Competition helps spark interest in English language
Wednesday, January 30
The American governmental organization Peace Corps and Georgian NGO American Friendship Club, have announced the final round of the national competition of English spelling (NESC)
The National English Spelling Competition (NESC) was established in 2012 to reward students and teachers for their hard work and celebrate their achievements in a public forum. The project aims to increase the interest of the English language of students in Georgian schools and to improve their English language skills and their motivation to study it. The project has the support of the U.S. Embassy in Georgia. The Project Manager is president of the American Friendship Club Ilia Zukakishvili.
The event is administered by the NESC Committee, which is comprised of a group of volunteers throughout Georgia who strive to improve the English language learning experience and increase the motivation to learn. The NESC Committee collaborates with all parties interested in supporting the NESC, including non-governmental organizations, government bodies, schools and the private sector
"We are very pleased to participate in this project along with the Peace Corps. This is an interesting and important project. This is the first time it has been held in Georgia and was open to high school students from classes 8-12 from various regions of the country,” said Ilia Zukakishvili.
Over the last year, the project took place in several stages. The preparation was carried out from January to September 2012, the second stage, "local", was held in October 2012, when the competitive classes were held at schools in nine regions of Georgia, and the third stage, "regional", was held in December 2012 on the basis of the resource center of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.
"We wanted to make the teaching and learning of English in Georgia more interesting and enjoyable for the students and for the teachers of English. We wanted them to learn to become better and to give them greater interest in literature and culture. I think that the interest was evident and a competition has already yielded positive results", said the Peace Corps representative Shannon Knudsen. According to him, more than 2,400 students in Georgian schools took active part in the competition.
"For our project, we wanted to contribute the initiative of the Government of Georgia and to enhance the English language in Georgian schools. The competition was held in nine regions of the country, in 179 schools. If at the local level in the competition was attended by over 2400 students, the regional stage were more than 1,000 people. 34 students were in the final stage," said Gus Davidson. According to him, the winners of the national competition will receive gifts from the U.S. Embassy, including the iPad, Apple music players and English dictionaries.
The final stage of the "national" competition, which will determine the best students, will be held in March 2013 in Tbilisi. The awards winners will be presented by the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Georgia Richard Norland.
Notable partners and supporters include the Free University of Tbilisi & Agriculture University of Georgia, Rico Credit, World Vision Georgia, U.S. Embassy, the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, Peace Corps Georgia, American Corners, ETI, British Council Georgia and American Friendship Club.
