Junior high school speech contest
From Akita Wiki
Every year in September there is a junior high school city-wide speech contest (英語暗唱弁論大会; eigo anshō benron taikai) in most cities in Akita. Students practice during summer vacation. The winners of the city speech contest go to the prefectural speech contest.
There are two types of speeches: speeches (弁論; benron) and recitations (暗唱; anshō). Speeches are speeches written by the students. Typically the student writes the speech in Japanese, the JTE translates it to English, and the ALT checks the speech. Recitations are speeches taken from English textbooks.
Rules
- The official rules are short, vague, and in Japanese. Ask your JTE to translate.
- Participants are junior high school students.
- Speeches and recitations must be under 5 minutes.
- Students must not leave the podium during the speech.
- Students write their own speech, but the JTE and ALT can translate.
- Natural gestures are recommended.
- Things that make the speech more emotional can be powerful, but they can also be excessive. Things like yelling, stomping feet or hitting the podium may or may not be desirable, depending on your judges.
- Recitations should come from current or former MEXT-approved textbooks. Only the textbooks themselves are legal sources -- teachers manuals are not.
- For city speech contests, typically there are three judges: an ALT and two JTEs.
- The rules for the city contest and prefectural contest (for winners of the city contests) are (should be) the same.
Notes
- The textbook companies change speeches over time. Older books may have longer versions.
- Judges often like speeches where the topic is a personal issue or hardship. World peace is a difficult topic.
- Several years ago, judges in one city used the following point breakdown.
- Recitation.
- Delivery: 20 points. Eye contact, facial expression, voice control, pauses, gestures.
- Accuracy: 20 points. Pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, skipping.
- Degree of recitation: 20 points.
- Speech. Note that speech topics are often found in authorized textbooks, though the speeches themselves aren't.
- Delivery: 25 points. Eye contact, facial expression, voice control, pauses, gestures.
- Accuracy: 25 points. Pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, skipping.
- Degree of recitation: 20 points.
- Content: 30 points. Grammar (10 points), interesting (15 points), originality (5 points).
- Recitation.
Coaching ideas
- Use tongue twisters as a warm-up. Find a problematic sound, and pick a tongue twister that uses it.
- Practice yelling. Go outside and yell a tongue twister or the speech. Try alternating every sentence, where the student yells the first one, you yell the second one, and so on. This can help students open their mouth more.
- Give your student a notebook. Write notes in it, including examples or tongue twisters. Staple printed pages or photocopies in it.
- For teaching intonation, find a few easy example sentences. Practice them extensively. If you know how to write intonation, teach the student how, and go through the entire speech with them.
- Take a sentence from the speech and try reading it with different feelings. For instance, a happy reading, a sad reading, a boring reading, an excited reading, etc.
- There should be a very long pause after the title, if the student says the title, and before the final "Thank you." Students like to rush, so practice this extensively.
- Give the student an extra copy of the speech. Make sure it's large enough — use several pages if necessary. In a notebook, glue the speech to the left side. On the right side, ask the student to write a Japanese translation. Help the student translate any difficult portions.
Marking up the speech
Type the speech into a word processor (you can copy and paste from the text below). Make some notes on it. If you have time, do some of this with the students, so they can learn what it all means.
- Use a large font for important words. Typically, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
- Use small font for everything else.
- Mark the speech with a / for places to pause.
- Use a ∪ for combining words like food∪in, reads foo din. Other examples: an∪apple, come∪in, kick∪it, an∪orange, sit∪up, I hate∪it, pick∪it∪up, Shall∪I move∪it?
- Use ( ) around letters with no sound, like didn’(t) eat, reads didn eat. Other examples: ba(d) dog, a(t) ten, thic(k) carpet, bi(g) guy, ho(t) day, har(d) time, wi(th) that, look(s) sleepy, thi(s) shot, ta(me) monkey, i(n) nature.
Make a CD
- Record the speech on the computer and make a CD. Or, do it on a tape. Or, do it on a cellphone.
- Record the student and play it back (audio or video). Save a copy and listen to it in a few weeks to hear the improvement.
Common recitations
| Title | Book | Year | Grade | Pages | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faithful Elephants | Sunshine | 2012 | 3 | 4 | 360, 346 |
| The Fall of Freddie the Leaf | New Horizon | 2006 | 3 | 6 | 423 |
| The Giving Tree | New Horizon | 1971 | 3 | 8 | 623 |
| Human Rights for All | New Crown | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 321 |
| I Have a Dream | New Crown | 2016, 2005, 2003 | 3 | 4 | 307, 297, 264 |
| Limelight | New Horizon | ? | 3 | 6 | 434 |
| The Lotus Seed | One World | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 384 |
| Miss Evans on the Titanic | New Horizon | 1990, 1981 | 3 | 4 | 315, 306 |
| A Mother's Lullaby | New Horizon | 2007 | 3 | 4 | 278 |
| The Mountain that Loved a Bird | Sunshine | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 356 |
| October Sky | Total English | 2005 | 3 | 5 | 514 |
| A Red Ribbon | Sunshine | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 313 |
| The Spider's Thread | New Horizon | 1987 | 3 | 5 | 479 |
| Spirit in the Sky | Columbus 21 | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 375 |
| Try to Be the Only One | New Horizon | 2006 | 2 | 4 | 296 |
| The Whale Rider | New Crown | 2005 | 3 | 4 | 285 |
| The Wisest Man in the World | Sunshine | ? | 3 | 5 | 415 |
Other recitations
| Title | Book | Grade | Pages | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Here We Go! | 3 | 3 | 465 |
| Africa | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 312 |
| After Twenty Years | Sunshine | 3 | 4 | 409 |
| Alice and Humpty Dumpty | New Crown | 1 | 4 | 198 |
| The Altamira Cave | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 252 |
| Archimedes | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 363 |
| Around the World on the Erika | Sunshine | 3 | 6 | 566 |
| An Artist in the Arctic | New Horizon | 3 | 6 | 422 |
| At the Ball Park | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 405 |
| Audrey Hepburn | One World | 3 | 5 | 472 |
| Benny's Flag | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 398 |
| The Big Dipper | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 316 |
| The Blind Girl and the Mountain | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 338 |
| Body Language | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 256 |
| Borderless Friendship | New Horizon | 3 | 1 | 319 |
| Boys, Be Ambitious | New Prince | 3 | 7 | 560 |
| A Camp on the High Prairie | Sunshine | 3 | 4 | 304 |
| Can Anyone Hear Me? | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 265 |
| The Carpenter's Gift | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 295 |
| Changing the World | Columbus 21 | 3 | 6, 4 | 800, 473 |
| Chris and the Puppets | Columbus 21 | 2 | ||
| Christmas Presents | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 321 |
| City Lights | New Horizon | 1 | 3 | 231 |
| Clancy | Columbus 21 | 2 | 4 | 422 |
| Clara Barton and the Red Cross | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 503 |
| Cooking with the Sun | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 343 |
| Counting on Katherine Johnson | One World | 3 | 6 | 516 |
| Courage | New Crown | 2 | 4 | 111 |
| The Diary of Anne Frank | One World / Total English | 3 | 5, 4 | 350, 285 |
| Do It Yourself | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 253 |
| The Dog of Flanders | New Everyday English | 3 | 8 | 594 |
| A Doll with Blue Eyes | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 462 |
| The Earth in Danger | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 340 |
| Echo | New Horizon | 3 | 3 | 269 |
| Education First: Malala's Story | Sunshine | 3 | 4 | 333 |
| The Emerald Lizard | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 280 |
| Family Rules | New Horizon | 3 | 1 | 314 |
| The First Weather Station on Mt. Fuji | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 323 |
| Fight to the Last | Sunshine | 3 | 6 | 479 |
| The First American Teacher | Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 355 |
| The First English Teacher in Japan | One World | 3 | 5 | 494 |
| Fly Away Home | New Crown, Total English | 3 | 4, 5 | 317, 554 |
| A Football Game | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 356 |
| Friendship beyond Time and Borders | Sunshine | 2 | 3 | 265 |
| From Mike's Diary | New Horizon | 3 | 3 | 288 |
| Giotto | New Horizon | 3 | 3 | 267 |
| A Glass of Milk | New Horizon | 2 | 3 | 318 |
| Gon, the Little Fox | Sunshine | 2 | 3 | 230 |
| A Graduation Gift from Steve Jobs | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 509 |
| Grandma Baba and Her Friends on a Sleigh | Sunshine | 1 | 6 | 247 |
| The Green Door | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 488 |
| The Hat | Sunshine | 3 | 5 | 657 |
| Hikoichi's Living Umbrella | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 363 |
| Hiroshima Story | Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 293 |
| History of Clocks | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 296 |
| Holy Brothers | One World | 3 | 6 | 612 |
| Hope for the Future | Sunshine | 3 | 3 | 269 |
| How the Moon Got in the Sky | New Horizon | 1 | 4 | 182 |
| The Hungry Lion | New Horizon | 1 | 2 | 87 |
| I Am A Dog | New Crown | 2 | 4 | 211 |
| I'll Always Love You | New Horizon | 2 | 6 | 323 |
| The Ig Nobel Prize | Sunshine | 3 | 3 | 355 |
| John Mung | One World | 3 | 6 | 600 |
| Jimmy Valentine | New Crown | 3 | 3 | 417 |
| Judy's Diary | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 266 |
| Kiki's Delivery Service | New Everyday English | 2 | ? | 469 |
| Language - Life of a People | New Crown | 3 | 6 | 346 |
| Languages in Danger | New Horizon | 3 | 1 | 323 |
| The Last Leaf | Sunshine | 3 | 8 | 613, 831 |
| The Last Lesson | New Crown | 3 | 6 | 481 |
| The Last Message | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 443 |
| Learning from Nature | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 473 |
| The Letter | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 467 |
| A Letter from Mary | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 386 |
| A Letter in a Bottle | New Horizon | 3 | 5 | 581 |
| A Lesson from Nature | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 287 |
| Library Lion | Sunshine | 3 | 6 | ??? |
| The Little Prince | New Crown | 2 | 5 | 348 |
| Love is Action | Sunshine | 3 | 5 | 391 |
| Madame Curie | New Horizon | 2 | 5 | 463 |
| A Magic Box | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 337 |
| Malala's Voice for the Future | Sunshine | 3 | 4 | 328 |
| Malala Yousafzai: Education First | New Horizon | 3 | 2 | 398 |
| Maria Talks about Her Life | Sunshine | 2 | 4 | 344 |
| Mark Twain Goes Fishing | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 216 |
| "Meow!" | Everyday English | 2 | 4 | 247 |
| A Message from the Sea Ice | One World | 2 | 5 | 358 |
| Mike Goes to the Dance | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 385 |
| A Miracle Happened in New York | Sunshine | 2 | 4 | 304 |
| A Moment of Peace | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 382 |
| The Most Valuable 23 Minutes | Columbus 21 | 3 | 2 | 364 |
| Mother Teresa | Total English | 2 | 4 | 352 |
| A Mujina | New Prince English Course | 2 | 4 | 281 |
| No More Landmines | Columbus 21 | 3 | 2 | 301 |
| Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers | Sunshine | 3 | 4 | 329 |
| My Prayer for Peace | One World | 3 | 5 | 472 |
| An Old Woman and a Dog | One World | 1 | 3 | 217 |
| On Your Graduation Day | One World | 3 | 6 | 491 |
| Once upon a Home upon a Home | Columbus 21 | 3 | 8 | 394 |
| Origami Ambassador | Blue Sky | 3 | 5 | 420 |
| Painting the Fence | One World | 3 | 4 | 370 |
| Paris | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 347 |
| Pasteur | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 251 |
| Pete and the Orange Men | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 282 |
| Pictures and Our Beautiful Planet | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 397 |
| A Pot of Poison | New Crown | 2 | 4 | 224 |
| Power Your Future | New Horizon | 3 | 3 | 403 |
| A Present for You | New Crown | 3 | 5 | 415 |
| Red Demon and Blue Demon | Total English | 2 | 4 | 283 |
| Rejoice | New Horizon | 3 | ? | 358 |
| The Restaurant with Many Orders | New Horizon | 1 | 2 | 140 |
| The Riddle of the Sphinx | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 262 |
| Rocket Boys | One World | 3 | 4 | 564 |
| The Runner Wearing Number 67 | Here We Go! | 3 | 2 | 397 |
| Sato Mami: Making the Best of Life | New Horizon | 3 | 2 | 509 |
| Science and You | New Horizon | 3 | 3 | 318 |
| The Second Biggest Country | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 252 |
| Secrets of the Earth | New Horizon | 2 | 5 | |
| Singapore, My Country | Sunshine | 3 | 5 | 352 |
| Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch | One World | 2 | 5 | 541 |
| Something for Joey | Sunshine | 3 | 6 | 416 |
| Stevie Wonder - The Power of Music | Total English | 3 | 4 | 284 |
| Stone Soup | One World | 2 | 5 | 340 |
| A Story by Dazai Osamu | Everyday English | 3 | 5 | 514 |
| The Story of a Sailor | New Horizon | 2 | ? | 375 |
| The Story of Ivan | New Crown | 2 | 6 | 415 |
| The Story of Nishikori Kei | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 475 |
| The Story of the Alphabet | New Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 236 |
| A Strange Story | Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 390 |
| Sukh's White Horse | Here We Go! | 2 | 3 | 396 |
| Summer Diaries | Everyday English | 3 | 4 | 329 |
| The Sun and the Moon | New Crown | 2 | 4 | 247 |
| The Tezuka Osamu Story | One World | 2 | 5 | 383 |
| A Thanksgiving Dinner | One World | 3 | 4 | 435 |
| Tom Has to Work on Saturday | New Horizon | 2 | 4 | 340 |
| Tom Sawyer Paints the Fence | Everyday English | 2 | 5 | 409 |
| A Trip to Southeast Asia | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 244 |
| Water from Fog | Columbus 21 | 2 | 4 | 263 |
| Visas for 6,000 Lives | Columbus 21 | 3 | 4 | 424 |
| Visas of Hope | Sunshine | 2 | 3 | 294 |
| A Vulture and a Child | New Crown | 3 | 2 | 257 |
| The Wolf and the Fox | New Horizon | 3 | 4 | 401 |
| What Color is Love? | New Horizon | ? | ? | 206 |
| The White Horse | New Everyday English | 3 | 6 | 442 |
| Working in Papua New Guinea | Sunshine | 3 | 5 | 336 |
| The Zoo | Blue Sky | 2 | 6 | 461 |
| Zorba's Three Promises | New Crown | 3 | 4 | 318, 302 |
Illegal recitations
Here are some recitations from teachers manuals. The rules forbid recitations that are only found in teachers manuals, because only the textbooks are permissible sources. But it is quite possible that the following recitations did at one point appear in a textbook. Please confirm with your JTE.
Speeches
Here are some of the recent prefectural speech winners and runners-up.
And here is a link to the speeches that made it all the way to the all Japan finals.
Local contests
- Akita City Recitation and Speech Contest
- Honjo Yuri Recitation and Speech Contest
- Oga Katagami Minami Akita Recitation and Speech Contest
- Noshiro Yamamoto Recitation and Speech Contest
- Ōdate Kitaakita JHS Recitation and Speech Contest
- Yuzawa Ogachi Recitation and Speech Contest
See also
- JHS Prefectural Speech Contest
- Junior high school English textbooks
- More speeches
- Tongue Twister Database
- 高円宮杯全日本中学校英語弁論大会 (All Japan speech contest)
- All Japan Inter-Middle School English Oratorical Contest
- Senior high school speech contest
- Wordcounter (analyze your text & find most common words and phrases)
