Analyzing Students’ Needs of Extra Academic Activities as An Oral English Proficiency Enhancer

Abstract

This research aimed  at revealing the needs of  the Faculty of Language and Arts ( Henceforth called FLA ) students for extra academic activities as an oral English Proficiency enhancer. It has been a well-known fact that the ultimate goal of teaching a language is  a good  mastery of speaking skill as language is a tool of communication and communication takes place where there is speech ( Chaney and Burk, 1998). In addition to  in class learning, all students at Soegijapranata Catholic University ( SCU ) are required to join extra academic activities both at the faculty and university levels. Activities offered by the university  basically attempt to help students recognize and develop their competence and leadership skills whereas those developed by the faculty  provide students with the opportunities to develop their interests and talents. The activities offered by the faculty are carried out mostly in English. Such extra academic activities give  great opportunities to develop the students’ oral skills. Bearing this in mind, the present researcher is interested in finding out whether or not FLA students’ extra academic activities that they have been joining so far play a significant role in developing their speaking competence and what additional activities may be expected to help enhance their oral skills. To find out the answers to such questions, the present researcher conducted a study which made use of questionnaires and interviews as research instruments. The   respondents of this study were FLA active students from batch 2019 to 2022. There were 84 students from three different majors, i.e. English Linguistics & Literature, Englishpreneurship ( Engpre ) and Digital Performing Arts ( DPA). The results indicate that students on average consider extra academic activities especially those offered by the Faculty of Language and Arts contribute a lot to the development  of their oral proficiency. Moreover  they also gave some useful suggestions for .the establishment of new extra academic activities that may enhance their oral competence