The International French Spell Bee 2017 French Spell Bee is the prestigious competition for students studying in schools where French is a not the language of instruction. Started in India in 2013-14 with select schools the competition has grown to command respect among top schools in the Indian Sub-Continent. The competition is being rolled out in India on a International French Spell Bee 2017 level in 2015 and on popular demand the same will be rolled out in other SAARC countries in the 2017 edition.
Organised & promoted by Le Frehindi along with support from leading foreign books publishers & importers Goyal Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd and leading mapping company Compare Infobase India Ltd along with technological collaboration with Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd, the International French Spell Bee 2017 French Spell Bee has created for itself a niche among the top public Schools in India based on a Unique Concept; Quality and Popularity among thousands of school students.
In 2011 the we conducted a survey in various top ranking Indian schools offering French as third language. The results were startling: Children seldom concentrated on acquiring French vocabulary with proper pronunciation resulting in poor or incorrect oral communication even though many students already had two to three years of regular French learning in schools.
Part of the problem is with the limited time that a French teacher gets (35-40 minutes, twice/thrice a week) in a large classroom of 40 – 45 students on an average. It is difficult for the French teacher to give their best to each & every student, helping them develop all the four skills of language learning i.e. speaking, listening, reading & writing, in addition to grammar. Moreover the child learns the language as a subject to score marks rather than earning proficiency in it as a language with emphasis on listening and speaking skills. After all, what good is learning a language if one cannot communicate in it effectively?
It was precisely to create interest among students in French vocabulary and to enable them to develop correct pronunciation, complimenting the "Grammar and Comprehension" based teaching of regular French teachers in their schools that gave birth to Concours d'Orthographe. A School specific French Spell Bee competition was devised by "The International French Spell Bee 2017 French Spell Bee Organizing Team" under the guidance of Children's Poetry Writer cum French trainer and Director of Le Frehindi Mr. Haru Mehra. He has to his credit over 200 creative language workshops and twenty innovative rhymes specially adapted for Indian students. He has designed over 25 new language games devised from over seven years of creative interaction with school children from age groups 5 to 18.
The beauty of the contest is that students from each level are given a vocabulary of about 300 to 400 words. These have been sourced from popular French books by different publishers based on the syllabus prescribed by CIEP for the DELF Jr. A1 & A2 levels. The competition is divided into three levels and each level has a unique word bank. Thus all students class 6 and below will do one set of vocabulary from class 7 & 8 will have another set and so on. The competition is divided in three stages i.e. School Round, Zonal Round and International French Spell Bee 2017 Round for each level. The vocabulary remains the same for all the three rounds. Our experience is that students take to this competition with a great deal of zest and enthusiasm while at the same time enriching their vocabulary and pronunciation.
The primary wordbank for each level is developed by a team of experts comprising members from both India and France led by Mr. Hemant Bisht & Ms. Supriya Kakkar. Mr. Hemant Bisht is Master of Arts- French, Faculty of Arts, Delhi University and Master 2 en FLE/FLS, Institut de Recherche et de Formation en Français Langue Étrangère (IRFFLE) from Nantes University, France & Ms. Supriya Kakkar is M.A. French as a Foreign Language from University of Lausanne, Switzerland. This is proofread by Native French Teachers on our panel. Then several 15 minute Test Papers are designed basically to elicit single or multiple meanings of select words, correct spelling of these, differentiating similar-sounding words, getting the correct pronunciation of the French alphabets and other word level exercises. We conduct "Free Interactive Language Workshops" for schools with minimum 200 plus French learners to acquaint them with all such possible modules. The test papers are designed in a way that no two test papers are same for a particular school. Each participating student is given a unique user-ID & Password, which allows him to take unlimited online mock tests; download preparatory material; take online competition and view online results. The school and zonal rounds re online whereas the final round is an offline competition where finalists from all over India compete in the International French Spell Bee 2017 Round held at New Delhi in mid-January each year.
One winner of each level goes on an all expenses paid trip to France and the runners-up also get to go to exciting places in India & one lucky French Teacher accompanies the children to France free of cost. Also, there are over 175 consolation prizes to be won at the school & zonal levels. Many schools work towards lifting the prestigious "International French Spell Bee 2017 French Spell Bee Champion" trophy which is a matter of pride for a school as it brings the spotlight on them as a truly Global or International French Spell Bee 2017 School. Such is the electrifying excitement this competition has created that a student goes out of the way to search the correct pronunciation by either listening voluntarily to the CD available with text books or using the online resource to get the correct meaning & phonics. In fact the photo gallery on our website www.frenchspellbee.org catalogues a renewed interest in French both from students and teachers: one is eager to learn French as a language focusing on the vocabulary and pronunciation, and the other passionately striving to fulfil the students' aspirations.
To know more about "The International French Spell Bee 2017 French Spell Bee" feel free to write to us at frenchspellbee@gmail.com