|
CCTV English Speaking Contest
Thursday, May 19, 2005-12:50 AM
Hosting English Speaking Competitions, like the one held yesterday at the Guangdong University of Technology, is a common tactic used to encourage students to practice and improve their English.
One by one, students stand on an otherwise empty stage in front of friends, classmates, teachers, and foreign judges and try their best to give meaningful answers to meaningless questions.
On the face of it, the whole premise seems a bit absurd. Some things lend themselves to competition like basketball, checkers, and pie-eating. Others don't, like English.
This bad fit becomes even more apparent when you're asked to be a judge. There were six judges in total. Besides me there were three other foreign teachers, and two Chinese teachers serving as judges.
We were asked to assess each of 15 contestants' English on the basis of their pronunciation, accuracy, fluency, performance, and content.
Even though a competition like this has obvious shortcomings, I do recognize its usefulness in promoting and encouraging students to improve their English. Provided students can look beyond the scores, English speaking competitions aren't completely useless.
The evening did provide some entertainment. The student who generated the most amusement was a small girl with short hair who, judging by her clothes, took the event very seriously.
She used a strategy I liked a lot. She was honest. If she was nervous, she said she was nervous. If she didn't understand, she said she didn't understand.
At one point she even said, "Could you ask the question again...in Chinese?"
Her English was every bit as intelligible as anyone else's. And she said made as much or more sense than anyone else.
But she also did some things that might have worked against her. The first everyone noticed was she spoke with an obvious Cantonese accent.
Every sentence ended with an "ah" sound, the way some people in Guandong talk, whether they speak Mandarin, Cantonese, or English.
The second thing she did, which drew laughter from even the most stone-faced judges, was speak right through the bell signaling her time was up.
She not only spoke through the first bell (which in all honesty was very quiet), she spoke through the subsequent bells a few seconds later, this time a little louder and faster suggesting the urgency of the situation.
She just kept on speaking, completely oblivious to a situation every single member of the audience was aware of. The bell kept on ringing. The bell ringer seemed helpless.
The audience decided to help out. They gave her a round of applauds letting her know it was time to finish.
Either she didn't realize they were clapping or she did realize they were clapping and that encouraged her to talk more. She just kept right on speaking, still inflecting every sentence in her uniquely Cantonese manner.
Finally, one of the hosts walked on the stage, nervously approaching her. Still, the contestant didn't pick up on the fact that it was time to go.
In the end, she was basically dragged off the stage. It took a few seconds for the laughter to die down. I think everyone was thankful that she at least made the event interesting for a few minutes.
The hosts also tried unsuccessfully to make the night interesting. They tried to engage the contestants in some light banter between rounds. Nerves and a lack of fluency led to some awkward exchanges like this exchange between a host and a contestant.
"You're so tall!"
"Thank you."
Finally, the most painful exchange took place between a brash contestant and the only British judge, Peter. The student was asked what he would do if someone were rude to him over the phone.
Either because of Peter's accent (which sometimes even I can't understand) or because the student was nervous, the student didn't understand what the word rude meant. Peter tried unsuccessfully to explain the question in different words.
At some point, the student gave up answering the question and just gave an answer that he thought would demonstrate his confidence instead of his precise knowledge of the English language.
Peter asked him another question. The question was predetermined. It didn't depend on the student's original answer at all.
But the irony was, the question was "How do you answer a question you don't know how to answer?"
You could see shame sweep over the student's face. He thought that his confidence was mistaken as arrogance, and he was being criticized. He bowed his head down, apologized, and walked off the stage.
It was too late to do anything. I wonder if that student will ever understand the true nature of that exchange.
Yesterday's winners will go to more rounds of competition. The event will culminate with an English Speaking competition on CCTV.
|
