 
The interview questions were pre-determined.
Students’ language diaries
The students were encouraged to carefully 
fill in the time spent on several out-of-class 
English activities, on a daily basis, preferably 
before bedtime, which were predetermined in 
the diary: watching TV, watching films, reading 
books, reading newspapers/magazines, surfing 
the Internet, playing video games, and listening to 
music. Based on informal talks with the students 
and their teachers, and on the information provided 
in the diaries, the data were considered trustworthy 
and useful.
5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
The study shows that most of the students use 
English outside the class. When asked about the 
importance of English in their daily life outside 
the classroom, 35.5% of the students (32) believed 
that English played a very important role because 
they used it frequently every day in many different 
contexts. 16.6% of the students reported using it 
occasionally. 
Regarding the style of learning, among the 
participants, 43.3% (39 students) admitted that 
they preferred learning alone while more than 
55% (51) stated they often practiced English in 
pairs or small groups, either with their roommates 
or classmates. 
Relating to practicing English after the class 
hours, 63.3% (67 students) said often they did it. 
33.3% (20) said “sometimes” and other 5% (3) 
said “rarely”. The students noted the reasons for 
participating in out-of-class English activities as 
their personality and desire to contribute to the 
school community and other students. The reasons 
to enroll in out-of-class English activities such as 
team work and leadership skills, enjoyment of being 
in a group, social and committee involvement, 
opportunity for friendship, development of English 
skills and gratitude towards their university, are 
shown in the following quotes.
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 DISCUSSION v
“Since I was young, I [did] not like to stay 
alone. I am happy when I am in a group” [S7]
“As a youth, I want[ed] motivation and close 
friendship with friends. Involving in these activities 
motivated me and I had close friendship with 
friends. Thus, I joined these out-of-class English 
activities” [S4]
“Participating in after-class activities in 
English gives us an opportunity to improve soft 
skills which are very necessary for our future 
career. We have to relate to other students as our 
future colleagues” [S10]
When asked about the barriers for not actively 
using English out of the class, many of them 
(52 students) said their feelings e.g. anxiety, 
nervousness, lack of confidence, inadequate ideas 
are responsible for making it difficult to use English 
after the lesson. Several of them claimed they do not 
have an English-speaking peer to speak to or there 
was not adequate English environment outside the 
class (20 and 12 students respectively). Just a small 
number of the students (6) confessed that it was 
not easy for them to start conversation in English. 
The current study also reveals that when students 
engaged themselves in out-of-class activities they 
also faced many other obstacles, namely low 
motivation, time limit, and personal conditions.
Mentioning the frequency of activities 
that students carried out in English outside the 
classroom, nearly all of the participants reported 
listening to English music was the most favorable 
activity, followed by watching films, doing project 
and homework with friends, and the least frequent 
activity was watching foreign channels such as 
CNN, BBC. They told that they often practiced 
grammar through the internet, which gave them 
chance to practice grammar and evaluate their 
grammatical knowledge. Several of them preferred 
reading online newspapers as one of them said 
“Online news saves my time and keep[s] me 
updated. Most often I go outside without reading 
newspapers but outside when I get chance I check 
news online. In this ways you can keep your news 
inside your pocket” (S6). Table 1 below describes 
the favorite out-of class English activities chosen 
by the participants.
Table 1. Popularity of out-of class English 
activities 
Out-of class English activity Frequency
(%)
Order of 
popularity
Listening to songs 96.7 1
Watching films 75.5 2
Doing project/homework with friends 68.3 3
Reading newspapers/magazines 64.5 4
Producing a piece of personal writing 63.7 5
Reading reference books 58.4 6
Other activities (doing online tests, 
crosswords...)
49.6 7
Playing video games 25.3 8
Chatting with friends/roommates 10.1 9
Watching foreign channels (CNN, 
BBC, Disney...) 
5.5 10
Regarding the students’ attitudes to out-of-
class English activities, the survey revealed that 
most of the participants (94.4%) are aware of 
the usefulness of English activities outside the 
class. They agreed that these activities helped to 
develop their English language skills and gave 
them chance to practice English in real situations. 
When they were asked open-ended questions 
whether they believed out of class activities would 
increase their involvement in learning process or 
not, all of the participants said yes, several of them 
even added “Yes, I believe this strongly; only class 
cannot be a learning source”, “Yes, it gives me 
huge opportunities that I do not find in my class”, 
or “outside activities give you the actual chance 
to practice and use English and live in English”. 
In fact, the majority of the participants stated that 
English played a very important role in their daily 
life. Therefore outside the classroom, they used 
64 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰNo. 19 (5/2019)
v DISCUSSION
the opportunity frequently in many contexts and 
they claimed that it helped them to develop their 
English language proficiency. 
The current research also has found out that 
all of the participants try to engage themselves 
in out-of-class activities in one way or another. 
Most of them quite often concentrated on home 
assignment or home project, revised lessons 
together before tests and examination and do 
group study. These activities helped them to work 
in a team outside the class and make their own 
decisions as to which learning activities or tasks to 
perform and how to tackle them. Other than these 
academic activities, they also engaged themselves 
in different independent activities like internet 
browsing, reading newspapers, stories, watch 
movies, playing video games, etc. 
Thanks to their engagement in these activities, 
they claimed that the development of their English 
language learning skills has been enhanced. By 
practicing listening activities, 53.3% agreed that 
their pronunciation has improved. 58.3% agreed 
that they could understand native speakers’ speech 
at a normal speed. Almost over 40% agreed that 
their reading speed was increased and vocabulary 
was improved and they would also read with 
correct pronunciation. Additionally nearly 52% 
participants claimed their writing skills were 
remarkably improved and they could produce 
pieces of academic or personal writing with 
fewer troubles. So it can be said almost all the 
participants believed these independent activities 
improve their language skills.
It is possible that the students’ involvement in 
out-of-class English activities was useful for them 
to further develop their work within English lessons. 
In fact, out-of-class English activities represented 
a source of their further research when over 90% 
of the participants agreed that these activities 
provided them with more background information 
that they could apply in their English lessons. This 
is further exemplified by the fact that all of the 
students revealed how much more they enjoyed 
what they learnt in English during the interviews. 
A large proportion of the students emphasized 
the merits of participating in out-of-class English 
activities for academic performance. They 
believed participating in these activities helped 
them improve their English skills. This can be 
explained when students chose to participate in 
out-of-class English activities which were related 
to, and helpful for, their academic courses, they 
gained benefits through exposing to English in 
different scenarios, especially when their out-of-
class English activities were more in-line with their 
curriculum. Several students commented that they 
had gained confidence to speak up in the class and 
to conduct class presentations and became more 
responsive to the teacher. One student (S8) claimed 
that the experiences gained from out-of-class 
English activities were useful for writing tasks in 
the classroom thanks to their linguistic and social 
knowledge accumulated during the involvement. 
During the interviews, several students 
admitted (although rather reluctantly) that 
they preferred the way they learnt in out-of-
class English activities more. This finding is 
also significant, because it stimulates further 
creativity in curriculum design as a way to initiate 
student engagement in English lessons. When 
the students were asked to “name one aspect of 
out-of-class English activities in particular that 
pushes [them] to recommend it to other students”, 
they responded in relation to their enjoyment, 
interest and the impact on English lessons. 
The students also reported improvement in their 
speaking and listening skills when participating in 
out-of-class English activities. Seven students also 
‘agreed’ that ‘out-of-class English activities have 
helped to improve [their] active listening during 
class discussion – [they] listen to both students 
and [their] teacher more.’ Additionally, eight 
students either ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that 
‘out-of-class language activities have helped them