On May 9, the Regional Final (Chuanyu) of the 26th China Daily “21st Century ∙ Coca-Cola Cup” National College English Speaking Competition was held in Academic Meeting Hall Z126, Comprehensive Building, Huxi Campus, Chongqing University. The event showcased 28 finalists from 23 colleges and universities in Sichuan and Chongqing competing in English speaking skills. Yang Yuxuan, a student of 2020 of CQU, majoring in English, won the championship. Li Xianglong from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Huang Mengyao of 2019 of CQU, majoring in English, were respectively the runner-up and the second runner-up. Furthermore, Wang Yiming, a student of robot engineering of 2020 from Hongshen Honors School, Chongqing University, won the third place. According to the competition system of the Regional Final, Yang Yuxuan and Li Xianglong, the champion and the runner-up, will participate in the National Final on behalf of Sichuan and Chongqing.

Yang Yuxuan, the champion

Yu Weishen, chairman of the Foreign Language Teaching Research Association of Chongqing University, Wu Yongqiang, dean of the School of Foreign Languages and Literature of Southwest University for Nationalities, Fu Yong, an associate professor from the School of Business English of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chu Xiuwei, deputy dean of the School of Foreign Languages of Southwest University, He Ping, an associate professor from the Department of English, the School of Foreign Languages, Sichuan University, and an associate professor from the School of Foreign Languages of Southwest Jiaotong University were invited to the event as scoring judges. Li Zhou, a “Young Eagle” researcher from Southwest Jiaotong University, and Kassian John Sheppard, an English lecturer from the Glasgow College of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China were invited to the event as questioning judges. Zhai Shiwen and Yang Chunyu, students from the School of Foreign Languages and Cultures of Chongqing University, acted as the hosts of the event.

During the competition, candidates were given 4 minutes to deliver a prepared speech about the topic “Protecting the blue planet”. Candidates elaborated on the topic from aspects including ocean protection, publicity of environment protection, the outbreak of COVID-19 and environment protection related to brands of fast moving consumer goods. After that, the candidates were given 2 minutes to deliver a spontaneous speech and another 2 minutes to answer questions raised by the judges. The topics of the spontaneous speech were all related to the current hot issues facing the society and were designed test the critical thinking ability of candidates. The candidates showed remarkable proficiency in use of English and the extensiveness of their knowledge in their speeches. When answering questions raised by the judges, the candidates remained calm and composed. Scoring judges scored the performance of the candidates taking into consideration the content, language quality and presentation effect of the candidates.

At the end of the Competition, Yu Weishen and Kassian respectively delivered a speech and shared their opinions on the performance of the candidates. Yu Weishen extended his gratitude to the candidates, tutors and judges, and spoke highly of the calmness and composure of candidates when they are on the stage. Yu also encouraged young speakers to focus on global governance and inspiring stories that were happening in China. Kassian commended the candidates for their proficiency in the second language and said that mutually-benefiting teaching was a good way to learn a foreign language.

Professor Yu Weishen is sharing his opinions on performance of the candidates

Kassian is sharing his opinions on performance of the candidates

The Competition lasted for 1 day. Eventually, 1 champion, 1 runner-up and 1 second runner-up, and 3 first-prize winners, 8 second-prize winners and 14 third-prize winners were selected.

List of prize winners

Champion, second-runner up and runner-up (from left to right)

First-prize winners

Second-prize winners

Third-prize winners

Chongqing University has organized this Competition in response to the coordinated development strategy for education in Sichuan and Chongqing. The Competition has been held to promote improvement and development. By offering this opportunity for students from colleges and universities of Sichuan and Chongqing to show their talents, Chongqing University wants to encourage teachers to explore new ideas on construction and development of English as a discipline. In addition, it is hoped that the students would take this opportunity to show their talents on the stage, convey China’s voice to the world and demonstrate the strength of China.

Photo by: Wu Chunyan, Pang Junjie, Chen Jie