PRESS RELEASE
Online vocabulary learning application, Vocab Express has been announced as a new sponsor for the Routes into Languages Foreign Language Spelling Bee launching this October. The annual competition is designed to challenge Year 7 students nationally in each of the Routes into Languages’ regions to practise and improve their vocabulary, spelling and memory skills in a foreign language (French, German or Spanish).
Through the new partnership with Vocab Express, participants will for the first time have free access to the online learning application for the duration of the Spelling Bee for the words included in the competition. Through an innovative process of learning, revision and testing, students will be able to brush up their language acquisition in preparation for the four stages of the competition: class and school competitions, followed by regional and national finals.
During the competition, students have one minute to translate the word from English and spell it in the target language. 50 words will be learned per stage, totalling 200 words if students reach the national final, to be held at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in July 2014.
The national winner’s school in each language represented will be awarded a free Key Stage 3 subscription to Vocab Express for 2014/15.
Spelling Bee creator and director of languages at St Neots Partnership Schools, Jane Driver comments: “We are excited to be able to work with Vocab Express to help students explore and learn foreign language vocabulary in a fun and engaging way; our outlook on learning fits theirs perfectly! We both recognise that for teachers who are so busy, the Spelling Bee seems to have struck a chord as it fits easily into the curriculum without putting extra strain on their workload.”
Sarah Schechter, project manager of Routes into Languages East at Anglia Ruskin University, who together with Rachel Hawkes of Comberton Village College and Jane make up the steering group for the project, adds: “Having started as a small regional competition with Routes into Languages East and around 2,000 students, we are proud that the competition has grown year on year, with 55,688 pupils from 417 schools taking part last year. With the new partnership with Vocab Express, we hope to far exceed that this year!”
Justin Sycamore, managing director at Vocab Express concludes: “With the ever increasing popularity of the fantastic Routes into Languages Foreign Language Spelling Bee, being able to support students in learning and practising their vocabulary in preparation is great! We can’t wait for the competition to start, and to be able to give the prizes to very worthy winners.”
For more information on the Routes into Languages Foreign Language Spelling Bee, sponsored by Vocab Express and the European Commission, visit www.flsb.co.uk.
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