Celebrating the linguists of tomorrow

Vocab Express launch the free National Language Championship for schools

Vocab Express, the online modern foreign languages (MFL) vocabulary learning application, has announced the launch of a free, week-long national language championship for all secondary schools in the UK and Ireland to take place during spring 2012. Supporting the current debate in education around encouraging and driving language learning, the Vocab Express National Championship is designed to engage and motivate young people in learning another language.

Following the success of the Vocab Express European Day of Languages Championship in autumn 2011, the Vocab Express National Championship will be officially showcased on stand U44 at the world’s largest technology in education event, BETT, in January 2012.

To support and celebrate the importance of the many languages found worldwide, Vocab Express has introduced the National Championship to engage students in a selection of languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Arabic, Urdu and Latin.

Students from schools taking part will be able to log on and test their knowledge of vocabulary, using the innovative points and scoreboard system to gain points for their individual championship position as well as their school’s league table position. Schools will compete against other schools across the UK and Ireland for the top position, with real-time leaderboards tracking the action as it happens.

A tiered system of awards will be presented to recognise the contribution and achievement of schools and individuals at an overall level, and separately for each of the eight languages. Awards to be won include the following:

• The Challenge Cup, which will be divided into three leagues based on the student numbers registered at each school: large, medium and small. The award will be presented to the school that has the highest cumulative score of all students taking part.
• The Genius Cup, that will be awarded to the school with the highest cumulative score of its top 25 students.
• Championship Gold, Silver and Bronze level student awards, that will be issued for the top-placed individual students overall and in each language.

Justin Sycamore, managing director, Vocab Express comments: “We want to provide with the Vocab Express National Championship a free, innovative and easily accessible opportunity to inspire a love of languages in young people throughout the UK and Ireland. Students nationwide will be able to demonstrate, and simultaneously build, their knowledge of a foreign language by making the foundations – the vocabulary – more exciting and easier to pick up. We are excited to be unveiling it at BETT 2012, a hub of innovation and inspiration for education today that shares our goal in preparing the young people of today for the world of tomorrow.”

October 2011