The West Australian Modern Greek Language Teachers’ Association Inc. (WAMGLTA) is proud to announce this year’s participants and prize winners in its annual Speak Greek in June Competition.
Offered for the second consecutive year, the competition invites students from Pre-primary to Year 12, who are studying the Modern Greek language in a formal capacity; that is, at a recognised educational provider, to speak for up to 3 minutes on any of the 9 listed topics on offer or on a topic of their choice, as approved by their teacher.
The aim of the competition is to promote the speaking of Modern Greek, which is often the most challenging part of learning a language, in a fun, non-threatening, and/or creative way.
The entries are video-recorded and are submitted for judging, based on three criteria:
- Fluency in speaking Greek.
- Clear communication of meaning.
- Audience engagement.
The judges’ decision is final and video-recordings are returned to the school after the competition has ended.
In 2020, WAMGLTA refined the competition to include an extra category to the previous year – ‘Mixed Background and Non-background Speakers’: Pair, or Group. This was done to allow students who wanted to work with a peer or within their friendship group to be able to do so, without having to fit into either the ‘Background Speakers’ or ‘Non-background Speakers’ categories.
WAMGLTA also announced that primary school participants would be judged separately to secondary school participants, allowing for differences in presentation approaches and giving more students the opportunity to win prizes in their respective sub-school and category.
This year, there was a total of 14 participants across two schools (listed alphabetically);
- Immaculate Heart College – 2 participants
- St. Andrew’s Grammar – 12 participants
The students received a Certificate of Participation and a Dymocks book voucher to the value of $30 each (Winning Entry) or $15 each (Prize for Effort).
The results of the competition are listed below:
Immaculate Heart College – Primary School
Non-background Speakers (Pair)
Year 3: Astasia Gooch & Oliver Wimshurst (Topic: School items in my classroom) – Winning Entry
St. Andrew’s Grammar – Primary School
Background Speakers (Solo)
Year 3: Anna Zafiropoulos (Topic: My family) – Winning Entry
St. Andrew’s Grammar – Secondary School
Background Speakers (Solo)
Year 8: Filippos Stergiou (Topic: Life in Australia) – Winning Entry
Year 9: Konstantinos Stergiou (Topic: Me) – Winning Entry
Year 10: Errika Georgoula (Topic: Horse-riding; my favourite sport) – Winning Entry
Background Speakers (Pair)
Year 10: Iasonas (Jason) Androutsos & Damianos Kyriakidis (Topic: COVID-19) – Winning Entry
Non-Background Speakers (Pair)
Year 8: Lamiya Ekic & Reeya Shah (Topic: Shopping for fruit and vegetables in the Market Place) – Prize for Effort
Year 8: Leon Nguyen & Walter Ng (Topic: Shopping from the Kiosk) – Prize for Effort
Year 9: Claire Beltz & Providence Mikuti (Topic: Food) – Winning Entry
WAMGLTA is proud to make special mention of its new sponsor for this competition; Dr Con Berbatis and family. The sponsorship offered is valued by WAMGLTA, not only for financial reasons but even more so for the moral support of the Berbatis Family for the work that the Association is doing to support and promote the teaching and learning of Modern Greek in WA.
Congratulations are extended, once more, to all the students who participated in this year’s competition; to their Greek language teachers, their schools, and their families! WAMGLTA encourages all students studying the Greek language to participate in the annual WAMGLTA Speak Greek in June Competition, which has been designed and refined to support the work that teachers do in the classroom.
Dr Angela Evangelinou-Yiannakis
WAMGLTA Chairperson
8 September 2020
