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The German High School Contest is sponsored by the German-Canadian Business and Professional Association and coordinated by Laurier's Department of Languages and Literatures.
The German High School Contest is organized in two streams:
Please refer to the contest rules below to find out for which stream you are eligible for.
1. The German Contest is managed by a volunteer committee of the German-Canadian Business and Professional Association (Waterloo Region) and funded through the German-Canadian Education Fund (Waterloo Region), a charitable organization.
2. The German Contest is open to students who took or are taking a German course at a high school in Waterloo Region or at the Concordia German Language School in the current school year.
3. Students are registered with the Contest coordinator by their German teacher.
4. Parents of students who are home-schooled, who would like their child to participate, are encouraged to enquire with the contest organizer.
5. The German Contest is normally hosted by the Languages and Literatures department at Wilfrid Laurier University.
6. The German Contest is organized in two streams: the German Language Contest and the German Video Contest.
7. For each high school, the German teacher can register up to four participants for the German Language Contest. Additional participants can be registered on a waiting list. The maximum number of participants is 28. Participants have a maximum of one semester of instruction in German at high school (normally grade 10 German). Students with any additional prior learning of or exposure to German – for example through family and friends or a stay in a German-speaking country of longer than two weeks or the participation in German classes before grade 10 – must not be registered for the German Language Contest. But see clause 12 for their registration for the German Video Contest in the German-bilinguals substream.
8. The German Language Contest as the components:
9. Participants will be evaluated and ranked according to the level of language proficiency they display in the three components of the German Language Contest.
10. Participants in the German Language Contest need to bring their student ID card and writing utensils. No other aids are permitted in the contest.
11. For each high school, the German teacher can register one team of four participants for the German Video Contest in each substream (see below). Additional teams can be registered on a waiting list; these teams will be registered if one or more high schools forfeit their registration. Teachers who do not have a team of four participants for the Contest are encouraged to contact teachers at other schools and can register a joint team of two schools.
12. The German Video Contest is organized in two substreams: (a) German learners and (b) German bilinguals. German learners have a maximum three semesters of instruction in German a high school (normally grades 10, 11, 12 German). Students with any additional prior learning of or exposure to German – for example through family and friends or a stay in a German-speaking country of longer than two weeks or the participation in German classes beyond three semesters – can only be registered for the German Video Contest in the German bilinguals substream. High school students, who are not eligible to be registered for either the German Language contest or the German Video Contest German learners substream can be registered – also as a team of four participants – for the German Video Contest German bilinguals stream. Teams in the two streams will work in the same rooms, but will be given different tasks and will be evaluated separately.
13. Each team of participants is responsible to bring their own digital recording devices (camcorder, smartphone, or tablet computer). They are also encouraged to bring appropriate costumes and props and utensils for note-taking and story-boarding. Teams will have three hours to record the material for their video and another three hours to edit and to compile it into a 5-7 minutes video. Only the use of the video and audio material the team recorded is permitted. A limited number of copyright-cleared images and texts can be incorporated.
14. In each substream, the videos will be evaluated and the teams will be ranked according to the following criteria:
15. Communication between the committee and the contest participants and their teachers is normally done by email.
16. Participants are expected to stay at the venue for the entire duration of the contest for which they registered.
17. Upon registration, students must sign the video release form, which applies to the contest.
Questions?
Contact Alexandra Zimmermann