Speech Contest Results

Fourteen participants eventually made it through to the speech contest being properly prepared. As the only English native teacher at my school, I assigned myself to the final coaching of the speech contestants. One week before the actual speech contest I had to students do their speech in front of me,after which I gave them advice to improve pronunciation and intonation. I tried to give all speech participants an equal amount of advice and coaching.

There were three judges including me. Of course the other two judges were English teachers with many years of experience. We judged the speech participants on the contents and structure for which they could score 30 points. Pronunciation, rhythem, and intonation was worth another 30 points. Lastly, delivery and comprehensibility could score a big 40 points. The time in between speeches was quite short so we had to decide their score quickly and write some comments.

This time all the participants really prepared well which made it very difficult to judge. For a small school as mine with only little over four hundred potential participants we really had the ones with most potential and ability performing their speeches. At the final count, the first three prizes were only 12 points apart.

Before awarding the trophies I was asked to summarize the contest and give a short speech. I could only praise the participants and told them they did an excellent job. I explained that it was hard for the judges to make decisions because all speeches were very good. Our principal awarded the trophies and certificates and spoke a few words in his best English.

Over all, I think this years speech contest was very successful and I hope this positive tradition will grow more popular because Japanese students can learn a lot from this experience.