A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked
to
spell words. The concept is thought to have originated in the
United States,[1]
and spelling bee events, along with variants, are now also held in some
other countries around the world which use imperfect writing systems.
The first winner of an official spelling bee was
Frank Neuhauser, who won the 1st National Spelling Bee in
Washington, D.C. in 1925 at age eleven.[2][3]
The nine finalists were invited to meet
Calvin Coolidge at the
White House, a tradition followed by presidents for most of the
ensuing 86 years of the United States contest.
Etymology
Historically the word
bee has been used to describe a get-together where a specific
action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an
apple bee. Its
etymology is unclear but possibly derived from the
Old English word bēn, meaning
prayer.[4][5]
History
The earliest known evidence of the phrase spelling bee in
print dates back to 1850, although an earlier name, spelling match,
has been traced back to 1808.[6]
A key impetus for the contests was
Noah Webster's spelling books. First published in 1786 and known
colloquially as "The Blue-backed Speller," Webster's spelling books were
an essential part of the curriculum of all elementary school children in
the
United States for five generations. Now the key reference for the
contests is the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary.
The United States National Spelling Bee was started in 1925 by
The Courier-Journal, the newspaper of
Louisville,
Kentucky. In 1941, the
Scripps Howard News Service acquired sponsorship of the program, and
the name changed to the
Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee (later simply "Scripps National
Spelling Bee"). As well as covering the 50
U.S. states, several competitors also come from Canada, the
Bahamas, New Zealand and
Europe.
In the United States, spelling bees are annually held from local
levels up to the level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee which awards
a cash prize to the winner. The National Spelling Bee is sponsored by
English-language
newspapers and educational foundations; it is also broadcast on
ESPN. Since
2006, the National Spelling Bee's championship rounds have been
broadcast on ABC live. In 2005, contestants came from the
Bahamas,
Jamaica,
Guam, the
U.S. Virgin Islands,
American Samoa,
Canada,
New Zealand,
Puerto Rico and a German military base, as well as the United
States. This was the first year that spellers from Canada and New
Zealand attended the competition. The final authority for words is the
Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary, the
Webster's Third New International Dictionary. The annual study
list is available from Scripps, either online or in print.
The National Senior Spelling Bee started in
Cheyenne,
Wyoming
in 1996. Sponsored by the Wyoming AARP, it is open to contestants 50 and
older. Maria Dawson is the only contestant to ever win two back-to-back
titles at the National Senior Spelling Bee.
The
South Asian Spelling Bee is another spelling bee platform in the US.
This annual contest takes place across the US each summer in search of
the next South Asian-American spelling champ between the ages of 8 and
14 years old. Launched in 2008, the
South Asian Spelling Bee will tour 10 US cities in 2011 and is
broadcast globally via the satellite channel,
Sony Entertainment Television Asia.
In other countries
Asia
In Asia, a spelling bee is being conducted up to the international
level by
MaRRS Spelling Bee. The competition involves learning the correct
spelling of words, their use in sentences and in multiple contexts.[7]
Currently, it is being held in India, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Bahrain, Dubai,
Fujairah, Ras-al-Khaima, Sharjah, and Umm-Al-Quwain.[8]
In Taiwan, the National Spelling Bee Championship is a contest held
by Bugstation.tv for young English learners. Thousands of young
applicants join this contest each year. Another organisation that
promotes the love of the English language is Horizons Unlimited, which
in 2011 organized an India Spelling Bee contest for children in the
southern state of
Kerala
in India.
Africa
In Africa, spelling bee is promoted by a company Gift People Limited,
which currently organizes the Annual National Spelling Bee contest for
children between the age of 7 and 14 in
Nigeria.
This effort commenced in 2008 when the first National finals was held in
Lagos. It
is popularly referred to as SPELLIT! Nigeria.
Australia
In Western Australia, a spelling bee is held by the
State Library Foundation of Western Australia, for children in
school years 5, 6, 7 and 8. The early stages of the competition are held
online, and the final spell-off in front of a live audience.[9]
Two major prizes are awarded: one for a Junior Winner (Years 5-6) and
the other for a Senior Winner (Years 7-8). Further prizes are given to
the teacher and school class of each major prize winner, and to the most
improved speller each week.[10]
Bangladesh
Bangladesh's most renowned English daily, the Daily Star and
Champs21.com, is organizing (as of March 2012) a televised spelling bee
for students from Bengali and English medium backgrounds, who compete
through an online system with the winners making it through to the
television show. The competition is the first such arrangement in
rapidly developing Bangladesh. The champion will be rewarded with five
hundred thousands and a trip to Washington, the city of spelling bee.
Now Bangladeshi students are having a spelling revolution. Because of
such initiative, the curiosity of learning English has spread out in the
whole country.
Canada
The Postmedia
Canspell National Spelling Bee is the only Scripps affiliated
Canadian spelling bee held annually nationwide in
Canada
since 2005. The bee is affiliated with the
United States-based
Scripps National Spelling Bee and uses similar rules and word lists,
and competes in all 10 Canadian provinces to provide a Canadian National
Champion for the penultimate
Scripps competition.
It should not be confused with another organization, calling itself
the
Spelling Bee of Canada, which started in 1987 in
Toronto,
Ontario,
and is now celebrating its 25th anniversary, and hosting a Canadian
Invitational Bee in 2012, as well as organizing Provincial Bees across
Canada, and the world.
In the school year 2008-2009 Mrs. Wijdan Alawadhi (English
Department Head) & Mrs. Mona Yeahia (English Teacher) started the
spelling bee contest in Mubarak al-Kabir Educational Area (its one of
the biggest Kuwaiti Governorates) they started the contest as an
experimental contest in Thabet Bin Zaid Primary School for Boys,Started
within the school with the fourth and fifth grade.It was a successful
experiment which was faced with alot of appreciation from Mrs. Aisha
AlAwadhi ELT Senior Supervisor[11]
supervision.For that they decided to hold the competition among the
whole educational area ( Mubarak Al-Kabeer Educational area). In
2010-2011 the contest was held with 27 schools ( 12 schools for boys and
15 for girls - around 2700 pupils),Each school nominated a pupil from
the fifth grade to participate. In 2012-2013 a big support from Mubarak
Al-Kabir Educational Area, All of the Primary Schools were invited to
the Spelling Bee finals after the big success of the contest. It becomes
officially an authorized contest in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Educational Area (Kuwaiti
Spelling Bee) in
Kuwait.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, the spelling bee competition is promoted by Dawn, and it
happens every year in October. There are three states district, regional
and national. National is held in
Islamabad.
United Arab
Emirates
Sylvan Learning Center, a supplemental education organization from
the United States, has organized an annual competition for Dubai, Abu
Dhabi and Sharjah-area schools. The Sylvan Spelling Challenge is held
annually in December and February for students in grades 3-8. The Sylvan
competition expects to attract nearly 1,000 participants from 30 schools
in its inaugural year.
Abu Dhabi University sponsors the largest Spelling Bee in the United
Arab Emirates, attracing students from both public and private
institutions for the past three years. The Abu Dhabi University Spelling
Bee is heralded as the most challenging and well-known spelling
competition in the United Arab Emirates.
United Kingdom
There were reports in newspapers of spelling bees held in 1876 in a
number of British towns. More recently, in the
United Kingdom a spelling bee for schools is run by
The
Times newspaper. It was started in 2009.
US National
spelling bee
Serious spelling bee competitors in the United States will study
affixes
and etymologies, and often foreign languages from which English draws,
in order to spell challenging words. Several preparatory materials have
been published, including some in connection with the Scripps National
Spelling Bee and those created by independent organizations not related
to Scripps.
For the first several decades of publication, the Scripps annual
study booklet was named Words of the Champions, which offered
3,000 words in a list separated into beginning, intermediate & expert
groupings. In the mid-1990s the annual study list changed to
Paideia
(from the Greek word meaning education and culture), which ultimately
contained more than 4,100 words, then again in 2006 to the shorter list,
entitled Spell It!, the 2009 edition having 1155 words (911 basic
words and 244 challenge words).
The Consolidated Word List, also published by Scripps and
available on the National Spelling Bee website, consists of all words
used in the National Bee as far back as 1950. It is organized into three
sections: Words Appearing Infrequently, Words Appearing with Moderate
Frequency, and Word Appearing Frequently. Nearly 800 pages and 24,000
words long, the Consolidated Word List is intended for those who
have mastered the basics and already gone through Spell It!.
Spelling bee participants in the United States also use other
reference books, notably the
Hexco Academics series of spelling books, which feature strategies,
methods and lists to further develop spelling skills. Tutoring materials
are also becoming available on the web.
School spelling
bees
US Spelling bee students usually start competition
elementary schools (primary
schools) or
middle schools. Classes compete against other classes in the same
grade, or level, and the winning class is determined by the score of
each class.
In popular culture
In television
- A British television show called Spelling Bee, featuring
adult contestants and broadcast by the
BBC on 31
May 1938, is generally held to have been the world's first
television
game show.[12]
-
The Price Is Right features a
pricing game called "Spelling Bee" which is played for a car and
the object of the game is to spell "car".
- A game show on the former
Black Family Channel cable network, Thousand Dollar Bee
engaged children in a spelling bee-like competition.[13][14]
- The 2004 game show
The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee featured four
teams of four celebrities playing for charity. The show was hosted
by
John O'Hurley, and help for the celebrities was provided by
Scripps National Spelling Bee participant Samir Patel.
- Five episodes of the ESPN show
Cheap Seats presented and satirized the taped television
coverage of the 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 Scripps National Spelling
Bees.
- The NBC
game show
The Singing Bee is like a spelling bee but instead of
spelling words, contestants have to identify lyrics to popular
songs.
- "Spelling Bee," a
Saturday Night Live
comedy sketch in which
Will Forte's character delivers a 75-letter misspelling of the
word "business" that includes 12 consecutive q's
In fictional
television
- The 1878
Bret Harte poem The Spelling Bee at Angels describes a
spelling contest held at a California gold mining camp.
- A spelling bee features as pioneer family entertainment in
Little Town on the Prairie by
Laura Ingalls Wilder, in which Pa 'spells down' the whole town.
- A spelling bee contest was sponsored by Brazilian TV host
Luciano Huck, on his weekly show called Caldeirão do Huck,
since 2007.
Fictional television episodes
- "The One With The Late Thanksgiving", an episode of
Friends in which Rachel lies to Ross, saying that she took
part in a spelling bee
- "I'm
Spelling as Fast as I Can", an episode of the animated
television series
The Simpsons
- "Spelling Bee", an episode of
The Proud Family
- "Aliens", an episode of
Roseanne
- "Spellingg Bee", an episode of
Psych
- "Spelling Bee", an episode of the animated television series
Hey Arnold!
- "The Professor", an episode of
My Name is Earl
- "Hooked
on Monkey Fonics", an episode of
South Park
- "Spelling Bee", an episode of
According to Jim
- "Spellbound", an episode of
Full House
- "Sick Days & Spelling Bees", an episode of
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
- "The Spelling Bee", an episode of
Mr. Belvedere
- "Neither a Borrower not a Speller Bee", an episode of
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
- "Spelling
Applebee's", an episode of
Drawn Together
- "The Spelling Bee", an episode of the
CBC series
The Red Green Show
- "War of the Words", an episode of
Frasier
- "The Dam", an episode of
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
- "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing" and "Mr. Griffin Goes to
Washington", episodes of the animated series
Family Guy
- In "The Name of the Game", an episode of the drama
Grey's Anatomy, Dr. Shepherd and Dr. Bailey treat a 7th
grade regional spelling champion, making him spell words in order to
both reduce his anxiety during awake brain surgery and test his
cognitive function during the procedure.
- "Chris' Brain Starts Working", an episode of
Get a Life
- "The Bee", an episode of
The Middle
- In the b-story of "Black Widows", the fifteenth episode of
Totally Spies, Sam competes in the Beverly Hills High School
spelling bee against Mandy, the archrival of her and her two best
friends, Clover and Alex.
In film
In theatre
In literature
- A novel Bee Season, in which Eliza Naumann participates
in the final of the national Spelling Bee.
See also
References
-
^
"RTE.ie". RTE.ie.
-
^
Fox, Margalit (2011-03-22).
"Frank Neuhauser, a Speller’s Speller, Dies at 97".
New York Times.
Retrieved 2011-04-03.
-
^
Brown, Emma (2011-03-21).
"Frank Neuhauser, winner of first national spelling bee, dies at
97".
Washington Post.
Retrieved 2011-04-03.
-
^
[3], noun Merriam-Webster: bee [3]
-
^
[1] bee - Wiktionary
-
^
Barry Popik, "Spelling Bee (Spelling Match)," The Big Apple
(Apr. 13, 2013; accessed Apr. 16, 2013).
-
^
"Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Being a spelling bee pays off".
The Hindu. 2010-05-12.
Retrieved 2010-10-26.
-
^
[2][dead
link]
-
^
"About Spelling Bee".
spellingbee.org.au website.
State Library Foundation of Western Australia.
Retrieved 2013-06-01.
-
^
"Prizes". spellingbee.org.au website. State Library
Foundation of Western Australia.
Retrieved 2013-06-01.
-
^ English Language
Teachers
-
^
"Spelling Bee (1)". UKGameshows.
Retrieved 2010-10-26.
-
^
"Thousand Dollar Bee" (2004)
-
^
“”.
"1000 Dollar Bee". Youtube.
Retrieved 2010-10-26.
-
^
The Girl Who Spelled Freedom (1986) (TV)