French Spelling BEE competition brings India and France closer

Promoting French in India

Promoting French in India

The finals of Concours d’orthographe or National Spell Bee 2015 is being held on 25 January 2016 at the CD Deshmukh Auditorium in New Delhi. This coincides with the visit of the French President Françoise Hollande to India.

The National Spell Bee competition is an initiative to promote the French language among school students in India. The objective of the competition is to supplement classroom learning with a quiz aimed at improving French vocabulary and its corresponding pronunciation.

The contest is open for participation to all schools with a minimum number of 50 students of the French language. The test is conducted online and 10 finalists schools are invited for a live face-off for the finals at Delhi, which will be conducted by some of the best teachers of French from India and France.

The 2015 competition began with a glittering and well attended programme at the India International Centre on 21 April 2015 and the finals of which is being held in New Delhi on 25 January 2016.

Participating students are classified into three levels Débutant, Intermédiare, and Avancé. Students of Grades 4,5 & 6 are enrolled as Debutants, Grades 7 & 8 are enrolled as Intermédiare and students of Grades 9 to 12 are enrolled for Avancé level.

The first round of the competition is a ‘school round’, and the second round is at the ‘zonal’ level. Both these are conducted online. The ‘third round’ is in Delhi, which is then followed by the finals, also in Delhi.

Certification and prizes

All students participating in the competition in the 1st round will receive a ‘Certification of Participation’ that can be downloaded with their name on the certificate. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners at the ‘school’ level of the 1st round will receive Gold, Silver and Bronze medals along with prizes from sponsors of the competition.

For the 2nd or Zonal round, all participants will receive participation certificates. The first three winners of the Zonal round will receive prizes from the sponsors – mapsofindia.com, along with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. All teachers whose students participate in the zonal round will receive the ‘Prof. Par Excellence’ certificate.

For the 3rd or Final round, winners of all three levels will get an all-expense paid trip to France in June/July 2016.

For those coming 2nd in the final round for all three levels, will get an all-expense paid trip to ‘Frehindi Village’ in Uttarakhand in May 2016.

For those coming 3rd in the final round for all three levels, will get an all-expense paid trip to join the ‘Indo-French Rafting Expedition’ in Oct/Nov 2016. Besides the above, there will be 175 consolation prizes to be won at all levels.

For winning schools at the Zonal level, Zonal trophies will be given to the top 3 ranking schools, while at the National level, the winning school for all three levels will receive the National Spell Bee School 2015 Trophy.

The teachers too will get their share of recognition and reward. Teachers of all ‘winning’ students in the final will receive the ‘MeilleurProfesseur Trophy’ along with certificates from the Chief Guest. In addition, one teacher of French will win an all-expense paid trip to France. To qualify, at least one student of the teacher must reach the finals. The winning teacher will be selected through a lucky draw.

Schools making it to the Finals for all 3 levels

  • From Bengaluru zone – Mallya Aditi International School
  • From Hyderabad zone – Kennedy High The Global School
  • From Kolkata zone – G.D. Goenka Public School, Siliguri
  • From Jaipur zone – DPS Gandhidham, India International
  • From Chandigarh zone – The Millennium School, DPS Kalyanpur
  • From South Delhi zone – The Indian School, Gyan Bharati Public School, Springdales School
  • From North East Delhi zone – Greenfields Public School, Salwan Public Schools, Arwachin International School
  • From North West Central zone – PP International, Queen Mary’s School, The Heritage School
  • From NCR and Central Delhi zone – The Khaitan School, Scottish High International, Sehwag International School, Ramjas School
  • From South West Delhi zone – Basava International School, Maxfort School, Bal Bhavan International, Venkateshwar International, Indraprastha International

Why learn French?

French is widely spoken across several countries and as more Indians begin to travel overseas for education, work or leisure, knowledge of French will give an additional advantage. Besides, the French language, culture and history are rich enough to provide an incentive to students to learn and understand the French culture, through their language.

With PM Modi at the helm, Indo-French relations have dramatically improved and is on course to improve further. President Françoise Hollande’s decision to accept PM Modi’s invitation to be the Chief Guest of Honour at the 2016 Republic Day Parade is testimony of the importance that France places for improving ties between the two countries.

Concours d’orthographe 2015 is yet another contribution from the students towards this endeavour, as it is the students who will take the initiative forward as they begin to step into the adult shoes in the near future. Recognizing this, mapsofindia.com decided to sponsor the competition in the hope that it will further the cause of bringing the two nations closer.