By Lorraine Ng

Students are eagerly waiting for the 72nd Hong Kong Schools English Speech Festival to arrive! This exciting event is held every year for all participating schools in Hong Kong, and consists of incredibly keen competitors with great talent.

Previously, before the pandemic ravaged the city, the Speech Festival was held every year in front of dazzling crowds. Each competitor used to perform on a stage, reciting a solo verse or a poem of their choice. Contestants participating in duo sets performed as well.

All students from schools which are part of the speech festival programme can join the Speech Festival. It is usually held in November every year, and for our school, everyone can join - you just have to volunteer and sign up when the sign ups for the festival are open.

However, this year’s competition will be a bit different. Festival contenders will not be able to conduct their usual practices in front of a large crowd. With the social distancing measures still in place, instead of performing live, the festival this year will be converted to an online competition, with competitors pre-recording their individual or duo performances.

Participants of the speech festival have mixed feelings. 

Year 8 student Preeshika Dattani commented grimly that she is actually “not that thrilled about it being held online.” She has been actively involved in four English Speech Festivals over the years, and is passionate about public speaking. 

Another Year 8 student, Athan Wong, believes that having the Speech Festival online will “highly decrease the pressure,” as it will be possible to practice the piece over and over again until the performance is ideal. 

“Research shows that the fear of public speaking is the most common phobia ahead of death, spiders, or heights”

Meanwhile, Year 9 student Olivia Lo says that she “doesn’t really have an opinion on the speech festival being held online.” She just hopes everything runs smoothly. 

There are plenty of positives and benefits from participating in the Speech Festival. 

Wong believes that the Speech Festival can “help improve his confidence, speaking fluency.” 

Ms. Aletha Rossiter, the teacher in charge of the speech festival at our school, stresses that it is a great confidence-builder. “Research shows that the fear of public speaking is the most common phobia ahead of death, spiders, or heights,” she added. “So competing in the English Speech festival forces you to face your fears.”

In addition, students are working very hard in preparation for the Speech Festival. 

Dattani is “trying to feel the story/paragraph,” so she can “improve in showing emotion” when she delivers her piece. 

Wong gets feedback from his parents, friends or Rossiter, and he effectively makes good use of the video resources provided by school teachers.  

On the other hand, Lo is not doing that much to prepare, but assures us that she is “reading the passages sometimes out loud just to practice it.”

Because of participating in the Speech Festival over the years, Dattani also commented that the festival “really helped improve” her speech as it made her speak more clearly, and at a steadier pace.

Last but not least, Rossiter is actually “impressed that the organisers have decided to allow the competition to continue via video entries.” She explains that “being able to give an engaging speech online will almost certainly be a very valuable skill to learn.”