Kelas Daring IELTS NTT – What and Why?

Writer: Maria Febriani Seran

Kelas Daring IELTS 2019 NTT is initiated by Albert Soewongsono (Albert’s LinkedIn Profile) and Maria Febriani Seran (Maria’s LinkedIn Profile). This class, that has been running for 7 weeks, was officially started on September 1st 2019 and will be ended on 31st November 2019.

What is the motive behind the initiative?

This initiative is established due to the increased demand and interest in the society on studying abroad and applying for offered scholarships. Therefore, providing adequate English proficiency level certificate is crucial as it becomes one of the requirements to apply for scholarships and universities abroad. Consequently, the offer of language preparation classes/ programs, such as, IELTS (International English Language Testing System) or TOEFL (Testing of English Foreign Language), has mushroomed ubiquitously to answer the community needs. Unfortunately, most of the coursed offered are considered pricey and are not affordable for those who are from lower economic level, especially in the developing provinces. Other than that, IELTS program is preferred in this initiative as this language test certificate can be used for international purpose.

How does the class run?

In this class, we make a clear description on the roles and responsibilities of mentees and mentors. Mentees are responsible to be fully committed on following the program syllabus, working on the weekly assignment, and have rights to receive feedback from the mentors and facilitators. Meanwhile, mentors are responsible on facilitating the assigned group discussion, marking mentees’ assignments, and providing the feedback. Mentors voluntarily take part in this initiative by assisting their assigned mentees each week, and it is their solemn willingness and commitment to engage and share about their experience on IELTS. At the moment, our mentors are currently based in Indonesia and abroad.

Kelas Daring IELTS NTT offers free online course for 12 weeks and uses Google Classroom as the learning platform to provide free learning materials, compulsory IELTS exercises, and group discussion forum. We also use WhatsApp group chat for more extended group discussions and class updates or announcements. On week 1, we named the week is program introduction where mentees are introduced with the program syllabus, get to know their assigned mentors, and plan their regular weekly discussion. Besides, in this week, mentees are given a complete test IELTS as a diagnostic test to measure mentees’ prior English proficiency level. Based on the test, mentors got a clear idea about their mentees’ proficiency level. On week 2 and 3, we focused on IELTS listening test where mentees should work on the assignments and get feedback from the mentors. Moving to week 4 and week 5, IELTS reading skill becomes the focus and again, mentees are demanded to do the assigned reading test and mentors provided feedbacks, such as, marking mentees’ answer and sharing tips and tricks on handling the IELTS reading test. Then, week 6 discusses about the IELTS writing task 1; meanwhile, week 7 talks specifically about IELTS writing task 2. Mentees’ writings were revised by mentors and given important notes for writing skill improvement. Then, IELTS speaking skill is discussed on week 8 and week 9. Interestingly, some mentors apply an IELTS speaking simulation test by skype or WA video chat; other mentors ask their mentees to send the recording which are later examined based on IELTS speaking rubric.  After doing all the intensive learning for each skill, mentees are given complete IELTS simulation test for 3 weeks; week 10, week 11, and week 12.

At the end of the program, the facilitators will assess mentees’ active participation on doing the assignments and group discussion. Mentees will be given the online certificate of participation with merit-based system. As for mentors, the facilitators will give them a certificate of appreciation to recognize their commitment and support on this initiative.

Are there any other activities in Kelas Daring IELTS 2019?

Definitely, yes. First activity, we have “mentee of the week” appreciation post. This activity is to recognize his/her contribution on this initiative through either actively submitting the assignments, participating in group discussion, or receiving high score average on the tested skills. This activity is hoped to motivate other mentees to make the most of this online learning class.

Second, we also provide an online weekly talk delivered by our guest speakers; some guest speakers are based abroad and some stay in Indonesia. This weekly online talk is conducted due to the high enthusiasms in our class and the willingness to share with those who were not selected in our program. Each week, different guest speakers will deliver the talk based on their area of expertise through either live streaming or recorded video. During the talk, the viewers are welcomed to interact with the guest speakers by asking questions. This program is to fill the need of IELTS enthusiasts in NTT to learn and be exposed to Academic IELTS. (Past talk summary can accessed through the following links: Tom and Albert’s Talk on “What Makes a Company Successful” & Recorded Video from Webinar #1)

Third, we also have weekly English topic to be discussed on our Instagram every Thursday, we named it Thoughtful Thursday. On this specific day of the week, we post a short English lesson on our Instagram stories. Sometimes, we make a short quiz for examining viewers;’ knowledge on English lesson. We hope that through this simple lesson, many and many are exposed to English learning environment.

Other than that, we also have a WA sharing session in that we invite guest speaker to share their ideas, experiences through WA chat. For this session, the participants will send their questions to the moderator and the moderator will filter the questions and post it on the WA sharing session group. We are planning to have more WA sharing session in near future (Past sharing summary: Albert and Kristian’s Sharing Session on LPDP Scholarship (Part I) & Albert and Kristian’s Sharing Session on LPDP Scholarship (Part II)).

How was the selection process going?

Swinging back the pendulum to the recruitment process, we opened the registration for mentees and mentors by distributing a google form on June this year for a month. After a month, we received 250 applications for mentees and 40 applications for mentor (Distribution Map of Our Mentees). The mentee selection process began by examining applicants’ short answers on google form and their statement about their basic English proficiency level. Based on careful consideration, we chose 123 mentees. Meanwhile, for the mentor application, we decided to recruit 27 mentors as they have experiences in IELTS test, IELTS preparation class, and their IELTS score above 6.  Then, we divided the mentees into their assigned mentors in that one mentor facilitates 4 assigned mentees. The selection process did not stop there as on week 3, half of selected mentees were dropped out due to their inactive participation on assignment submission and group discussion. This agreement has been set and announced by the facilitators when the mentees got the acceptance letter. We currently have 54 active participants under 25 mentors’ supervision.

That is all everyone for the brief description of Kelas Daring IELTS 2019 NTT. Follow our Instagram account: @kelas_daringieltsntt2019 and facebook page: Kelas Daring IELTS 2019- NTT for more updated information.

P.S. This article had been published at https://assosiasimitra.wordpress.com/2019/10/25/kelas-daring-ielts-ntt-what-and-why/