Students who attend Intensive English Programs in the United States are generally expected to write essays for the teacher in a writing course and to make presentations for students on different topics in a speaking skills course. Rarely are the two skills adequately coordinated in terms of topic, audience, and purpose. The speech contest, however, is one way to follow a project through from beginning to end with a clear and defined sense of purpose, audience, and communicative goal which can cross the boundaries of individual skills through a team teaching and confidence building approach.

In the 1980s, an important component of the summer Intensive English Program at West Virginia University was the Speech Contest. Judges and former students from this era remember this contest with a touch of nostalgia as a Big Event for the many Japanese students who had spent many nerve-racking hours memorizing their speeches. With the drop in Japanese enrollment in the early 1990s, the Speech Contest was discontinued until 1998, when the idea was once again resurrected for a much more diverse student population.

The updated rationale for the contest was to provide a means through which students could perform their written work and in the process better learn how to write for a particular audience, how to adapt their writing style for a specific purpose, and how to deliver a speech with confidence and comprehensibility. The stages of this project were to be undertaken by a team of writing and communication skills' teachers who would cooperate to bring this effort to fruition before an audience of the students' peers and a panel of judges.

The preparation for the first competition began early in the semester when teachers and students in the advanced levels identified possible topics and a timeframe for preparation. The topic had to reflect some aspect of their experience learning English either in their own country or in the U.S., but students could develop this general theme in any way they chose. The writing of the essay was done in the Writing class, then passed on to the Communi-cations Skills' teacher for practice in oral delivery. This provided the opportunity for discussion and practice of presentation skills and many activities relating to pronunciation in a personalized context. Although participation in the actual contest was voluntary, the creation and practice of the speech as part of the coursework ensured maximum participation from students who might not otherwise have been interested in spending extra time outside class on this project.

At the time of the competition, the contestants each delivered their speech before an audience of their peers and invited guests. Contestants were not required to memorize their speeches (although one student gave an excellent extemporaneous performance), but had the security of being able to refer to their notes as needed. They were evaluated by four independent judges (two of whom were judges in the previous Japanese-era contests) who were not ESL teachers, but who served the international community at the University in some capacity. The judges evaluated each contestant according to previously discussed guidelines on comprehensibility (5 points), pronunciation (5 points), delivery (5 points), and content (10 points). All contestants were then rewarded for their efforts by receiving certificates of participation, and prizes of ESL dictionaries were awarded to winners in several different categories: Best Overall Speech, Best Content, Best Delivery, and Best Pronunciation.

Students who participated in the Speech Contest reported that they gained confidence in their ability to speak in English before an audience and that they valued the opportunity to practice their presentation skills in a real situation even though it was a somewhat daunting undertaking. They also felt that their writing had a real purpose, rather than just being graded and then placed aside. Comments from one of the judges after the contest also stress the worth of the competition to both the contestants and the audience.

Obviously, the challenge of a public presentation offers the participants a chance to do something beyond the normal classroom presentation and to ask a little extra of themselves.

By making sure that each participant was recognized in some way, the organizer in fact made certain that the experience resulted in a sense of accomplishment, an affirmation of self-worth that is not always true of homework assignments and classroom activities. By choosing cultural topics and topics related to language education for the speeches, the organizers further guaranteed that the preparation of the speech would also involve serious reflection on what the participants had been learning - in class or out - during their stay in Morgantown; having them present these reflections to others outside of their classes made the exercise a meaningful one in communication.

Finally, the judges and the audience had the pleasure of learning more about our international visitors, their cultures, and their perception -sometimes quite positive or insightful - of life in these United States.

Organizing a Speech Contest can benefit everyone concerned with an IEP in different ways: students of all nationalities benefit through the application of language skills in a meaningful context; teachers of different skills benefit through the opportunity for interaction and team teaching; and the IEP itself benefits through the publicity gained by the contest and the involvement of faculty members outside the IEP.

The 1998 Speech Contest at West Virginia University was considered by all involved to be a big success and was repeated in summer, 1999.

It is once again an annual event, updated and redesigned to meet the needs of participants in the new millennium.

Teachers who are interested in organizing a Speech Contest in their own institutions might find the following Internet sites useful references. www.realaudio.com - Download RealAudio to hear the audio files of the following sites
http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/ - Speeches supplementing courses in American rhetorical history at Northwestern University.
http://www2.truman.edu/~rstjohn/publicspeakers - Truman State University's website for a public speaking course.
http://www.la.psu.edu/speech/100a - Effective public speaking guidelines from the Pennsylvania State University
http://www.toastmasters.org - Speaking tips from Toastmasters
http://www.historybuff.com/realaudio/index.html - History Buff's Real Audio Library
www.historychannel.com/gspeech/archive.html - The History Channel with a daily speech

Helen Huntley, Director of Academic Programs, and Debra Salim (former lecturer); Intensive English Program, Morgantown, West Virginia