CLTAC MANDARIN SPEECH CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES
**We have made some changes and modifications of the contest rules. PLEASE READ IT OVER CAREFULLY, and explain the rules to your students.
1. The contestant must be a student currently enrolled in a Mandarin Chinese program during the 2007-2008 academic year at an elementary school, a middle/senior high school, a community college, or a university that is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), or is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).
2. The instructor of the contestant must be an active member in good standing of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California (CLTAC). The annual membership fee of $15.00 must be paid by your instructor prior to your eligibility to participate.
3. In order to keep the high quality of the contest and to keep it more manageable, we require that each participating school hold a preliminary contest within the school/class and choose NO MORE THAN FIVE STUDENTS PER CATEGORY, PER CLASS to participate in the contest.
4. Contest speeches must be memorized and be 2 to 5 minutes in duration. POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR READING.
5. Each contestant should compose his/her original speech. No contestant may use a speech that had been delivered by another contestant in previous years. We reserve the right to disqualify contestants with identical speeches.
6. The purpose of the speech contest is to foster good language skills. We place emphasis on accuracy in pronunciation and tones, fluency, delivery, cadence, as well as content.
7. It is the responsibility of the instructor to place each of his/her students in the most appropriate category commensurate with the student’s background and training. However, we reserve the right to disqualify a contestant who provides false background and training information.
8. Each contestant must agree to participate in his/her assigned division and category as outlined below. However, we also reserve the right to COMBINE categories where there are fewer than five contestants.
Division I 1st through 5th grade students
Category I A Students with no prior background or with very limited experience in Chinese
Category I B Students with experience in a dialect of Chinese other than Mandarin or with minimal experience in Mandarin.
Category I C Native speakers of Mandarin
Division II 6th through 8th grade students
Category II A Students with no prior background or with very limited experience in Chinese
Category II B Students with experience in a dialect of Chinese other than Mandarin or with minimal experience in Mandarin
Category II C Native speakers of Mandarin
Division III 9th through 12th grade students
Category III A Students with no experience in Chinese of any dialect
III A-1 High school first year Chinese
III A-2 High school second year Chinese
III A-3 High school third year Chinese
III A-4 High school fourth year Chinese
Category III ABStudents with limited experience in a dialect of Chinese other than Mandarin
III AB-1 High school first year Chinese
III AB-2 High school second year Chinese
III AB-3 High school third year Chinese
III AB-4 High school fourth year Chinese
Category III ABCStudents with limited experience in Mandarin (with no Chinese schooling in Asia)
III ABC-1 High school first year Chinese
III ABC-2 High school second year Chinese
III ABC-3 High school third year Chinese
III ABC-4 High school fourth year Chinese
Category III B Students with experience in a dialect of Chinese other than Mandarin
III B-1 High school first year Chinese
III B-2 High school second year Chinese
III B-3 High school third year Chinese
III B-4 High school fourth year Chinese
Category III C Native speakers of Mandarin
III C-1 High school first year Chinese
III C-2 High school second year Chinese
III C-3 High school third year Chinese
III C-4 High school fourth year Chinese
Division IV College/University students
Category IV A Students with no prior background or with very limited experiencein Chinese
IV A-1-1 In first half of first year of study
IV A-1-2 In second half of first year of study
IV A-2-1 In first half of second year of study
IV A-2-2 In second half of second year of study
IV A-3 In third year of study
IV A-4 In fourth year of study
Category IV B Students with some experience in a dialect of Chinese other than Mandarin
IV B-1-1 In first half of first year of study
IV B-1-2 In second half of first year of study
IV B-2 In second year of study
IV B-3 In third year of study
IV B-4 In fourth year of study
Category IV C Native speakers of Mandarin
IV C-1-1 In first half of first year of study
IV C-1-2 In second half of first year of study
IV C-2 In second year of study
IV C-3 In third year of study
IV C-4 In fourth year of study
9. The contestant may speak on any appropriate topic commensurate with his/her level of training. The following are some suggestions: Learning Mandarin, Family Life, Favorite Sports, A School Event, Travel to China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, etc.
10. There is a $8.00 registration fee for each application.
We would appreciate your cooperation by collecting the fees and applications. Kindly fill out the ENROLLMENT FORM and INSTRUCTOR’S CHECKLIST and make out one check payable to CLTAC. Please send all applications and check, POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN March 31, 2008, to:
Winnie Leong, 154 Country Club Dr., San Francisco, CA 94132