6th Annual ACTR National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest
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| Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited to participate in the sixth annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. All students must pay a registration fee according to the following schedule: Students whose teacher is an ACTR member -- $3.00 per registration Students whose teacher is not an ACTR member -- $4.50 per registration Students may not register themselves, but can only be registered by a teacher. To register your students, please send a registration form (below) and one check made out to "ACTR" to Patricia Zody, Center for Language Studies, Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511. All registrations must be received by January 28, 2005. Registrations received after the deadline will not be accepted. When registering your students, please consult the criteria below to select the appropriate level. Teachers whose students are participating in the contest will receive directions and the essay topic in late January 2005. Students will write their essays between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 2005 at a time selected by the instructor at each institution. Judges will review the essays in March 2005 and winners will be announced in early April 2005. Please note that students cannot use any books or notes and may not work together. Essays must be written legibly in blue or black ink. The time limit for writing the essays will be one hour. The essays must be written in blue or black ink on lined or bluebook paper provided by teachers. Pencil is not acceptable (as it won't photocopy). After the students write the essay, teachers will make four photocopies of each essay as per the directions and then send the originals and three photocopies to Patricia Zody within 48 hours of the test date. All essays will be evaluated anonymously: no essay will be identifiable by the name or institution of the student who wrote it. Gold, silver, and bronze ribbon awards (certificates) will be presented for the best essays at each level. Teachers may not substitute students for those registered by the deadline. No refunds are available for students who don't show up for the essay contest. |
Essays will be ranked according to levels as follows: Category 1: Non-Heritage Learners (those learners who do not and did not ever speak Russian in the home) Level One: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had fewer than 100 contact hours of instruction in Russian (whether in college alone or in college and high school). (This is mostly students in first-year Russian.) Level Two: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had more than 100 contact hours, but fewer than 250 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in second-year Russian.) Level Three: students who will have had more than 250 contact hours, but fewer than 400 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in third or fourth-year Russian.) Level Four: students who will have had more than 400 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in fourth-year or fifth-year Russian.) Category 2: Heritage Learners Heritage Learners (1): students who speak Russian with their families and who have attended school for fewer than 5 years in Russia or the former Soviet Union and may have had to relearn reading and writing skills after emigration. Heritage Learners (2): students who speak Russian with their families and who have attended school for 5 or more years in Russia or the former Soviet Union and have not had to relearn reading and writing skills after emigration. Judges will evaluate essays according to content (the ability to express ideas in Russian and communicate information about the topic) and length, lexicon, syntax, structure (grammatical and orthographic accuracy), and originality or creativity. |
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