Students set for spelling face-off

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
Special to The News
Friday, April 24, 2009

Nearly 40 Mexican students will take to the stage this Saturday in Mexico City as part of a national spelling bee competition.

The only catch: it's in English.

The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at the Auditorio de la Escuela Bancaria y Comercial in the Colonia Júarez. The three-round competition will run until eight of the 36 competitors remain; those eight competitors will then be ranked by a points system and the first- and second-place winners announced.

The top two spellers will win all-expenses paid trips to New York City to compete in the global round this August with students from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Italy, Turkey and South Korea.

Young scholars across Mexico have been dueling with words for months to earn a spot in the national round. The Mexican English Teachers association, or MEXTESOL, conducted the earlier in-school competitions, selecting champions from the states of Morelos, Oaxaca, Querétaro, the State of Mexico and the Distrito Federal to compete in the tournament.

This weekend's competitors are 12 to 15 years old and studying English as a second language. Students of bilingual schools, however, were not allowed to compete as to level the playing field.

Franklin Electronic Publishers de México will also host this Saturday's spelling bee. Its U.S. parent company, a global textbook giant, has run more than 70 televised spelling bees in the United States and will sponsor the upcoming bee in New York.

Raúl Quijas, director of Franklin Electronic's Mexico arm, said the competition encourages students in Mexico and across the globe to learn a second language.

He said in an earlier press release the best way to learn another language is through the spelling bee model: identifying the letters, learning words' significance and using them in complete sentences.

"It's culturally enriching to learn another language, and English is obviously one of the most-spoken languages in the world," he said.

"Knowing another language will enrich students' careers and their future studies as well."

Winners of the international competition in New York will earn scholarship money for higher education. First-place will leave with $10,000, second with $8,000 and third with $5,000.

MORE INFO

The spelling bee starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday and will end no later than 5:00 p.m. Limited seating is available to the public. It will be held on the first-floor at the Auditorio de la Escuela Bancaria y Comercial, located on Dinamarca 32, near the corner of Liverpool in Colonia Júarez.