Sharing Experience, English Language Training Assistance (ELTA)

First and foremost, I would like to say thanks unto Allah giving a chance to write my experience here. Thanks for my friends who always encourage me to create a blog so that I can learn how to be a writer (even if it is so late to start, but I hope it is not too late to write. hehhhe). Well, in my first writing, I am eager to write about my experience joint one of outstanding programmed namely ELTA III NTB.

To start with,let me give you a few overview about ELTA. What is ELTA? ELTA stands for English Language Training Assistance; the programme is funded by Australia Goverment and conducted by Indonesia Australia Language Foundation (IALF) Bali Language Centre. It is held in  some targeted-areas in Indonesia, they are: West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Papua and West Papua. This training is for those who want to apply Australia Award Scholarship, but their TOEFL score below 500 or their IELTS score was still under 5.0.

It was one of incredible programmes for me as the aim of its activity; upgrading our English ability in four skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading). Another goal of this training; to improve the participants’ confidence in communicating English (especially in academic English) and to study about IELTS. It was held twelve (12) weeks or  three (3) months.

Based on my experience, in order to be a candidate of this course, there were some selections:

Administration Selection.

Like other scholarship, we should submit documents to the committee by uploading and sending it by email or Post Office. At that time, I prefer to submitted the documents by email rather than sent by post office, because it was easy and fast. The documents that I submitted were an application form, admission letter from my principal (it was for those who had been a worker), curriculum vitae, academic transcript, TOEFL or IELTS certificate (if any) and identity card (copy). Okay, the documents had been sent, I then waiting for the announcement.

Writing Test.

After getting an announcement through my mobile, I then went to Mataram with my first brother to take  writing and interviewing test. In writing test, I should answer fifty questions with multiple choices. After that, I wrote an essay, the motion was decided by the committee and I had to choose one of the topics.

Interview Test.

I was interviewed by Caroline Bentley, the manager of ELTA and Mr. David, both of them are from England. They asked me some questions and  its took time for about 40 minutes. In this test, I was so nervous. Hehhee. I will not describe the questions in detail because every candidate got different questions but if you wanna know more please visit my post about this programme with Indonesia version Sharing Pengalaman Proses Seleksi ELTA NTB 

After waiting for about two weeks, I  got an announcement on the line that I became one of participants of this programme, among 150 candidates ( I did not `remember exactly), it was only received 30 participants and I was the first as well as the only candidate from Dompu in ELTA NTB III. 

 Our Wonderful Activities 🙂

We were divided into two classes ; Class A and Class B. I was in Class B. My classmates were so friendly and they had high-motivated to learn. In this class, we studied in fun and crazy way 9999999999999999especially to remember the sophisticated words (hahahahahha). Sometime we were very serious when learning, it was depend of the material that we learnt.

We frequently gave support each other while studying. The class started from 08:00 AM  04:00 PM . Moreover, we also had self study section after finishing the class. There was a special day for us every Monday, then we called it as MONDAY = MONeyDAY as we got payment on Monday, Hehehe (I can not tell you how much it was). In order to refresh our mind, after getting the money, we went in some places ; beaches, cafes even at karaoke for singing together. In class A, they also did the same.

We were trained by 7 (seven) incredible trainers, all of them were awardees of AAS (Australia Award Scholarship). They are so kind, cheerful (esp Mrs Yuni), creative (Mrs. Santi)  and so incredible. I was so lucky since I did not only learn about their lesson, but also the way of their teaching (methods) . Moreover, we were also divided in some groups (consist of 4-5 students) which each group has an advisor (my group was guided by Mr.Arsyad, the most skillful trainer, hehe). During this training, we had mock test and real test of IELTS

The students were putting head together in the class

one of our agendas every week, going somewhere to refresh our mind, we called it “MONDAY “(MONey DAY) 🙂

the participants played “‘whispering game”

One of trainers, Mrs.Santi, She frequently used creative and various methods while teaching.

we did some fairly serious learning 😀

 

MONDAY = MONey DAY on Monday 😀

with Mr.Amin

with Mr.Arsyad, he was my advisor 🙂

Mock Test 

Mock Test is like “Uji coba” in Bahasa. All of f ELTA candidates had a chance to join in Mock test of IELTS. It was conducted three times during the course  (usually, it was organized at the end of month). The aim of mock test; to train the participants so that we were quickly accustomed to take real IELTS test. 

Class A in action 😛

IELTS Real Test, The most nervous day 😀

This was the most stressful examination for us since it was the determiner whether we  succeeded or failed in this programme. Almost the participants were anxious.The examination was organized in two days; the first day for speaking , and the second day for three other skills (listening, reading and writing), or vice versa (it depends) .

I was the first candidate of speaking test and my examiner was Mr.David. Before entering the room, I called my mom to ask her to give her du’a (pray) for me. Mba Ella, one of my best friends during this programme, also gave me support.

Mr. David called my name, I then entered the room. Then he asked many questions to me. In this section Alhamdullilah, I could pass the speaking test fruitfully. I then preparing for listening, reading, and writing test in the next following day. Generally speaking, after taking all of the exams with its full of under-pressure condition, I then got an announcement with satisfactory result. Alhamdullilah.

Read my other writing relates to this programme Gambaran Kegiatan ELTA NTB (Sharing Pengalaman) and Sharing Pengalaman Proses Seleksi ELTA NTB

on Real IELTS test 🙂

on the day of Real IELTS test 🙂