A causal comparative study: Effect of out-of-class English activities on English skills development of undergraduate students majoring in English teaching

Abstract

     This research aimed to study 1) the participants’ out-of-class English activity participation, 2) the effect of out-of-class English activity participation on participants’ English skills development while controlling their English academic achievement, and 3) the participants’ perspective on and opinion of out-of-class English activities. Cluster Sampling was applied to obtain the participants from second-year undergraduate students majoring in English teaching from the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University. The English language test, questionnaire, and interview questionnaire were used to obtain data. T he study found that the top three out-of-class English activities in which the participants participated most often were asynchronous internet communicating, listening to or singing songs, and watching movies and TV programs. Furthermore, the out-of-class English activities that had an effect on participants’ English skills development at the significance level .05 were watching movies and TV programs, reading newspapers, and asynchronous internet communicating. The participants’ main purpose in partaking in outof- class English activities was for pleasure. The interview results revealed that all participants realized the significance and benefit of the out-of-class English activities in improving their English skills.