Scripps National Spelling Bee
As Scripps National Spelling Bee national finals is one in the United States discharged student competition in spelling designated. Organized by the media company EW Scripps annually in Washington, DC in late May or early June , the competition has been held since 1925 and has been broadcast nationwide by television station ESPN since 1994 . It is considered a national institution in the USA and is the eponymous part of the plot of films such as Bee Season (2005) and Akeelah and the Bee (2006).
Eligible to take part in the National Spelling Bee are children and young people who are not older than 14 on August 31 of the previous year and who have not yet completed the eighth grade on February 1 in the year of the competition. Previous winners of the competition are not allowed to start again. Qualification for participation takes place via preliminary qualifications at school and regional level, in which around ten million children and young people take part each year. Most of the participants come from the USA, but competitions are also held in the American suburbs , in countries with US military bases and in various other countries.
The national final consists of several rounds in which the spelling skills of the participants are tested either by computer or in spoken form, depending on the round , and scored with points. From the fifth round onwards, participants are eliminated who do not spell a word correctly. After the sixth round, based on the number of points achieved, a ranking list of the remaining participants is created, of which the best nine to twelve qualify for the final round, which is held in spoken form.
Since 2004, the participants have had two minutes to prepare for the oral rounds after announcing the word to be spelled. During this time you may ask about the definition of the word, the part of speech , an example use in a sentence , the language of origin, possible other accents and the word root . After the preparation time has expired, participants must spell the word within 30 seconds. Exceeding the time or changing letters that have already been pronounced count as errors.
In addition to a trophy, the winners of the National Spelling Bee will receive a cash prize of US $ 50,000 , a savings deposit of US $ 2,500 and various prizes, including reference works and lifelong access to the online edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica .
literature
- James Maguire: American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds. Rodale, Emmaus PA 2006, ISBN 978-1-59486-214-4
- Rachel McArthur: Out of Many, One: Spelling Bees and the United States National Spelling Bee. In: The English Languages: History, Diaspora, Culture. 2/2011. University of Toronto, ISSN 1929-5855 , pp. 1-22