CIE English Public Speaking Contest 2015 draws to a close

The College of International Education (CIE), Hong Kong Baptist University hosted its second English Public Speaking Contest, attracting the participation of about 160 students from 40 secondary schools. ‘Choice’ was the theme of this year’s contest. After the preliminary round of the contest, ten contestants were selected to enter the Grand Final held on 22 May. Mr. YIP Chun Wah, Mark Collin from TWGHs Chen Zao Men College demonstrated his remarkable eloquence and perfect composure and won the Championship.

CIE organised the contest with an aim to provide a platform for secondary school students to enhance their presentation skills and critical thinking capacity, as well as to sharpen students’ English language competence.  Judges of the Contest included Mr. Jim GOULD, Head of RTHK Radio 3, Prof. A. Reza HOSHMAND, Director of General Education, HKBU and Dr. Theresa CUNANAN, Senior Lecturer of CIE. They shared public speaking tips, and commented on the finalists’ performance before presenting the prizes at the close.

Mr. Jim GOULD was greatly impressed by the overall standard of the participants, especially their preparation, ideas, postures and their ways to engage the audience. Having years of experience as a radio host, he highlighted that “be prepared is the key”, and reminded students to carefully go through the script, check for every difficult word, name and pronunciation beforehand.

Having participated in two public speaking contests previously, Mr. YIP Chun Wah, Mark Collin deeply thanked his school teacher for sacrificing lunchtime every day to help him with the practice. He also stressed the importance of paying attention to daily happenings, “Observe more. You will have more views towards different issues and be able to handle the impromptu part more easily.” Aneezia, 1st Runner-up of this year, echoed the solution to stage fright with YIP, “You should imagine as if you are talking to a friend and you will become less anxious.”

To tie in with the contest, two training workshops including a training seminar and a small-group practice were tailored by lecturers of CIE to equip participants with essential public speaking knowledge and strengthen their ability to tackle impromptu questions. The Grand Final was well-attended by about 500 secondary school students and teachers.

Results of CIE English Public Speaking Contest 2015: