This Community Service activity is a subtheme of the big theme carried out by the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, namely “Foreign Language Training that can be applied in the community or students”. FIB UGM encourages the emergence of community empowerment around the campus to become a learning and empowered community. This program is focused on the community around the campus, namely Caturtunggal, Terban, and Sinduadi Villages. In this context, the community can be interpreted broadly, not limited to the native / local population in the village. Therefore, immigrant students are also part of the beneficiaries of this program.
On March 15-29, 2024, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM Community Service team guided by Alvanita, S.S., M.Ed., Lecturer in English Literature at Faculty of Arts UGM, in collaboration with Mardliyah Islamic Center (MIC) held an English language improvement activity, especially for TOEFL ITP for students around the MIC environment. This activity aims to provide provisions for participants to further improve their skills in English, especially in listening, grammar, and reading. This activity is expected to help participants to get a good TOEFL score, making it easier for them to get internships, student exchanges, and work in the future. In addition to English skills, this activity also aims to motivate participants to be more courageous in the international realm with their English skills.
This activity was attended by 20 participants from various universities around the MIC region. Generally, they are students who live around MIC with different study program backgrounds. This program is held once a week every Saturday for two hours. Participants are equipped with the TOEFL ITP Module compiled by the PkM team to help participants learn independently outside the TOEFL class session. In addition, the teacher also provides material including what TOEFL is, functions, scoring, tips and tricks, to get a good score, as well as a detailed explanation for each skill. In between TOEFL materials, the lecturer also tells stories about the cultures of other countries to broaden students’ knowledge and reduce culture shock.
This activity is also an effort to support SDGs, especially Quality Education (SDG 4). With quality education, participants will have superior provisions to enter the increasingly competitive world of work. TOEFL training is indeed a first step to equip participants to flap wider wings to the international job market.
