Issue 23 | Year 2015

CI NEWS 2015
050
2015 North Carolina Chinese Speech and Writing Contests
Since 2010 the Confucius Institute has welcomed over 1,500 participants in North Carolina to
compete in the only Statewide Chinese Language Speech and Writing Contest. As Chinese language
programs are growing across the State (it is currently the 4th most popular language in NC public schools,
according to data from the NC Department of Public Instruction), this contest has seen tremendous
growth in participation and support. The CI created this contest to encourage new language learners
and to create a platform for students to see that students like them can study and learn Chinese. This
year, the 6th Annual Chinese Language Contest welcomed a total of 428 participants across NC. The
Speech Contest had 217 contestants, from 28 different schools/organizations, 16 cities, and 13 counties
(Cabarrus, Cumberland, Durham, Gaston, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Onslow, Orange, Polk, Randolph,
Surry, Union, Wake) in North Carolina. The writing contest had 211 students register from 22 different
schools/organizations, 11 cities, and 9 counties (Cabarrus, Cumberland, Durham, Gaston, Mecklenburg,
Orange, Polk, Randolph, Wake) in North Carolina.
The key focus for this year’s competition was “innovation”. Before the competition, our CI
surveyed local Chinese teachers for their input, visited North Carolina Science Olympiad to learn about
their experience running a statewide competition, and held biweekly meetings to discuss innovative
changes adopted for rules, procedures and prizes. This year we divided the speech contest into immersion
and non-immersion Chinese programs, as this division provided a better platform to assess students’
language ability. We created an online component of the Chinese writing submission and created a
new section at the speech finals which assessed student’s ability to speak impromptu on a topic of
Chinese culture. These innovative new programs for this contest received vast approval and support
from Chinese teachers and learners. Chinese media outlets The World Journal and China Press covered
these events. The CI’s mission is to encourage more Chinese language learners and support Chinese
language programs. In 2015, prizes to 39 students that competed in the Finals, totaled over $6,000. Each
year the CI also honors Chinese language teachers as they help their students prepare for this contest.
We provided them with certificates and over the six years of the competition have donated thousands
of dollars’ worth of Chinese language and culture textbooks to K-12 schools in NC. We look forward to
supporting this contest in future years and working with our wonderful school partners.