the effect of extra-curricular activities on socio-cultural competence of efl students

This study considers the enhancement of socio-cultural competence of efl students by means of extra-curricular activities. we highlight didactic characteristics of culture-related extracurricular activities that can be taken into account for the enhancement of socio-cultural competence. in this study, both control and experimental groups included 80 language learners (each group 40). the control group was given the questionnaires, pre- and post-tests along with the experimental group. then, extracurricular activities were given to the experimental group which itself was divided into four mini groups. ten participants were asked to prepare a self-video clip each week (four clips as whole). another group of ten testees were asked to use social networks such as facebook, what’s app, telegram and the likes chatting with native speakers at least two hours a day involving themselves in english practice after taking pre-test and they were also given the subsequent post-test after a month. the third mini group, including ten participants, had to write a letter each week to a native speaker e-pal (four letters as whole). finally, the fourth mini group including ten participants participating at least once a week in acd (american corner dushanbe) sessions which are related to social cultural events such as festivals, charity activities, etc. after that, research questionnaires were distributed among samples using spss software for data analysis. we come to the conclusion that culture-related extra-curricular activities result in the enhancement of the level of language proficiency as well as contribute a lot to bringing up citizens, intellectually, culturally and multi-culturally developed professionals with deep awareness of intercultural values.