Abstract:

Nowadays extracurricular activities prove to be an essential part of educational process both for school children and University students. Various methods and techniques such as discussions, role-playing and dramatizing, creative projects, video watching contribute to the growth of communicative skills and stimulate the development of learners' creative abilities. In this respect, clubs and societies for English learners play a crucial role in creating student-friendly educational environment and help them overcome psychological barriers. The aim of the research is to see how “I Love Detectives” club as part of extracurricular activities improves the English language skills and encourages students to read more in the original. The experiment involved a group of students who were specialising in translation and willing to join the club to interact with their like-minded fellow students in a less formal atmosphere.

The article presents the results of the work of the club, the types of techniques employed, and the students’ feedback conducted in the group of 18 second-year students (B2 English level). Before the experiment, we provided the students with the questionnaire to specify their needs and work out a proper set of activities for them. The set was developed on the base of 10 Agatha Christie’s stories and their screen versions. At the end of the term after experiment the students were given another questionnaire. Their answers demonstrated their full satisfaction with the club activities and expressed their desire to continue the club meetings in the next term.

Moreover, the study has shown that extracurricular format and absence of traditional types of classroom tests and evaluation as well as easily modified structure of a meeting helped students to reveal their potential to improve communication skills and generated their interest in Literature and Art in English-speaking countries.

Keywords:

Motivation, extracurricular activities, audiovisual techniques, student-friendly educational environment, creative writing.