静岡英和女学院 中学校・高等学校

Every year we hold two in-school English speech contests at Shizuoka Eiwa. The first contest is the Junior High English contest which was held recently.

For this contest, students in second grade of Junior High read a recitation of The Gingerbread Man, a famous European children’s story. While students in the third grade of Junior High read an English version of the famous Japanese story, Gon, the Little Fox.

The contest is held during long homeroom on a Wednesday at the start of the new term. Every year around eighteen students in total take part but the process to choose the students who take part starts much earlier. Each class holds an in-class contest and the best students are selected from each class. Students are judged based not just on their pronunciation but on prosody and gestures too.

After the in-school contest, prizes are awarded to five students. The best three from the third grade and the best two from the second grade. In addition, five students from the third grade are selected to write a speech and have the chance to represent our school in the Shizuoka City English Recitation Contest which is held in September

Every year I am impressed by how hard the students try in both the in-class contest and the in-school contest. Giving a speech in front of your classmates and on the chapel stage in front of the whole of the Junior High is not easy. Yet, every year many students raise up to the challenge and give exceptional speeches. Only a limited number of students can be selected to take part in the contest and an even smaller number are rewarded with prizes. However, I think that all of the students push themselves to do their best and give the best speech possible.

I’m looking forward to our next in-school contest for Senior High students and the upcoming speech contests in September. I hope that everyone taking part does their best.