Empowering English Through Students English Club 

                          
   Hello dear friends,
                   I am very excited to share about Students English Club formed in our school and how it is helping to strengthen English language.
           But let's see first what is an English Club?
                  Students English Club is not a new concept. In many countries SECs are formed for providing the students a large scope to use English.
                  An English Club is a place for language learners to use English in casual settings. Here the students get the chance  to practice different skills and discuss variety of topics. It provides an environment where students can express freely. Such environment helps to remove the fear of English from students' mind through different activities. One more benefit of EC is that it increases learners' confidence.
          Some Advantages of forming Students English Club-
                In schools where English is taught as second language, students get less scope to practice English. Here SEC works as an extra support for learners to enhance their skills of English. In secondary schools it is more supportive for English teachers also as they don't get extra time to focus on all skills(especially speaking skill) of English language.
                The idea of establishing Students English Club was discussed when we found most of our students were not ready to participate in classroom activities, they weren't express their opinions , views before class because of the fear of committing errors. So we decided to form Students English Club.
               When at the beginning the concept of SEC is introduced to our students. we were not sure about its success. But many enthusiastic students showed interest to join it. So with the determined minds and positive hope we formed our SEC.
                Structure:
       As we have large strength of students we divided our SEC in two parts. Primary, Secondary. Later it is formed in our Junior college also.  Each part has their Presidents, Vice-President and secretaries. We arranged our monthly meetings where we conduct activities( e.g. one minute speak, language games, talk about the book recently read etc.) mostly focused on speaking and developing vocabulary.
                    With the intention of involving all the students of the school we started to conduct many activities in all classes by the members of SEC.
                What did we achieve?
      * We have seen a drastic change among these members since they have joined SEC. The students who were unwilling to speak in the beginning now they are participating, taking initiative in communication. Another good advantage we noticed that leadership is developed among these learners (as they are conducting some of the activities,  arranging competitions in their respective classes).We feel very proud to tell you that two of the students from this club gave presentation about our SEC in District Symposium organized by DIET and Education Department Zilha Parishad Satara. Isn't it a good start?
             Obstacles:
   * No doubt there were many obstacles since the formation of SEC like choosing members from the large strength, time management, place for meetings etc. Keeping in mind that' Obstacle is nothing but a stepping stone'we tried to overcome these difficulties e.g. in case of large strength we gave preference to three students from each class. We divided our English club in two parts.
     While tackling with time management we tried to conduct our meetings before school time or on Saturdays. But still time management is a great issue before us.
            We expect your kind suggestions about this.    
 
                Let's hope that our SEC will work with full strength in future and will support to empower our students' English.
                             
                                                                                                                 Smita Pore