Kentucky World Language Association

2008 KWLA Festivals: Results

There have been several adjustments made to the overall rules and categories in order to reflect the new mission of the Festival and to allow the Festival to grow in future years. Please carefully review the most frequently asked questions regarding the rules, categories and rubrics. Simply click on a question to read or close an answer. If you have additional question, please contact the Executive Director of the KWLA Festival, Jeff Rogers at festival@kwla-online.org.

Assessment Categories:

DIALOGUE: What are the expectations for this new category?

Students will be given a topic for the dialogue appropriate to their level of study the day of the festival. While the topic chosen by the judge will come from the "Potential Topics" list in the rules students should not memorize dialogues in advance, this is not the intent. Students will judged on their ability to complete the task, as well as difficultry of vocabulary and pronunciation.

DRAMA: Can only two students perform a drama?

YES! After considering members' feedback, a dramatic scene can involve as little as two students.

PROJECTS: Where are Construction Models, Games and Realia?

The categories have been collapsed into the new "Projects" category. The choice of project is no longer as important as a student's ability to demonstrate understanding of the target culture through a particular project. Some projects maybe more appropriate than others, depending on the topic chosen by the student. See the official rules for further details.

VIDEO: Why does the video have a theme this year?

In the past, videos have often had nothing to do with target culture and were simply translations of American culture and communicative fomrs into a different language. The Festival should promote real world communication and exploration of the target culture. In the future, we may be able to consider an additional creative video category.

VIDEO: What is the theme for the video this year?

This year's theme is "Saddle Up Kentucky! The World is Coming!" and was established in the immediate need for world language speakers for the the upcoming FAI World Equestrian Games in 2010. For more information on the Games visit the official web site.

VIDEO: How is the video supposed to relate to the theme?

Video entries can still be very creative. They simply need to focus on a broadly defined communicative situation. This year that is an international sporting event. Students might pretend to buy food at concessions, help a speaker of the target language find something, figure out how to get tickets to a sold out event, ask questions about a game, explain an aspect of American culture to non-English speaker, create a video to advertise their hometown to visiting athletes, etc... There are lots of possibilities, but the situations should be communicative in nature and motivate students to learn more about the target culture for communicative reasons. All videos should be done in the target language.

OTHER: Where is the Grammar/Vocabulary category?

Grammar/Vocabulary has been expanded into two new categories "Reading Proficiency" and "Writing Proficiency". In order to be successful in either one of these categories students will need to have sufficient knowledge of certain vocabulary as well as some structures. A potential topic list is included in the official rules.

Eligibilty Rules:

Are Native Speakers no longer allowed to participate?

The Native-Speaker category has been eliminated because there were only a few native speakers who have competed in the past, instead we treated Heritage-Speakers or those with the advantages of an immersion experience as Native Speakers, confusing everyone and leading to some very bad feelings in some cases. These students can now participate in more categories at the festival, just not in Language Proficiency Assessments.

Miscellaneous Questions:

When is the State Festival this year?

The 2008 State Festival is scheduled for Saturday, May 10, 2008 on the campus of the Univesity of Kentucky.