ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my profound and sincere gratitude to Prof. Anubha Ray

I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role ofthe staff of English Department, for extending their support during course of this project

I would be failing in my duty if I don’t acknowledge the co-operation rendered during various stages of project by my project guide, Ma’am Mrs. Asima Mattagajsingh

I am highly grateful to my parents and friends for the successful completion of my project work, for, without their constant co-operation and help the project would have not been feasible.

Last but not least, I am highly indebted to the seniors and faculty members of English Department who have given their full effort in guiding me in achieving the goal as well as their encouragement to maintain my progress in track.

Biswajeet Maharana

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CONTENTSPAGE NO.

1. Acknowledgement 1

2. Executive Summary 3

3. Introduction 5

4. Methodology 8

5. Analysis and Data interpretation 11

6. Benefit Realization 14

7. Findings 15

8. Recommendations 17

9. Annexure 18

10. Bibliography 20

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today's educational system is becoming increasingly competitive for both students

and institutions. The key to successful job placements is an individual’s personality

and way of presentation. That is why corporate clubs, namely, Scintilla (language

club) and Srujanee (literary club) were introduced in C.I.T, a unique chair that

have the potential to become a very effective tools in polishing students with their

fluency in English and honing their personality

The fear and lack of confidence when students appear for job interviews are the

basic and most vital factors due to which they get rejected .My project is a desk

oriented for finding out the lacunae behind the failure of interviewees in C.I.T even

though these two clubs have been functioning for almost 2 years, still the problems

prevails in the campus drive selections.

My project is aimed at finding out the basic reasons of low student attendance in

Scintilla and Srujanee. Although these two clubs are student oriented and work for

their benefits, students refrain to join or attend these clubs. To get the feel of the

scenario, I conducted questionnaires; video recorded students to know their

outlook and interviewed some prominent faculties of the institution.

As the fight for jobs is becoming more grueling, students need to have a lively

personality and are required to increase their vocabulary as well as fluency

standards. I believe that the students must not be coerced to join these clubs, rather

inspired and motivated properly so that they can see their future bright and hence,

willingly join these clubs, seeking their own development.

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A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE CLUBSIt has been observed that students lose their potentiality in job market due to poor communication and lack of soft skills. The risk factor for the below average students is almost unbridled. It is high time to groom these at-risk students and join hands to make them stand confidently in this global competitive market. Therefore, the faculty members of Dept. of English, CIT have decided to form a club under CSR Program, Scintilla, which aims to develop confidence in the students to speak the target language and to make them equip with skills useful for their employability. 

Srujanee, the literary club of CIT takes its origin with an ambition to nurture the literary sprouts of the young budding talents in the midst of technology and science. This provides the students a suitable platform to outpour their innermost thoughts and powerful feelings in the form of poetry, skits, pictorial presentations, creative writings etc. In fact, the incongruous and antipodal thoughts are juxtaposed together to bring a wonderful harmony.

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INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY UNDERTAKEN

1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Various experts have debated over the mannerisms of communication and the efficient applications of the same in work sector. In C.I.T, we also come across this inevitable aspect of life where we have to face people who expect us to communicate in English properly with effective use of self presentation.

Having come across this issue, I took up this project to highlight the concerns of students who fail in this field and their reluctance to work it out, even though the institution has initiated welcome clubs concerning their personality development.

2. OBJECTIVES

My basic objectives of the project are aimed at:

i. To find out the reasons behind low student attendance in respective clubs.

ii. To get knowledge about initiatives taken by clubs to gather more student attention.

iii. To provide ideas so that students participate willingly, not forcibly.

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iv. To motivate students through success stories of their seniors in the club.

3. SCOPE OF STUDY

My project aims at throwing light on the causes and remedial measures that need to be taken for low student attendance in corporate clubs of C.I.T, viz., Scintilla and Srujanee. I was able to gather vital information through

i. Surveys (Audio and Video Recording)ii. Circulating questionnaire among different class of students iii. Personal interviewing students as well as faculties of respective

clubs.

Through my methodologies, I gained insight to the actual scenario of the proceeding s of the clubs and got to know about students’ lack of interest and the way of perceiving the clubs.

However, I had to face a few hindrances in the course of the project. Being a non-hosteller time proved to be the major obstruction. Secondly, interviewing students was a challenge for me as we have a fixed and rigid timetable .Thirdly and most importantly, data collection and personal interviews with faculties was difficult since they have an extremely busy schedule.

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METHODOLOGY EMPLOYED IN THE STUDY

RESEARCH METHODSThe project was carried out with the help of a few strategies, step-by-step, as follows:

A few questionnaires were conducted to find out students’ opinion on the clubs.

Straightforward and simplified questions were made so that the students who were going to appear the questionnaire don’t feel awkward or shy while answering them.

A total of 100 copies of the questionnaire were made and distributed equally among students of 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd

year respectively.

Students who couldn’t speak openly on their problems provided their thoughts freely on paper, since their identity weren’t going to be disclosed. That increased their confidence to answer genuinely.

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Few groups of students were interviewed on their ideas about the clubs and their expectations from them.

Apart from written questionnaires, Concerned faculties and active members from the clubs gave their

valuable suggestions regarding the participation of students

In –session videos were done to gain an insight on the working of the clubs. Students have the basic fear factor of stage presentation due to which they feel reluctant to participate in club activities

In order to get the true facts of the relevant sections of the project, I needed sources of data from which I could interpret the statistical findings of my project. Data was collected from two sources, viz,

Primary Data sources, such as questionnaires, personal interviews with students, video recordings, etc. The questionnaire was based on practical problems and areas of improvement, suggestions on the clubs and personal views on the working of the clubs and feedback on faculty members in charge of the clubs.

Secondary Data sources such as magazines, publications by the clubs and websites such as

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills- www.london.ac.uk › ... › Staff Development- www.britishcouncil.in/english

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These websites proved to be vital in the course of my project as I gained knowledge about various methods to develop communication skills (soft skills) and mannerisms of presentation. Further various aspects of personality behavior also unfolded the reasons behind low student attendance in C.I.T

ACTION TAKENTo gain further insight on why students refrain from participating in these club activities, I interviewed students, faculties and members of the management section of C.I.T.

Some excerpts from these interviews were:

“I personally feel that workload from studies is affecting my participation in language club, which I truly want to do. Since we all have a busy academic schedule, I too feel that there should be some separate day for these club activities and not within regular classes”

- Jeevan Jyoti Samantaray(Mechanical, 2nd year)

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“Though the language club is somehow functional and students are aware of it, the literary club (Srujanee) isn’t much popular among students due to lack of awareness. Majority of us do not get to know about the club activities due to improper infrastructure and irregularities in club proceedings”

- Sneha Samuel (E.C.E , 2nd year)

“I have been regularly participating in club activities and I feel that proper utilization of resources needs to be done to achieve the goal on which these clubs were formed. Nevertheless, students should feel that it is their own career and not a mere responsibility”

-Reghu Vaisakh(Mechanical , 2nd year)

DATA INTERPRETATION10

From the data collected through questionnaires, video recordings and personal interviews, data can be put up in bar graphs in relevance to my project objectives.

02040 32 28 25 15

Reasons behind low student at -tendance in respective clubs.

0204060 48

22 16 14

Have the clubs taken proper ini-tiatives?

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0204060

3048

6 16

Students' participation in the clubs

03060

68

32

Are you motivated from your seniors?

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The language and literary clubs, which are a part of the CSR curriculum, have online data charts on student participation. A list can be shown as below, updated till the last activity done by the clubs:

Name of the ClubDetail of the activity Date of the event Approximate no

of students participated.

“Scintilla”

Language Club

Movie Review 17th Oct. 2012 147

Role Play Competition 10th Nov. 2012 78

Quiz Competition (Mind your language) 24th   Nov. 2012 63

Quiz on movie review on “Gandhi” 9th March 2013 58

Role Play Competition  19th July 2013 25

Debate Competition" Are we really independent"

9th August 2013 31

Jokes Telling Competition 30th August 2013 24

Pictorial Description Contest 27th September 2013 90

“Srujanee”

Literary club

Essay Writing 12th July 2013 25

Interpret the Quote 26th July 2013 30

Essay Writing 02nd August 2013 40

Poetry Recitation 13th September 2013 20

As it can be seen, with chronological order of club events, the student participation kept on decreasing which shows the unwillingness among students to participate.

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BENEFIT REALISATION

Visible impact Students prefer more interactive sessions than monotonous ones. They feel

that participating in the clubs is a beneficial to them, provided they get

adequate entertainment from it. On the other hand, students opting not to

participate have a different opinion. They consider it as a waste of time and

add to the workload.

Approaching faculties for gaining knowledge about the schedules, events

was found as major lacunae. Fear factor and time management keeps

students bereft of all the proceedings in the clubs.

Potential impact

Few effective measures like developing a healthy classroom environment,

sufficient advertising of club events by use of notice boards, social

networking sites, emails, etc can contribute to more student attention

towards the clubs.

In the future, healthy competition can be expected as the number of students

joining the clubs is increasing, even though at snail’s pace, but this can

popularize the cubs on large scale. Students can inculcate more skills and

refine their soft-skills.

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FINDINGS

The project was aimed at determining the loopholes behind low student attendance

in corporate clubs of C.I.T. A number of findings were made eventually. Some of

them can be enlisted as below:

Students feel they are being pressurized by concerned faculties.

A section of students surveyed considered it as a real benefit for them to

improve their character and skills.

On the other hand, some students felt that it was an overburden on studies.

Some of the revered members from the English department felt that students

should see the initiative as a proper career development tool.

However, during the course of my project, I

had to face several roadblocks. It wasn’t easy for a student who lived outside the

campus and collects data, undertake surveys within the stipulated time. But it was

the generous helping hand of faculties, support of friends and my determination

that has led to the completion of the project. Some of the problems faced by me

were:

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Time factor: The biggest blockade was time. Managing time between

course curriculum and project was a serious twister.

Lack of proper infrastructure: Lack of proper cameras, MIC’s, etc made

the task a bit difficult. Had there been provision of proper utilit9ies, the

project would have been completed much earlier with better data.

Reluctance of students to face an interview: Students in C.I.T face a

common phobia for facing the camera. I had to convince them of good healthy

discussions and they showed some interest. This problem has been seen

among interviewees also, hence they low result of campus placement in the

college.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

From the study, it can be concluded that developing personality, working to

improve the factors influencing personality, all depends on the zeal of the student.

Habits and moral/ethical values cannot be developed overnight. It requires self

determination and willingness to accept the challenge. However, a few

recommendations can be given for all-round development of clubs, such as:

Reduction of workload so that students can find time for the activities

Coercing by faculties is highly regretted, students develop negative attitude

by doing so.

Make the club sessions more student oriented, rather than a part of C.S.R

curriculum.

Feedback from students should be collected regularly and worked upon

them.

And finally, student representatives should forward the problems faced by

Students to concerned faculties, so that a healthy environment exists.

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ANNEXURE

NAME: BRANCH:

SECTION: SEMESTER:

FEEDBACK FORM FOR LANGUAGE AND LITERARY CLUBS IN C.I.T

(PLEASE BE FRANK IN ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS)

1. Why do you think students should join these clubs?a. Due to sheer compulsion. B. For academic improvement c. For personal fluency d. Not necessary at all

2. Personally, do you feel it is a necessity to join such clubs or simply it’s an overload of excessive responsibility?a. Considering the workload from studies, these clubs double up the pressure only.b. Very much educative and useful, considering present day placement situation.c. The clubs are, to some extent, beneficial. But at the same time, uneven session

timings are a serious headache.d. Personally, I do not have interest in the clubs due to the constant coercing by the

faculties to join the clubs which is now becoming a severe nuisance.

3. Are the events conducted in the clubs of any help to the students practically?a. Yes, they help me in improving overall personality.b. I don’t think they are of any serious help.c. The clubs have been effective only in certain areas only.d. Practically, the clubs are detrimental to academic progress.

4. Almost all the faculties of concerned clubs belong to the English Department. Are you motivated in any manner by their dedication to these clubs?

a. Yes.

b. No

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c. Barring a few, other faculties are of no help

d. None of the above.

5. How do you rate the overall performance of these clubs?

a. Excellent b. Good

c. Average d. Poor

6. How can students willingly join and participate in the club events?a. By creating a livelier atmosphere rather than monotonous sessions.b. By conducting interactive and entertaining events.c. Both (a) and (b).d. Impossible for students to join willingly, as they are rather being persuaded more

than being motivated.

7. Did you ever talk personally to the faculties regarding your problems in the clubs?a. No, I fear to approach them since academic performance is at stake.b. Yes, they have been very much helpful and co-operative in sorting out my problems.c. I never felt the need to approach them.d. Whenever I approached them, my problems became more problematic.

8. Two practical ways to make the clubs a hit among the students :

i.

ii.

9. Any suggestions for the faculties of the concerned clubs?

a. LANGUAGE CLUB ( scintilla)

b. LITERARY CLUB ( srujanee)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References and online websites are the biggest bonus for any type of project.

These websites have beyond adequate information regarding any subject.

I took the help of many websites, a few from them can be stated below as:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-and-vocabulary

http://my.englishclub.com/forum/topics/the-importance-of-students-

participation

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1838/Clubs.html

http://cutm.ac.in/Language_Club.php

http://cutm.ac.in/csr_literary_club.php

https://www.facebook.com/scintilla.centurion?fref=ts

http://www.talkenglish.com/

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