The results are in for the Vocab Express European Day of Languages Championship 2013

30,000 students, 340 schools and more than 25 million points scored

After a week of foreign language vocabulary tests, the winners for this year’s European Day of Languages (EDL) Championship have been announced. Created by Vocab Express, the online vocabulary learning application, the championship is designed to engage students in language learning and ran from 26 September until 2 October.

Put to the test were more than 30,000 students from 340 schools across the United Kingdom and beyond, answering questions to score points for both their school league table and individual scoreboard position. Competing schools were also able to keep track of their achievements in real-time using Vocab Express’ online leader-boards. Over the week long championship, a total of 8,090,610 questions were answered.

The main awards won were the Genius Cup, an award based upon the top 25 student scores at each school, so that different size schools can compete equally; and the Challenge Cups, based on all student scores at each school.

Awards won are as follows:

Ailsa Weymes, head of modern foreign languages at Streatham and Clapham High School, describes the impact of the Championship on her students:

“We are so pleased to have defended our title as the winners of the Challenge Cup Medio for French, Spanish, Italian and Latin for a second year. The students worked extremely hard throughout the week, especially on the last day, throwing themselves into the championship with gusto. The championship really does make learning language vocabulary fun; our students even enjoyed the frustration of getting answers wrong because it motivated them to revise more. When it finished our students were genuinely disappointed because they enjoyed it so much!

Ailsa continues: “The European Day of Languages Championship is a key part of our autumn curriculum and we will definitely be taking part in future Vocab Express championships – we’d recommend it to other schools and would relish the challenge!”

The next Vocab Express Championship will return in September 2014. This will be an amalgamation of the National Championship and the European Day of Languages Championship which for the past few years have been held separately. Alongside this, a new feature will be available before the New Year as part of Vocab Express Version 2 which will enable schools to host their own intra-school championships at a time in the academic year that suits them.

Justin Sycamore, managing director of Vocab Express comments: “I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners for this year’s European Day of Languages Championship. Everyone who took part did exceptionally well and we’ve been once again so impressed by the enthusiasm students have demonstrated for learning language vocabulary.

"We are pleased to announce the amalgamation of the Vocab Express championships into a single event next September which will enable us to continue to evolve the championship with several new exciting elements planned for September 2014. Our championships have proven students are highly motivated by competitiveness and so by introducing new functionality to be unveiled in the coming months to allow schools to host their own championships we hope to enable teachers to further engage students in vocabulary learning throughout the academic year.”

October 2013