SPEAKING CLUB AS AN INTERACTIVE EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES - AT MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES

Oct 15, 2026

Evaluating the Speaking Club’s effectiveness in developing professional English skills at medical universities, the study presents a student-driven extracurricular activity that strengthens motivation and improves interaction and communication among members. The concept is defined through literature review and personal experience, detailing organisation methods, session management principles, participant roles, and key didactic approaches such as visualisation and active participation. A five-year experiment with 140 students across four stages reports overall improvement in reading, writing, listening and speaking, alongside increased social engagement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Literature review

Organization and principles of the Speaking Club

Experiment design and outcomes

Conclusions

SPEAKING CLUB AS AN INTERACTIVE EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITY IN LEARNING ENGLISH FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES AT MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES Oksana Demydovych National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, Kyiv, Ukraine [o.demydovych@ukma.edu.ua](o.demydovych@ukma.edu.ua) Olena Holik Bohomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine [elgolik88@gmail.com](elgolik88@gmail.com) The article aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the Speaking Club in learning English for professional purposes at medical universities. The Speaking Club is presented as an integral part of the foreign language studies that, being a student-driven activity, promotes motivation as well as develops interaction and communication skills of its members. The authors define the concept of the Speaking Club based on the literature review and personal experience, find out effective ways of the Speaking Club organisation as well as describe its structure, roles and responsibilities of the participants. With regard to the management of the Speaking Club sessions, some important principles are defined in the present study. They deal with the interaction and communication style, moral beliefs and values, duration of the sessions and their planning, a topic choice and a format of the event. In the article, the emphasis is made on the main didactic principles applied to the preparation, organisation and hosting of the meetings and include visualisation, accessibility, active participation, systematisation and continuity. The authors carried out a five-year experiment to assess the effectiveness of the Speaking Club in terms of the language proficiency level of the participants and their social activity engagement. The study enrolled 140 students of the National Medical University named after O. O. Bohomolets and included 4 stages that lasted from 2012 to 2017. The research work delivers evidence of overall improvement of the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) and, therefore, a general increase in the English language proficiency level of the Speaking Club participants. According to the general conclusions drawn from the findings obtained before and after the experiment, the Speaking Club proves tobe an effective extracurricular activity in learning English for professional purposes at medical universities. Keywords: Speaking Club; interactive learning; active learning; student-driven learning; professional English. Introduction Due to economic globalisation, highly skilled professionals are not limited any more in their access to the international job market. Intense competition is observed among the job seekers whose qualifications must comply with high educational, professional and experience requirements for a job position. Ukraine is apart of the international job market due to its Pro-Western political course and active involvement in the international projects all over the world. New challenges have necessitated significant changes in the Ukrainian higher education. With regard to an increase in the overall competitiveness of the Ukrainian workforce, the University graduates are required to have their foreign language proficiency at a level B2 and higher. Depending on their future speciality, the University students complete a two or four-year foreign language course that is an integral part of any university training program. The intention to make learning active results from external (the need to pass exams) and internal factors including self-improvement, personal and professional growth, career development. Interactive application of various teaching techniques can be effectively realised on a regular basis through a preparation period and during the Speaking Club sessions. It is well-known that the Speaking Club ensures interactive and student-driven learning that increases the student motivation to master a foreign language. Literature review. The Speaking Club as an interactive extracurricular activity in le

FAQs

What is the purpose of the Speaking Club in medical universities?

It aims to evaluate how an interactive, student-driven extracurricular activity improves English learning for professional purposes. The focus is on motivation, interaction, and communication skills.

How is the Speaking Club organised and managed according to the study?

The authors outline effective organisation methods and define principles for interaction and communication style, moral beliefs and values, session duration and planning, topic choice, and event format. The article also highlights didactic principles for preparing and hosting meetings.

What results did the five-year experiment show?

The study reports overall improvement in the four basic language skills—reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It also indicates a general increase in participants’ English proficiency and social activity engagement.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Chumphorn