Let R be a commutative ring with identity 1 ¹ 0, and let M be a unitary left module over R. A submodule N of an R-module M is called essential, if whenever N ⋂ L = (0), then L = (0) for every submodule L of M. In this case, we write N ≤e M. An R-module M is called extending, if every submodule of M is an essential in a direct summand of M. A submodule N of an R-module M is called semi-essential (denoted by N ≤sem M), if N ∩ P ≠ (0) for each nonzero prime submodule P of M. The main purpose of this work is to determine and study two new concepts (up to our knowledge) which are St-closed submodules and semi-extending modules. St-closed submodules is contained properly in the class of closed submodules, where a submodule N of M is called St-closed in M, if N has no proper semi-essential extension in M, i.e if there exists a submodule K of M such that N is a semi-essential submodule of K, then N = K. We investigate the main properties of this type of submodules, and discuss some results that are useful in our work. The class of semi-extending modules is a generalization to the notion of extending modules, where an R-module M is called semi-extending, if every submodule of M is a semi-essential in a direct summand of M. Various properties of semi-extending modules are obtained, and we study the relationships between this class of modules and other related concepts.