Community Service is an annual event hosted by the English Studies Programme at Universitas Gadjah Mada to execute one of the Three Pillars of Higher Education. This year, the theme of the Community Service was ‘PkM UGM in Collaboration with SMA N 5 Purworejo: Developing Speaking Skills through Storytelling.’ The goal of this Community Service is to foster speaking skills in a way that not only encourages participants to pronounce words correctly but also to speak with the proper intonation and articulation. In addition to learning about modulation, pitch, tempo, pause, and tone through storytelling, the participants gained valuable skills for future public speaking opportunities.
The community service was held for three days at SMA Negeri 5 Purworejo on September 19, September 23, and September 24, 2022. There were both online and in-person meetings during the event. The date for the online class was set on September 19, 2022. It was to deliver the materials about storytelling to the participants by English Studies Programme lecturers Dra. Sharifah Hanidar, M.Ed., Dra. Rio Rini Diah Moehkardi, M.A., and Adiba Qonita Zahroh, S.S., M.Litt. On the same day, the lecturers provided six folktales from six countries from which the participating students could choose. The following three days were planned to be dedicated to the participants engaging in individual practise.
On the 23rd and 24th of October, the team, consisting of the English Studies Programme lecturers and students, visited the venue to meet teachers and students of SMA Negeri 5 Purworejo. On the first day, small groups of English Department students were set to provide mentorship. The next day, from 10 am to 12 pm, another mentorship session was scheduled. Following a short break of an hour, the participants were given a full two hours to tell stories as the primary focus of the programme. The announcement of the top three performances then followed. The event was closed at 4 PM with closing statements from the head of the community service committee and the representative teachers from SMA Negeri 5 Purworejo.
Written by: Rahma Az-Zahra, English Studies Programme 2020
Proofread by: Adiba Qonita Zahroh, S.S., M.Litt.
Hello, I attended English department in 1980s and joined EDSA activities. Now I teach at English Department, Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences, Gajayana University in Malang.