UNESHCO (UNY English Competition) is a National English Competition for university students held annually by UKM Bahasa Asing “SAFEL” (Student Activity Forum of Foreign Languages), Yogyakarta State University (UNY). This competition is one of the agendas in commemorating Dies Natalis UNY, which consists of the speech and micro-teaching competitions. Accordingly, every year UNESHCO collaborates with other competitions in UNYFEST (UNY Festival).
To ensure everyone’s safety and health during COVID-19, UNESHCO # 6 was held online on Saturday and Sunday, April 10th and 11th, 2021, through an online platform. This year, UNESHCO came with a grand theme, “Think Critically, Speak Confidently, and Surpass Your Limit!”.
The first day of UNESHCO #6 was the preliminary round for the speech competition. During this round, six judges assessed the persuasive speech videos that participants had sent in during the registration period. After the assessment, the top 8 finalists will be invited to the Zoom platform on the next day to conduct the semifinal and final round. Meanwhile, the assessment session of the Micro-Teaching competition was also conducted on the first day. In this session, the judges assessed micro-teaching videos submitted by the ten finalists. From this on, three participants were chosen to be the winner of the Micro-Teaching competition.
On the second day of UNESHCO # 6, the semifinal and final rounds of the speech competition were conducted via Zoom. For the semifinal round, the top 8 finalists delivered their extemporaneous speech. Following that, three participants with the highest semifinal round scores advanced to the final round to deliver their impromptu speech. At the end of this round, there was also a Q&A session.
The results of the speech and micro-teaching competitions were announced during the closing ceremony of UNYFEST # 9 on April 11th, 2021 via Zoom meeting.The first winner of the speech competition was taken by Fauziatun Nabila Sudarko from Indonesia University, followed respectively as runners-up by Devina Meidy Fidelia Putri Pangudi from Diponegoro University, and Nabila Rizky Aryani from Sriwijaya University. Following that, Ristan Taufiq Syukrianto from Yogyakarta University of Technology was chosen as the favorite speaker. Meanwhile, for the Micro-Teaching competition, the first winner was Sarah Ayu Wulandari from Indonesia University of Education, followed respectively as runners-up by Zelfany Lufti Milinia Adira Putri from IAIN Ponorogo, and Kartika Qiyara Wangi from Yogyakarta State University.
Last but not least, we would like to send our utmost gratitude to the 70 participants of the speech competition, and the 56 participants of the micro-teaching competition who registered and participated in UNESHCO #6. Hopefully, this pandemic will be over really soon, and we will be able to see each other at Yogyakarta State University on UNESHCO #7!-Ai
