The Scripps National Spelling Bee, long beloved for its youngsters stammering out words like appoggiatura, is about to change this year, when they’re also forced to define words like appoggiatura. Officials added two rounds of computerized vocabulary tests to the early rounds of the tournament. In some circles, though, this new rule spells C-O-N-T-R-O-V-E-R-SY. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “New Spelling Bee Rules”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
When you and I competed in spelling bees as youngsters, all we had to do was spell the words we were given, right?
Right.
We didn’t have to say anything about the meaning of the words.
But that’s about to change for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. For the first time in their 86-year history, participants won’t just have to spell words in front of an audience.
They’ll have to take a computer-based vocabulary test beforehand, and that’s going to help determine who gets in the final rounds.
So the vocabulary test doesn’t show up in the competition on stage in front of the cameras, right?
No.
Oh, because I was worried it’d be like a three-day cricket match and go on forever.
No, it’s multiple choice questions.
Okay.
You know, you see the word in a sentence and you have to guess what it means.
And if you fail this, then you don’t make it to the big competition.
Well, it counts for 50% of all the points that you’re tallying.
And when I heard that, I thought, great, that’s fantastic.
Let’s talk about the etymology. Let’s talk about the meaning of the words.
Why are people just using brute memorization for this?
As if they’re just strings of characters, just like these non-functional widgets.
Exactly, exactly. Objects.
And so I was all excited about this, and I was taken aback by all the resistance to it that I saw in discussions online.
Yeah, a lot of people are arguing, hey, the spelling bee is great the way it is, and why should we add this burden to students?
And I just think, well, why not?
Well, if you’ve been mastering the language, the spelling of words for three or four years and you’re a kid, now you have a whole new task in front of you if you haven’t also been mastering the vocabulary.
Or as I’ve seen some kids saying, well, it’s not going to be that much of a problem for me because I’ve been memorizing Greek and Latin roots to better know how to spell words and prefixes and suffixes and so forth.
So for some, some kids are like, okay, a little more work, but I’m up for it.
I would hope that for those kids it would be like, oh boy, look at all the presents. Now I get to open them.
Not everyone has that response.
Well, yeah, apparently a lot of people are saying, why add this extra work for kids?
They’re already working so hard to memorize them.
Very interesting.
Yeah, but my favorite response online was that somebody was saying, yeah, yeah, the spelling bee is charming, sort of a charming anachronism.
But if you really want to jazz it up, you should combine the National Spelling Bee with the Hunger Games.
And the tribute from San Diego.
Well, we’d love to know what you think.
Should students have to be accountable for the vocabulary as well as just spelling the words?
Well, in competition anyway.
In competition, yeah.
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