The Battle of Impressive Vocabulary Skills: Letran SHS English Area Holds Spelling Bee Competition for the English Month 2023
John Cris Falguera Antor
After two years, the Letran Senior High School English Area launched its first-ever onsite Spelling Bee Competition for its English Month Celebration, held at the Quezon Hall of the Colegio on Thursday, February 16, 2023.
With the theme "Voces de Esperanza: The 21st Century Learner's Language and Literature Skills," the contest was joined by 18 students from 11th and 12th grade. Before the actual round began, the event hosts briefly discussed and demonstrated the procedures among the competitors. Likewise, Ms. Maria Jessa Tenero also served as the competition's pronouncer.
The competition was indeed a fight for exceptional vocabulary skills among the Senior Squires, who took part in three rounds of challenging spelling exercises starting with easy, average, and difficult. Every contender was given 12 seconds to complete the easy round, which included ten sets of words, and only the top ten scorers advanced to the average round.
As the average round came, it posed a difficulty to the ten candidates, and Quezon Hall got
tense, as only five contestants qualified for the challenging round. Moreover, the five participants from ABM12A, ABM11A, STEM11B, STEM11D, and STEM11F managed to secure their spots in the challenging round. The remaining contestants were given six difficult words to verbally spell each in a 12 second timer. After several turns of intense competition between the five, two contestants were tied in third place.
Moreover, Ms. Lhara Morales, from STEM11D and a member of the Impresarios Guild, captivated the audience with her beautiful voice throughout the evaluation and selection of the winners. Ms. Tenero then revealed the results after that outstanding performance; Faith Jireh Santos from STEM11F bagged third place in a tiebreaker round, while STEM11B and STEM11D battled for first and second place. Finally, Raia Faith Lorenzana placed second, while Kim Estrada of STEM11D won the English Month Spelling Bee 2023.
Kim Estrada was surprised by his triumph, "Nag-participate po ako doon without expecting something from myself, and hindi po ako nagkaroon ng time mag-review masyado kasi ang daming requirements, so medyo unexpected po talaga 'yung result ng contest."
The audience applauded the winners as the competition reached its finale. The said competition ended with closing remarks and acknowledgement of the English teachers as they made the event possible. All the winners and contestants were then invited for a photo opportunity as the program wrapped up.
Winners will be awarded during the English Month Culminating Program on February 24,2023, 2 pm at the Quezon Hall.