The final round of the U.S. studies Olympiadwas completed on April 8. The Olympiad was a joint event organized by two major universities in Tula: Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical, which was responsible for college students’ contest, and Tula State, which took hold of high school students’ competition.
The students’ contest consisted of three rounds, two online and final face-to-face. About a hundred students took part in the first round where they wrote a quiz and tried to do a crossword puzzle. 35 participants made it to the second round. Their task was to write an essay on Obama’s pre-election video address about American dream. 14 students competed in the final round making guesses at jeopardy game and delivering their speeches on urgent topics such as virtual reality or decreasing of language diversity. For 5 minutes ordinary students became Bushes, Hilary Clinton, Eleonor Roosevelt, etc. while expressing American politicians’ point of view on the problems and suggest a program of measures.
– I was speaking about space tourism as if I were George Bush. I tried to imitate his style of communication, – says Anna Aristova, first year student and a winner of the second prize.
– The Olympiad was perfect. Thorough organization and the competent jury were a key to success, – another participant Alex Sinitsyn says.
– The most interesting part for me was transformation into a historical figure and an opportunity to comment on the problem on his behalf. Such contests broaden our mind and help to improve public speaking skills.
All the participants got CDs and books on cultural studies and thanked the organizers for the opportunity to enlarge their knowledge of U.S. culture.
The regional contest was organized by Tula Regional English Language Teachers’ Association, Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, Tula State University and English Language Office (U.S. Embassy in Moscow) with the financial support of the U.S. Department of State.