HANOI UNIVERSITY

FOUNDATION STUDIES DEPARTMENT

-------oOo-------
A study on
Hanoi University students wit !"u#s

Tea$er% N&uy'n T( Min H)n&
Students% P*+ M, -in
./o 01n -y
!"ass% 20 3 45
!ourse% ESP 6ritin&
Date% May 27
t
8 2749


A:STRA!T
Students clubs and organizations are generally recognized as the most exciting and
practical part for students in universities. Clubs offer students a fantastic place to
acquire valuable knowledge and important soft skills; to socialize with other people
possessing the same passions, concerns and visions; and to explore themselves.
owever, student clubs remain a topic which has not been exploited profoundly.
!hereby, this primary research paper, based on the data compiled from anoi
"niversity students, is conducted with on the purposes of giving readers an insight into
this popular kind of extracurricular activities in universities. #e investigate the extend
to which anoi university are awarded of clubs offered on campus then focus on
analyzing both upsides they attain and the downsides they encounter from
participating in student societies. $part from that, some of our recommendations are
also strongly emphasized as a useful guidance for students to avoid the common
demerits of %oining student organizations. opefully, this research will provide
students with useful information and suggestions to en%oy a balanced academic life in
university.
4; Introdu$tion
As for people who are living in this modern world with the rapid development in
communicating and the open socialization among people, getting involved in clubs has
been becoming a big concern to many of recent student generations. Joining clubs and
participating in community service offer students the opportunities to meet people with
similar interests and passions, to expand leadership skills, and to spend time participating
in activities that they enjoy. Hanoi niversity students, who are studying in a foreign
language specialized environment, are often creative and active youngster and have a
strong desire to complete themselves comprehensively, both mental and physical factors
so taking part in some groups or clubs is considered very important.
!here have been numerous articles and studies conducted to give an insight into the
association between university clubs and students. "ost of them share a common view
that clubs and organizations exert a large number of positives on students. According to
the sharing about her university life, "artini #$%&&' excitedly claimed that student clubs
and organizations are not only beneficial to the students( present but also advantageous to
their future, in almost every aspect of their life. Henshaw #n.d' highly emphasized that
clubs are designed to meet the expectation and fill the need of every student during their
periods of being a university student. )n terms of social life, *hasity #$%&$' stated that
clubs provides students a large number of opportunities to open their relationship, to find
friends for life, who share the same thoughts, interests and visions. Additionally, *ody
#$%&&' assured that being a part of a club is the best way to experience the period of
student(s life since students will gain +a ton of, funs, memories and happiness. "oreover,
belonging to clubs in college helps students ac-uire several useful skills and
understandings. *hen#$%&.' strongly supported this view by confirming that student
organizations are great places for students to be aware of worthful values including
+pride, productivity and organization,, to obtain both necessary soft skills and career
skills needed for their future. /umar #$%&0' and !revino #$%&.' were all in favor of
these opinions. 1evertheless, these studies and articles have tended to focus on plus
points of joining clubs merely, as opposed to examining its both sides.
!hereby, this primary research paper, with the data gathered among students within
Hanoi niversity, will concentrate on analyzing three main concerning -uestions
including2 to what extend are anoi "niversity students aware of clubs in their
university3 4 what are the benefits of %oining clubs and what demerits students encounter
while participating in clubs &
2; Metod
!his primary research paper was conducted based on the date gathered among students
within Hanoi niversity. All the figures and information were attained by implementing
-uestionnaire. )n the first place, a -uestionnaire including &% multiple choice -uestions
was designed to compile necessary information for our research. Afterwards, 5% students
from varied academic years within Hanoi niversity were chosen randomly to fill in the
-uestion sheet. 6ince our survey form did not re-uire any kinds of personal information,
it seemed that the participants would be more comfortable to reply to the -uestions.
5; Resu"ts
!his part of the research demonstrates the results ac-uired by analyzing the responses to
our -uestionnaire regarding Hanoi niversity students( reaction to clubs within their
university.
90%
10%
Yes
No
Fi&ure 4% Te <er$enta&e o= students wo >now $"u#s in Hanoi University
7hen it comes to the extent of students( awareness of clubs in Hanoi niversity, the
result obtained # as represented in 8igure &' were comparatively satisfied. 9f 5% students
-uestioned, the majority of them #:%;' reported that they know at least one club in Hanoi
niversity. )n contrast, there were only 5 respondents, which constitutes &%; of total,
revealed that they are not aware of or do not pay attention to the existence of any student
clubs or organizations in Hanoi niversity.
31%
10%
36%
5%
15%
3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Socializing
Getting certificates for
applying scholarships
Ipro!ing soft s"ills
#alancing aca$eic life
Gaining e%periences
&thers
Fi&ure 2% Te #ene=its o= ta>in& u< $"u#s;
7ith regards to the benefits that students gained from belonging to clubs, the bar chart
above represents the outcome . 1oticeably, nearly .%; of respondents claimed that their
soft skills were significantly enhanced thanks to their joining clubs. 9ver a third of
answers reported that student organizations play an important part in their social life at
university, especially in terms of broadening relationship and making friends. !he
percentage of students found clubs useful in ac-uiring experiences for life and future
careers accounted for &5; of total and that of students admitted that participation in
student associations is advantageous to their application for scholarships made up the
proportion of &%;. "oreover, there were only a twentieth of participants considering
balancing academic life is a plus point of being a member of student organization. !he
rest, representing 0;, gave out their own opinions as the answer.
54%
31%
13%
2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
'ons(ing tie
)istracting fro st($ying
&thers
None
Fi&ure 5% Te downsides o= ?oinin& $"u#s
)n connection with the drawbacks of participating in clubs, the result was displayed in
8igure 0. According to the chart, it can be noted that more than a half of the student
-uestioned #5.;' considered consuming time the most remarkable short coming brought
about by spending too much time taking part in outside<the<classroom activities. !he
second factor that Hanoi niversity students interviewed found disadvantageous in their
lives was distracting from studying. =articularly, the percentage of participants believed
that joining clubs in Hanoi niversity effected negatively to their concentration in
studying was about 0&;. However, there was only $; among students asked assured no
bad impacts occurred to them when being a part of clubs and studying at the same time.
>eside that, there was an inconsiderable part of students #&0;' provided other opinions
to the mentioned issue.
9; Dis$ussion
'.(. !he extend to which anoi "niversity students are aware of clubs
8rom the data in 8igure &, a conclusion can be naturally drawn that almost all Hanoi
niversity students are aware of the existence of at least one student club or organization
offered in their university. !his result can be explained by two possible following
reasons. !he first one lies in the excitement of Hanoi university students for student
organizations. >eing awarded of the merits when joining clubs, they are proactive in
ac-uiring better information about clubs offered on campus. !he other one is that clubs in
Hanoi niversity lay strong emphasis on public relation activities. !hey are always eager
for publicizing their club(s image to all students on and off< campus by as many activities
as they can. !o be more specific, annually, in the first day when freshmen come to
university, all the clubs gather together to hold a festival with a view to introducing their
organizations to the first<year students. "oreover, when a club comes to the period of
recruitment, as usual, members of that club come to every class, present about the club(s
recruitment, inform students of details about their club(s activities by delivering leaflets
and invite all the students to the opening day.
7hen compared to the awareness of clubs of students in 6outhwestern *ommunity
*ollege, there is a significant difference. According to the survey entitle +6tudent
6atisfaction, carried out by 6outhwestern *ommunity *ollege in spring $%&0, the
percentage of students who are aware of student clubs and organizations offered made up
only 0:;, which is over twice smaller than that of Hanoi niversity. !his difference is
probably due to the fact that college students in other countries focus more on the social
clubs and organization rather than the those offered in their university.
'.). !he upsides of %oining clubs in university
All things considered, the opinions collected by the survey about how joining clubs
effects on Hanoi niversity(s students are -uite varied. !here are both positive aspects as
well as drawbacks a student may face when enrolling in extracurricular activities.
7hen it comes to the benefits that a student at Hanoi niversity can obtain as he is a part
of a group, some apparent features are recorded in terms of socializing, improving soft
skills, balancing academic life, and so on. =articularly, a large number of students
interviewed, specifically 0?; #8igure 0, p.g $' considered improving soft skills the most
popular factor encouraging Hanoi niversity students to take part in clubs. !he
explanation for it could be Hanoi niversity(s students found that since the principal goal
of extracurricular activities on college is to increase the interaction among individuals,
they have the numerous experiences involving their emotional, intellectual, social, and
inter<personal development. >y working together with other individuals, students learn to
negotiate, communicate, manage conflict, and lead others. !his reason is concluded in
one study of psychologist !enhouse #nd'. According to her2 +!aking part in these out<of<
the<classroom activities helps students to understand the importance of critical thinking
skills, time management, and academic and intellectual competence., 8rom the same
figure, it can be seen that another factor that Hanoi niversity(s students reported as a
benefit to join in clubs is socializing. =articularly, the percentage of participants
-uestioned gave this mentioned opinion is 0&;. !his figure results from the fact that
students expect to make more friends and open the relationship web when they make
themselves a part of clubs or groups with other people. )t can even benefit greatly in the
future when they go finding jobs or cooperate in their work. Again, !enhouse #nd' share
the similar finding that through extracurricular participation, students fre-uently interact
with peers who share similar interests providing social integration into the college
environment. 1evertheless, balancing academic life is less considered the most
advantageous factor encouraging Hanoi niversity students to take part in clubs #only
5;'. )t is not a surprising result to explain due to the fact that it is obviously more
difficult for students to both focus on their studying and devote time to social activities at
the same time, followed by the support idea conducted by the 1ational @ducational
Aongitudinal 6tudy(s one research. )n this study, as stated by >roh #cited in 8ujita $%%$'2
+=articipation in some activities improves achievement in academic , while participation
in others diminishes achievement,.
'.*. !he downsides of %oining clubs in university
!here are also arguments witnessed that extracurricular activity participation can affect
negatively on academics. 9ne factor that most of Hanoi niversity students surveyed
#5.;' found when being a part of university clubs is consuming time. )t has been proven
by the fact that taking part in outside<the<classrooms activities re-uire students to
rearrange the time of a day, including shortening time spent on other activities. !he figure
shares a similar situation to students in other areas. 6pecifically, as stated by !he
*ollegestats #$%&&' about the situation of students in !he nited 6tates2 +!he most
recent data from the Bepartment of @ducation shows that only 5C; of freshmen enrolled
full<time in $%%. graduated by $%&%, and a large portion of those didn(t make it past their
first year,. >eside that, a large percentage of students interviewed in Hanoi niversity
also assured that spending time joining in clubs interprets their concentration in studying.
!his is not an astonishing point to explain about this finding. 6tudents can get carried
away and sign on to too many activities without thinking about how they will balance
them all and they may become stressful dedicating time to an activity if the schedule and
workload increase. )t also has been approved in some other researches. According to
*alifornia 6tate niversity(s research, a student who devotes his spare time to
extracurricular activities spends less time on studies. !his can affect his grades if he is not
spending enough time studying.
@; Re$o++endations
After taking both the plus and minus points of joining student clubs into consideration,
some favorable recommendations are drawn out. )n general, the advantages of clubs
outweigh the disadvantages ones, thereby, our suggestions focus mainly on helping
students avoid the negative points they may be affected while taking part in student
organizations. As for the students who are joining any clubs offered in Hanoi niversity,
balancing between academic life and club activities is highly advised in order that they
are able to perform efficiently at class as well as completing successfully their tasks in
clubs. !o achieve that goal, some measures need to be taken. )n the first place, clubs and
organizations play an active part in assisting their members. !o be more specific, the
senior staffs can organize a special training right after recruitment period to guide their
member to manage time effectively while joining clubs by some possible methods such
as building up an appropriate schedule, planning milestones and reviewing their work.
"oreover, the leaders of student clubs should assign flexible duties to different students
so that students are likely to get the opportunities to handle their academic and
extracurricular activities in the best way. )n consideration of students, it would be great
for them to get familiar with prioritising s>i""s; Tey sou"d #e we"" awarded o= and
$on$entrate +ore on te i+<ortant tas>s rater tan oters8 wi$ is an e==e$tive
way o= ta$>"in& nu+erous $"u# duties and a$ade+i$ wor> si+u"taneous"y;
A; !on$"usion
All in all, our expectation of this paper is to introduce a general view involving the
enrolling in clubs and groups of Hanoi niversity students. 7e mainly focus on the
popularity of our university(s clubs among students as well as the evaluation to such
extracurricular activities reported by HA1 students, especially emphasize the impacts
that individuals could receive when taking part in outside the class activities. !here is no
doubts that these kinds of activities poses both positive and negative features to a
student(s life. Apparently, the merits share the similar proportion to that of demerits, so
the worth mentioning thing is that students should carefully consider the benefits and the
hindrances concerned in order to take great advantage of such activities. Bue to the
limitation opposed to this paper, we are incapable of covering a more sufficient and
specific study about the discussing topic, instead of that we made effort in conveying the
basic understandings about the mentioned issue and also provided some possible
recommendations. )n addition, we really hope to contribute more of our investigation in a
further studying regarding the same subject in the future

APPENDI!ES
APPENDIB A
CUESTIONNAIRE

7e are =ham "y Ainh and Bao /hanh Ay, @6= students, 8oundation 6tudies
Bepartment. 7e are doing a research project on Hanoi niversity 6tudents( response to
*lubs within their university. !his -uestionnaire is designed to help us obtain data for our
research project. 7e highly appreciate your opinions which are apparently important to
the completion as well as the -uality of our research paper. =lease return the completed
-uestionnaire by $D April $%&.. !hank you for your cooperation.
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
D
4; Do you >now any $"u#s in Hanoi UniversityE
o Ees
o 1o
+f your answer is ,-es., please go to /uestion ). +f your answer is , 0o.,
please go to question 1
2; 6at $"u#s do you >nowE F You $an $oose +ore tan one o<tionG
o B@A HA1 #Beveloping @ffective Aeader'
o 6)8@ HA1
o HA1 Job *lub
o HA1 Fuitar *lub
o AA8 #Aearning Applications 8un'
o 8"! 1ewsletter
o 8uture 6peaker HA1
o HA1 6)*
o HA1 Accounting *lub
o Goice of HA1
o !ourism *ommunity
o Eoung Bevelopment HA1
o 9thers # please specify'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
5; Do you #e"on& to any $"u#s in Hanoi UniversityE
o Ees # please specify, go to -uestion . and skip Iuestion D, C, :'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
o 1o #please go to -uestion D'
9; 6at #ene=its do you &ain =ro+ ?oinin& $"u#sE
#Eou can choose more than one option'
o 9pening relationship
o Fetting certificates for applying scholarship
o )mproving soft skills #communication skills, teamwork skills, etc'
o >alancing academic life
o Faining experiences
o Having fun
o 1one
o 9thers# please specify'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
5. 6at do you $onsider draw#a$>s wen ta>in& <art in $"u#sE
o *onsuming time
o Bistracting from studying
o 9thers # please specify'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
o 1one
A; Ran> te $"u#FsG you are ?oinin& FP"ease ti$> FHG te o<tionG
@xcellent Food 8airly >ad
Activities
*ontribution to
Hanoi niversity
I; I= you ave $an$es to >now +ore a#out $"u#s in Hanoi University8 do you
intend to ?oin any $"u#sE
o Ees
o 1o
+f your answer is ,-es., go to question 2. +f your answer is ,0o., please go
to /uestion 3.
J; 6at $"u#FsG do you intend to ?oinE
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
K; 6y do not you want to ?oin any $"u#sE FYou $an $oose +ore tan one
o<tionG
o Aack of time
o *oncentrating on studying
o Aack of confidence
o =arents( objections
o 9thers #please specify'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
47; In your o<inion8 wat do you tin> a#out te $"u# a$tivities in &enera" in
Hanoi University wen $o+<ared to te $"u#s in oter universitiesE
o >etter
o @-ual
o 7orse
o 9thers #please specify'
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Tan> you =or your $oo<eration