An investigation into 10th grade students’ out of class learning at a high school in lao cai province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo---

HỒ THU HUYỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO 10

TH

GRADE STUDENTS’

OUT-OF-CLASS LEARNING AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN
LAO CAI PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu việc học ngoài lớp học của học sinh khối lớp
10 ở một trường THPT tại tỉnh Lào Cai)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Hanoi - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF
POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---oOo---

HỒ THU HUYỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO 10

TH

GRADE STUDENTS’

OUT-OF-CLASS LEARNING AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN
LAO CAI PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu việc học ngoài lớp học của học sinh khối lớp
10 ở một trường THPT tại tỉnh Lào Cai)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Lê Văn Canh, PhD

Hanoi - 2019


DECLARATION
I, Ho Thu Huyen, hereby declare that my thesis entitled “An
investigation into 10th grade students’ out-of-class learning at a high school in
Lao Cai province” (Nghiên cứu việc học ngoài lớp học của học sinh khối lớp
10 ở một trường THPT tại tỉnh Lào Cai) submitted to the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi is my own work and has not been submitted
before to any institutions for assessment. Documented references have been
fully provided.

Hanoi, 2019

Ho Thu Huyen

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, associate
professor Le Van Canh, who has constantly supported me through the stage of
my study and stimulated ideas for my growth as an academic researcher.
I also want to express my profound gratitude to all the doctors, lecturers
and staff members of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of
Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for
their useful lectures and helpful advice for me to complete the thesis.
I would like to send my thanks to the management board and teachers
of Lao Cai High School Number 2 for their cooperation and valuable
information they provided in my research. Without their help, the survey

could not have been successfully conducted.
My thanks also go to my colleagues in Lao Cai college for their
encouragement and enthusiasm for my studying time.
Last but not least, I would like to express my endearing and enduring
gratitude to my family and friends for their continuous support throughout my
years of studying and the process of researching and writing this thesis. It is
virtually impossible for me to accomplish my thesis without their assistance.

ii


ABSTRACT
This research aims at exploring the ways the10 th grade students learn
English outside the classroom. The primary purpose is to examine what
activities the students take part in to improve English out of the class, the
frequency of those supplementary activities. The secondary purpose is to
investigate the activities they like to participate in most. To achieve the aim of
the study, the author used survey questionnaire as instrument to collect data.
The results of the data analysis reveal that activities students usually do to
enhance their English proficiency are watching films, doing projects, listening
to music and learning the new words by heart. The out-of-class activities they
prefer are listening to music, playing games and communicating in English.
The students also recognized the importance of learning English outside of
the classroom. In addition, the findings of the research suggested some
activities for the students do behind the class for their better English.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION..............................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................
ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................
LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................
1.

Rationale of the study ...................................................................................

2.

Aims of the study .........................................................................................

3.

Scope of the study .........................................................................................

4.

Methods of the study .....................................................................................

5.

Significance of the study ...............................................................................

6.

Organization of the thesis.............................................................................

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................
2.1.

Activities in teaching and learning English ...........................

2.2.

The role of out-of-class learning .............................................

2.3.

Out-of-class learning activities .............................................

2.3.1. Chat rooms ............................................................................................
2.3.2. Interviews ..............................................................................................
2.3.3. Using media ..........................................................................................
2.3.4. Online games .........................................................................................
2.4.

Language learning beyond classroom by Nunan and Richar

2.5.

Previous studies on out-of-class learning ............................

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................
3.1.

Rationale for choosing survey as the research method .........

3.2.

Research site .........................................................................
iv


3.3. The participants........................................................................................25
3.4. Data collection......................................................................................... 26
3.4.1. Data collection instruments..................................................................26
3.4.2. Data collection procedure.....................................................................26
3.4.3. Data analysis.........................................................................................27
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..........................................28
4.1. Students’ attitude towards English...........................................................28
4.2. Students’ self-evaluation about English...................................................29
4.2.1. Students’ self-evaluation about their English proficiency.....................29
4.2.2. Students’ evaluation about their English skills and knowledge............30
4.3. Students’ attitude toward out-of-class activities...................................... 32
4.3.1. Students’ frequency of taking part in out-of-class activities.................32
4.3.2. Advantages of out-of-class activities to their English...........................34
4.3.4. Students’ preference about out-of-class learning activities..................36
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION.....................................................................38
5. Summary of the research results................................................................. 38
5.1. Current out-of-class activities students take part in.................................38
5.2. Activities students like to participate in most outside the classroom.......40
5.3. Suggested activities for English out-of-class learning.............................42
5.3.1. English clubs.........................................................................................42
5.3.2. Blogs......................................................................................................43
5.3.3. Collaborating projects..........................................................................43

5.4. Implications of the study..........................................................................44
5.5. Limitations of the study........................................................................... 46
5.6 Further research directions........................................................................46
REFERENCES..............................................................................................47
APPENDIX.......................................................................................................I

v


ABBREVIATIONS
App

Application

ELT

English language teaching

EFL

English as a foreign language

ESL

English as a second language

IT

Information technology

RELC

Regional English Language Center

TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

vi


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Students’ frequency of taking part in out-of-class activities.............32
Table 2. The necessity for taking part in out-of-class activities......................35

vii


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Students' attitude toward English.................................................... 28
Figure 2. Students’ evaluation about their English proficiency......................29
Figure 3. Students’ evaluation about their English skills and knowledge.......30
Figure 4. Advantages of out-of-class activities...............................................34
Figure 5. Students' preference abut out-of-class learning activities................36

viii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study

Nowadays, English has become an international language which is used
in most fields such as education, technology, science, etc. It is usual for us to
see journals, articles or scientific research written in English. Websites are
designed and presented in English, so people have to know and use English to
read and access to those sites or take part in activities on those websites. As
the most popular foreign language in Vietnam, English is essential to
communication in our current time so that everyone learns it to get in touch
with the international community as it is used in forums between different
countries, in commercial contracts, etc. English is also essential to the field of
education. In many countries, children are taught and encouraged to learn
English as a second language. As a compulsory subject in every school in
Vietnam, it has been taught from an early age, at the age of 6 (grade 1 in
primary school) or even younger in most schools and universities throughout
the country beside other ones. It is also one subject for entrance exam to high
schools or a condition for graduation in colleges and universities in our
country. Good English learning at school will enhance students’ competence
in the area of globalization. It will certainly reduce the communication gap
between people of different countries and therefore make people in the world
become closer. Because of its importance, students need to improve their
English language to attain get a certain level of competence.
To reach a certain level in English, apart from learning at school,
students also spend time practising outside the class and both of these two
dimensions of learning English are beneficial. Richards (2015) states two
dimensions to successful second language learning: inside and outside of the
1


classroom, out-of-class learning opportunities provide comprehensible input
and output as well as learners’ overall second language development,
language learning or activation outside the classroom offers challenges and

opportunities that are not available inside the classroom. When talking about
learning in the classroom, we often think of the images where students sit in
their places, teacher is the person to control the class and give the lectures
with the help of facilities such as projector, board, chalk and realia. Learning
inside the class, beside positive aspects, has some constraints such as the
number of students in one class is large, time is limited with forty-five
minutes for one period with various activities while a teacher has to pay
attention to every student, lack of flexibility in teaching methods makes the
teacher feel difficult to give lectures as well as control the class effectively.
The classroom with 30 or 40 students, each of them is different in
personalities and learning level, which requires the teacher to use various
methodologies suitable to all of them. Besides, education outside the
classroom – real world learning – makes an important contribution to building
a learner’s store of knowledge, which is based on their own creativity and
enquiry. Learning outside the classroom are flexible because learners do not
have to obey the rules and are not controlled by the teachers, they have the
chance to manifest their language skills as well as living skills. Unlike class
learning which is time- limited, a period of only forty-five minutes is not
enough for all the learners to participate in activities carried out by the
teachers, so not all skills are developed during the class time; out of class
learning is not restricted by time and place, students can learn whenever and
wherever they want and with whoever they feel comfortable. It is undeniable
that out-of-class learning is meaningful and necessary for English language
development. Because of the above reasons, I decided to carry out the
2


research entitles “An investigation into the 10th grade students’ out-of-class
learning at a high school in Lao Cai province”.
The research will help teachers understand how students learn outside

the classroom as well as what skills they often focus on. It is also essential
for teachers of English because it can be used as a reference in their
teaching.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at investigating how students learn outside the
classroom as well as the activities they focus on. The findings will be
meaningful to English teachers in the school investigated because they can
understand how their students learn English outside the class; therefore, they
can design suitable strategies to improve their teaching skill as well as design
various activities to help their students develop their English competence.
This study will find the answers to the questions:

3.

(1)

How often do students participate in out-of-class English learning?

(2)

What out-of-class learning activities do students prefer?

Scope of the study
With the above aims, the research is limited to explore out-of-class

activities that students at Lao Cai High school number 2 take part in. It
involves the participation of 100 students at grade 10. The findings and
suggested activities will be applied to the 10 th grade students in Lao Cai High
school number 2. Besides, the ability to encourage learning is essential to all
students. Therefore, the result of the activities can be transferred to other

students who learn English. As a result, students will find the ways to improve
their English language.
In addition, this research project can also contribute to the development
of teaching programs. The result might raise the awareness of teachers about
3


students’ ways of learning English outside of the class. This study is expected
to bring more insights into the teacher-student understandings. The result
hopefully can fill in the gaps between the teacher and their students.
4. Methods of the study
The study was designed to survey the extent to which the researched
students participated in out-of-class English language learning as well as their
preferred out-of-class English language learning activities.
Since the study is a survey, data was collected by means of a
questionnaire.
5. Significance of the study
Teachers have the role of understanding all the aspects of their
students’s such as their background knowledge, real competence, interest,
attitude, personalities, etc. Knowing these aspects will help them have
appropriate teaching methods as well as be active in planning or designing
activities in each lesson. The study with the aim at investigating 10 th grade
students’ out-of-class English learning activities at a high school will be useful
for teachers of English at that school because basing on the results, they know
how active their students are, how often they take part in some popular
activities as well as what activities they often participate in or what activities
they like most to improve their English competence after learning at school.
The result will also be useful for teachers of other subjects because English is
now integrated with other subjects thus teachers of other subjects can give
extra activities for students do basing on their out-of-class English activities.

The study will also be useful for teachers of other schools. The result of one
hundred 10th students in a high school will be the results of the majority of the
10th grade students in that province.
4


6. Organization of the thesis
The study consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the
methods, the significance and the organization of the study.
Chapter 2: Literature review introduces the review of the literature,
theoretical background and related studies.
Chapter 3: Research methodology describes the research methodology,
in which the context of the study, participants, instruments, data collection
procedures and data analysis are presented.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion gains results from the
questionnaires. This focus on presenting, analyzing and discussing the results
obtained from the study through questionnaires.
Chapter 5: Conclusion summarizes the research results, implication,
limitation of the study and gives some suggestions for futher research.

5


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, previous studies about out-of-class learning will be
presented and discussed. This is to place the thesis in the relavant context and
provide the readers with basic background of the research.
2.1. Activities in teaching and learning English
Almost everybody loves playing even they are old or young, male or

female. Games are defined as a structure with rules, goals and agreement of
the players on the surface (Turtledove, 1996) or an activity with rules, a goal
and an element of fun (Hadfield, 1990). Therefore, when talking about games,
we often regard competition, rules and enjoyment. Nowadays, games are used
in language teaching and learners are usually active in the classroom by
playing games (Sugar, 1998). Any teacher would be able to use games to get
students’ motivation in language learning and when being in the games,
students can develop their language abilities. Carrier (1980) stated that games
are very useful in a class because they provide an opportunity for students to
use their language in a less formal situation.
There are many types of games that can be used in English language
teaching as role-playing games, imitation games, substitution games,
theatrical performance and problem-solving activities. Among those,
problems solving activities are especially fitting for all stages of language
learning. Howard Gardner claimed that when exploring a certain topic in
school, games can be used in different ways to give students the maximum
chances of reaching all students in the classroom. “The personal way” is the
one, where the ultimate goal is to see if it is possible to approach a specific
topic by using, for example, role play, or other interactions (Gardner, 2006).
Another one, board games were suggested by Armstrong (2000) as a teaching
6


strategy that might be suitable for students with interpersonal intelligence
because they provide an excellent setting for interaction between students.
In the classroom, teachers should be the one to decide the appropriate
games for their students. Carrier (1980) assumed that there are many factors
that should be taken into account when choosing the games that bring success
to students at any time. The principal factors they have to consider are related
to the students’ language level, the game, the time to apply the game and the

preparation for it as well as its objectives.
Drama is defined by Holden (1981) as any activity which asks the
student to portray self or another person in an imaginary situation, by Shand
(2008) as techniques to teach other subjects. These techniques include
storytelling, story dramatization, role-playing, etc. In other words, drama
refers to the dramatic scenes applied in the classroom. There is a location,
characters and dramatic activities that done in pairs and groups in a scene.
In an ESL classroom, drama is regarded as an effective method as
Mattevi (2005) stated that the use of drama in the language classroom allows
the teacher to present the target language in an active, communicative and
contextualized way. Using drama can help teacher develop students’ four
skills of language learning (speaking, listening, writing and reading), and
facilitate pronunciation and body language. It allows the students to express
their individuality and brings to life the cultural context of the foreign
language. Campbell (2008) proved the effectiveness of using drama on
students' achievement whereas the effect of drama in foreign language
teaching. Moreover, drama has effectiveness on critical thinking as it develops
students’

intellectual

skills

such

as

communication, socialization.

7

creativity,

problem

solving,


There are may ways to incorporating drama in the ESL class. One of
the easiest ways is to have students act out the dialogue from their
textbooks. To do this, teacher pair or group the students, have them choose
roles, then work together to act out the dialogue. This is simple but effective
for a beginning activity of incorporating drama in the classroom. Performing
reader’s theater is another effective beginning exercise in which teachers
hand out copies of a short or one-act play, have students choose roles and then
read the play, encourage them to read dramatically or model as necessary.
Teacher can also have the students write the dialogue for a scene by having
students watch a brief clip of a movie without the sound on and write the
dialogue for it and act it out.
In short, the above activities are almost useful in language classroom.
Therefore, teachers can base on the lesson and students’ level to choose the
appropriate ones.
2.2. The role of out-of-class learning
Out-of-class learning is defined as “any kind of learning that takes
place outside the classroom” and is classified into three categories: selfinstruction, naturalistic language learning and self-directed naturalistic
language learning (Benson, 2001). Benson also gave definition about out-ofclass English learning activities as students’ activities in vocabulary learning,
grammar learning and language skills such as listening, speaking reading,
writing to improve their English out of the classroom. Pickard (1996) also
indicated out-of-class learning activities as the ones they do outside the class
room: listening to the radio, reading newspapers and novels. In Brooks (1992)

and Suh, Wasanasomsithi, Short and Majid’s (1999) research, students’ major
out-of-class activities were watching television, going to the cinema, listening
to music and interacting with native speakers. In this study, out-of-class
8


English language learning refers to students’ learning outside the regular
classrooms, including extra-curriculum activities organized by the teachers or
the school if there was any.
Out-of-class learning means using places other than the school for
teaching and learning. In other words, it is about getting learners out and
about, providing them with challenging, exciting and different experiences to
help them learn. Places may be a location, activity or workshop where
learning outside the classroom takes place, the purpose of learning is to give
learners a real-world learning experience that will be useful for their real life
communication. Learning outside the classroom differs from those that
happen inside the classroom because students may be encouraged to engage in
a wide range of soft skills such as teamwork and leadership. It not only helps
encourage students develop critical thinking, problem-solving and decisionmaking skills, etc. but also leads to a deeper understanding and provides a
context for learning in many areas.
Out-of-class learning provides opportunities for language use; in other
words, it gives chances for language activation outside the classroom. The
time for learning in the classroom is not long enough for leaners to practice
basing on the theory given, so they have to practice outside of the class.
Furthermore, learners not only activate their language in authentic contexts,
but they also develop their communicative repertoires and acquiring new
language skills that are not mastered in the classroom (Choi, 2017). Apart
from acquiring new vocabulary, learners can improve fluency and
pronunciation, refine their grammatical knowledge, skills, confidence and so
on. It is easy to understand because learners move from their classroom to the

wider world, they have to deal with the linguistic demands summarized
above, cope with a more extensive range of interactional and communicative
9


variables. This motivates them to study hard for communicative purposes.
Thomas (2010) also stated that learning outside the classroom creates
fun, enjoyment and negotiated goals. Firstly, unlike a classroom with four
sides of walls and learners only sit at the desks, out-of-class learning can take
place anywhere: at a café, a garden, a corner, etc. Secondly, when learners are
in the classroom, they are under disciplines and controlled by the teacher, they
do not feel free to express their ideas, especially shy ones. However, outside
the classroom, they can make their own learning regulations, develop their
creativity. It is true to say that out-of-class learning builds personal experience
and provides learners’ interests. When learners have the chance to choose
their partners who are at their same level or the ones of the same learning
styles or interests, they can improve their language competence and therefore
the negotiated goals are easily reached.
Learners can also entertain when learning outside the classroom.
Unlike learning in the class with much pressure from teachers, school rules
and time limitation, learning outside the class room is very flexible. Learners
can learn at any time they want and learning time can last whenever they like.
Apart from learning, they share their hobbies as well as their perspectives for
future learning. Without disciplines and management from the teacher, they
feel comfortable and create activities they like basing on the content of the
lesson. This is also the time for them to relax without neglecting their duty.
Ellis (1994) concluded that learners get the most benefit from normal
language instruction when it is coupled with opportunities for natural
exposure to the language.
In short, learning beyond the classroom is significant for learners in

general and language development in particular. Therefore, learners are not
only guided in class time but also encouraged to learn outside the class. In
10


fact, many teachers tend to increase assignments or homework to encourage
out-of-class learning. This is necessary for language improvement.
While the benefits of out-of-class learning are obvious and without
participating in out-of-class learning, students can hardly achieve the desired
learning results, no much research on this issue has ever been undertaken in
the context of Vietnamese high schools. In Lao Cai, where this study was
conducted, this issue was not given adequate attention because teachers were
concerned with in-class learning only. This provides a rationale for this study.
2.3. Out-of-class learning activities
2.3.1. Chat rooms
Richards (2015) stated that one of the easiest ways for learners to
engage in real communication out of class is through chat rooms. Chat rooms
enable people with similar interests to interact, either through written textbased messages or in spoken medium. They are organized with different
topics and there are a large number of people giving their ideas if the topics
are of their interest. Those topics are also for learners of different levels and
are for them to apply the language and knowledge they have achieved to
exchange their ideas as well as communicate with different people all over the
world including native speakers. In contrast with stressful classroom-based
learning that makes learners sometimes unwilling to communicate, chat room
communication is quite flexible and makes them comfortable to use their
language as well as express their ideas. They are not punished if they make
mistakes, so they do not fear of speaking in front of their peers. Apart form
consolidating knowledge, chat rooms are the places for participants to
entertain. When they feel comfortable, they often express their interest and
concerns about fashions, music, etc. Therefore, their understanding about

different areas of life is exposed through the target language they are using. In
11


short, chat room interactions often result in more successful comprehension as
well as a greater quantity of target language production than classroom-based
communication.
2.3.2. Interviews
In an interview, the interviewer tries to find out about interviewees’
knowledge, skill and experience, which they have acquired. In addition to
that, the environment they perform needs communication. When learning a
foreign language, learners should be given opportunities to practice their
speaking because it is the most important aspect of communication. Moreover,
Richards and Rogers (2001) stated that communicative language teaching
needs to practice in the real communication, carrying out the meaningful
tasks, and the learners are involved in the authentic and meaningful language.
Interviews provide opportunities for face to face, for give and take, for
negotiation of meaning, for extended conversational exchanges. While
participating in an interview, the learners become vocal participants in the
process, they have to think and share their ideas about the issues of interest.
Each interview often focuses on one issue. Therefore, when taking part in
different interviews, learners develop their vocabulary of different issues. It
also makes students raise their awareness about the different matters of the
society and widen their general knowledge; therefore interviews create
motivation for language learning.
2.3.3. Using media
Films, stories, music, and other cultural products for English language
learning have a long established history. They are useful for language
development. According to Jack Richards, social media plays an important
role in most people’s daily life and can also be used to support language

development. Reading authentic texts and news articles from the electronic
12


media such as BBC News, CNN World, The New York Times can help
learners develop their language skills. Beside giving learners the chances to
practice listening to English, films also help them acquire idiomatic contexts
and cultural situations. Film are useful for language learning outside the
classroom for the following reasons. First, it plays an integral part as a
motivator, it makes the language learning process more entertaining and
enjoyable. Second, film provides authentic and varied language, it gives
examples of situations in which English is used, as well as conversations for
them to imitate in real life. Third, it creates a visual context which enables
watchers understand more what they have seen. Fourth, films assist learners’
comprehension by giving them the chance to listen to language exchanges and
see visual supports as facial expressions and gestures simultaneously.
Moreover, films can bring variety and flexibility to the language learning.
Reading stories is one of the best ways to increase vocabulary and
consolidate understanding of grammar. A good learning environment can be
created, meaningful as well as comprehensible input can be provided through
the use of story. According to Krashen (1981), through stories, the language
acquisition device is activated and it is easy for children to induce the
language elements from the data provided by the stories. Stories can benefit to
learners because they help readers to develop the ability to understand spoken
language and engage in thinking skills. When meeting and coming across new
words and phrases in context, readers will find that they begin to make their
way into spoken English as well. In this way, the more they read, the more
quickly their spoken English will improve. Nowadays, with the help of
modern technology, we can easily find the sources of stories especially online.
Khaleel (2017) stated that stories can attract students’ attention, because they

provide challenging topics based on their everyday interests. A
13


good story interests readers and encourages them to turn the next page and
read more. They may feel excited, sad, afraid, angry or really happy following
up the content of the story and feel like they are part of it, too. This is why the
words and structures that relate a story's events, descriptions and
conversations are processed in this deeper way and make readers easy to
understand. Through the stories, the learners widen cultural values which are
different from theirs, deepen their memory and develop the ability to predict
and infer. When retelling the stories they have read, learners are provided with
the opportunities to speak the foreign language creatively, integrate
information and knowledge they learn from other sources, and become more
confident in the ability to express themselves spontaneously.
Music has become part of our life. Besides, it is a useful tool in
learning languages. Music can help listeners improve their listening skills,
therefore it helps enhance their speaking skills as well. When listening to an
English song, listeners often listen to it many times. This makes them be
familiar with the vocabulary and when they remember the words of the song,
they tend to repeat them then their pronunciation will be improved. Apart
from improving vocabulary, songs provide useful sentence structures and
grammar as well. English songs with a simple sentence structure and
conversational language make us understand easily so we can learn them by
heart quickly. Besides, songs are enjoyable. Learners listen to them to reduce
stress and anxiety in lives, their rhythms and melodies make them feel
comfortable.
2.3.4. Online games
Games provide a fun way to practise English – it can be a really
motivating way to learn a language. Games are also great for those who are

shy or worried about making mistakes. It can give them an opportunity to
14


communicate in English in a safe and fun way. There are various games with
the focus on different skills, grammar, pronunciation, so they can be
extremely complex. According to Wright et al. (2006), games provide one
way of helping the learners to experience language rather than merely study
it. Games also offer the possibility of repeated use of language items and
when the language items are repeated, participants will remember them
deeply. In addition to practicing language, games are useful for creating
motivation and reduce stress of learning. During playing games, learners feel
comfortable and do not worry much about mistakes of using grammar,
vocabulary or pronunciation, they focus only on the language they use to get
the points or win the games.
There are different activities for learners study English outside the
classroom and each of them have certain effects to enhance language
competence. Learners can choose one activity or combine them together
depending on their circumstances.
2.4. Language learning beyond classroom by Nunan and Richards
Richard and Nunan states two important dimensions to successful second
language learning: inside the classroom and outside of the classroom. There is
limitation of classroom-based learning such as class-size, time limitation and
lack of flexibility in teaching methods. Learning inside the classroom is
sometimes inefficient because of unfavorable class-size; classes of 50 or more
students are not uncommon in some countries making opportunities for authentic
communication difficult. In addition, not all of the learners have the chance to
communicate with all of their classmates. Moreover, large classrooms make
discussion and group work more difficult as well as difficulties in classroom
management. As teachers struggle to handle individual student needs, it becomes

very difficult to control a large class.
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