Kaifeng, December 23, 2016 - from December 7 to December 11, the national finals of 2016 “FLTRP Cup” English Public Speaking Contest were held in Beijing FLTRP International Conference Center. After a long-lasting selection from both the online and offline competitions, 151 outstanding players from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Region gathered to compete for the crown of laurel. After two rounds of fierce competitions, Wang Zihang, a student majored in International Economics and Trade in our college eventually won the national second prize, which was our first time to win the award in a national speaking contest.

2016 “FLTRP Cup” English Public Speaking Contest finals were divided into four stages. In the first stage of the game, competitions were held in three stadiums at the same time, the players first delivered a speech on a given topic and then answered two questions raised by the judges. 75 players advanced to the next stage of the game. The second stage consisted of three parts: an impromptu speech, answering the judges questions and quizzes. 21 players were promoted to the third stage. In the third stage of the game, 21 players were divided into seven groups. After a speech on a new topic, answering questions, expanded speech and quizzes, the highest score owner of each group and an excellent player voted by the judges finally advanced to the fourth stage. In the final stage, after completing his/her own speech,each player had to answer the judges’ continuous questions, summarized the speech and defended his/her speech from other players. The national winners were decided eventually.

The topic of this year, “Communication is Wonderful” was from the American educator John Dewey’s famous words “Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful”. Our student Wang Zihang elaborated the important significance of “communication” from different stages of life, won the general applause from the judges and the audience. In the impromptu speech, facing the topic “a photograph is shaped more behind the camera”, Wang expressed his views vividly with examples from the campus life and the current widely discussed “Luo Yixiao Issues”, showing his authentic language use, compelling logical thinking and perfect speech skills.

At the closing ceremony of the contest, Professor Wang Shouren, Chairman of the Foreign Language Teaching Steering Committee of the Higher Education College of the Ministry of Education, delivered a speech. He pointed out that with the increasingly important role played by China in the international arena, introducing China to the world appropriately posed new challenges for the use of foreign language skills; and the series of competitions on foreign language competencies organized by FLTRP (Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press) for 15 years have stimulated the potential of contemporary college students, and followed the trend in the digital age, that is contests were held online and offline simultaneously. All these measures and achievements were outstanding. In addition, Xu Jianzhong, the chief editor of the FLTRP, also made a speech and reviewed the 15-year development of foreign language speech contests. He noted that in the context of China’s going to the world and the world to China, the foreign language competitions have made great contributions to cultivating international talents with global vision and comprehensive foreign language skills. He encouraged the majority of teachers and students to communicate and explore in the international stage.

Written by Chen Shan

Translated by Tian Xiang