2020.11.11
Annual High School English Contest and Prefectural English Speech Contest
Every year, two English Contests are held at our school. In May, students in the Junior High School take part in an English Recitation Contest and in November, a Recitation Contest is held for Senior High students. This year, due to the spread of the coronavirus, we were unable to hold our contest for the Junior High students but we were able to hold the contest for the Senior High students this past week.
Twelve students from the first and second grades of Senior High took part in the contest. The students in the first grade recited Dr Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, while students in the second grade recited ‘We choose to go to the Moon’ by President John F. Kennedy. All of the students worked very hard to memorise the speeches and to deliver them clearly with excellent pronunciation and prosody.
Mr Nishi, Jean and I acted as judges for the contest and we found it very hard to come to a decision due to the exceptional level of the recitations. After a long discussion, we decided to award the first prize to two students this year. We also awarded prizes to the second and third place students. These four students will be given the opportunity to enter the Prefectural English Speech Contests next year should they choose to.
Mr Nishi, Jean and I acted as judges for the contest and we found it very hard to come to a decision due to the exceptional level of the recitations. After a long discussion, we decided to award the first prize to two students this year. We also awarded prizes to the second and third place students. These four students will be given the opportunity to enter the Prefectural English Speech Contests next year should they choose to.
On the subject of the Prefectural Speech Contest, I recently attended the Shizuoka Prefecture Speech Contest with one of our first-grade Senior High students. The student won the right to take part in the contest due to her performance in the Shizuoka Prefecture Central Regional Contest in September. Sadly, our student was unable to win a prize at the contest but she gave a very good speech in what was a highly competitive contest.
Giving speeches in a second language in front of a large group of people is one of the most challenging tasks for learners. In the past eighteen months that I have spent at this school, I have been impressed by the efforts that students have made in both speech and recitation contests. As the students continue to develop their English skills, I hope they can build on the confidence they have acquired by taking part in these contests and use it to communicate with people around the world.
Giving speeches in a second language in front of a large group of people is one of the most challenging tasks for learners. In the past eighteen months that I have spent at this school, I have been impressed by the efforts that students have made in both speech and recitation contests. As the students continue to develop their English skills, I hope they can build on the confidence they have acquired by taking part in these contests and use it to communicate with people around the world.
