The Spelling bee and education

The Spelling Bee has become more familiar to me over the past three years, I vaguely knew before that that they were some sort of spelling competition and I did associate them with buzzing bees. However they were not really part of my education in the English language, My first four years of schooling were in England. I attended Longton County Primary School in School Lane, Longton, Lancashire. We followed the syllabus of the Lancashire County Education Authority. I had spelling lists to learn and weekly spelling tests but no mention of bees. I do however remember Beetle drives there.

My final three years of primary education were at Boroko East School, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. There we followed the syllabus of New South Wales (Australia). Again we had list of spelling words. words we had to put into sentences and spelling tests. I was not the best speller. I did my secondary education in Atherton, Far North Queensland Australia. Neither in Port Moresby nor Atherton were spelling bees ever mentioned.

Spelling bees start buzzing

I took more notice of spelling when my children went through the same method of teaching as I had. Weekly lists of words to be learnt came home from school with each of my five children, courtesy of Herberton State School. My youngest son James was a hard nut to crack on the spelling front. The dog had eaten his list or he had left it at school or at footy practice. I wrote a spelling app so his list was on my phone and he had no excuse.

The app had some success and I did have quite a few users contact me about it. There was a surprising interest in learning English spelling in Nigeria for example. The users loved the app but couldn’t afford to buy it but it would help them with their education and in the Spelling Bee. When they had money they would then pay me. A lot of people mentioned Spelling Bees  so I started to investigate.

Spelling Bees have nothing to do with bees

It was disappointing but not surprising to find the “Bee” in Spelling Bee is not the honey producer. The word “bee” in “spelling bee” comes from an Old English word, bēn, which means “a prayer” or “a favour”. It’s also related to the word “boon”, which means “blessing”, “benefit”, or “favour”. It is still used here in Australia for “a working bee”.  A working bee is when a group of people give up their time to work collectively on a project.  Members of a family will organise a working bee when they all work free of charge to clean up the yard of an elderly relative.  A local sporting club may hold a working bee to maintain the grounds and equipment in preparation for a new season. The local Countrywomen’s Association may hold a sewing bee to collectively produce garments and blankets for refugees.

Basically a bee brings communities together for a good purpose. A spelling bee brings people together to improve learning and language development,  Although it literally has no real connection to bees in beehives, the term now conjures up images of bees and a lot of Spelling Bees use a bee logo. So in fact and contradictorily Spelling Bees are associated with Bees.

 

 

The Spelling Bee originates from the USA

The Scripps National Spelling Bee, formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and often referred to as the National Spelling Bee or simply “the Spelling Bee” in the United States, is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The National Spelling Bee was formed in 1925 as a consolidation of many local spelling bees organised by The Courier Journal in Louisville Kentucky. Frank Neuhauser won the first competition by successfully spelling “gladiolus”.

The organisers have changed the format greatly over the years and it continues to change. There are preliminary rounds, qualifying rounds and final rounds. The finals are on live TV and very popular. Although most of its participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria and New Zealand have also competed in recent years.

There is no doubt The Bee is big news in the USA. There have been several feature films with the topic of a spelling bee. It attracts wide media attention. It also attracts controversy. With the development of the competition there are new questions about the origin of words and alternative pronunciation and alternative spelling.  “Womyn” was accepted as an alternative to “women” – womyn being preferred by feminists. For more information click here for the competition.

 

Other American Spelling Bees

The New York Times has a daily spelling bee competition which is an online feature and is also very popular. Check it out.

 

But what about Nigeria?

I had come to look at Spelling Bees because of the Nigerian connection and the interest in my spelling app in Nigeria. Yes there is a Nigerian Spelling Bee!

The competition started in 2016 and is seen as promoting and celebrating “Excellence in the Nigerian Child.” Both teachers and parents attest that the Spelling Bee encourages their children to learn and extend their boundaries of learning. There are also practical rewards.

Incentive to learn

These “heat” winners can also have further rewards.

“These exceptional champions have emerged victorious in their respective categories, earning the esteemed opportunity to represent the FCT at the National Finals. Their journey continues as they vie passionately for scholarships of up to One Million Naira (Seniors) or Five Hundred Thousand Naira (Juniors), and the honor of representing Nigeria at the African Spelling Bee.

The Nigeria Spelling Bee, a nationally recognized event endorsed by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), stands as a beacon of intellectual excellence.

Champions from this event not only earn scholarships but also proudly carry the responsibility of representing Nigeria at international literary championships.”

So that is why spelling apps are popular in Nigeria. Becoming a champion speller opens doors to further international competition and scholarships. The Nigerian competition promotes English but also has local language versions.

Africa Spelling Bee

Like the Nigerian competition, this competition has been going since 2016 – the first being held in South Africa. More than thirty countries expect to take part in 2025. The African Spelling Bee is hailed as “as a celebration of linguistic excellence and cultural exchange.” A spelling competition in the English language is bringing together many of the African nations.

On the Internet you can find references to many African Spelling Bees.  These spelling bee nations are Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Uganda. In addition  Gambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda, Benin, Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan and the DRC have spelling bee associations and there must be more if over 30 are taking part in 2025.

Why spelling bees in English in Africa? Obviously it is a remnant of the British colonial past although not all participants were British colonies but English is an international language and the language of government in many African states. Being competent in English is a necessary start to a good career in many countries.

Spelling Bees in Asia

INDIA SPELLING BEE -The competition

“The India Spelling Bee is a unique educational activity that combines education, fun and competition. It has been designed keeping in mind the inputs gained from the past so many years of organising spelling contests across India. We have had feedback from thousands of school heads, teachers and students. These have all helped in creating a unique format for the India Spelling Bee. While it is competitive in nature, it also adds significant educational value to each student’s education.

The India Spelling Bee is also more inclusive, as students from all across India can participate irrespective of location, board, medium of education or gender. We hope to even reach out to schools in the smaller towns and cities, who may not have an opportunity to participate in such contests, generally.

The India Spelling Bee offers an opportunity to all students of classes I – IX to participate. All participants in India Spelling Bee will be awarded Certificates of Participation.”

India was part of the British Empire. In the 1850’s, English became the language of instruction at many universities. From 1858 to 1947, more and more Indians were hired to work with the British in civil services, furthering the learning of English. By the time India became independent, English was seemingly the best option for a lingua franca.

It may not be the best, but definitely it is the langua franca of India. English is the language of Indian courts, military, commerce, higher education, medical services, air, rail and ship travel and the language of professional diplomats. 

Spelling Bee – a colonial legacy?

Most former British colonies are familiar with the concept of Spelling Bees. Although not a traditional competition here in Australia I was surprised to find the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sponsors a National Spelling Bee.

Apparently this has been an online competition going for four or five years organised by Newscorp. It is strange I have never heard about it until now. It does not seem to be publicised much here in Queensland. I have a thirteen year old daughter but we have never been informed via the school system here about the competition. There is also a “New South Wales Premier’s Spelling Bee”. What is Queensland doing? Maybe there should be a “State of Origin Spelling Bee”.

Spelling Competitions have become more popular here in Oz. “The Great Australian Spelling Bee ran for two seasons on TV here in 2015 and 2016 and involved school age competitors. Recently Guy Montgomery has hosted a spelling bee program on ABC TV. There is obviously considerable interest downunder.

Why English?

There are some similar competitions in other languages but English predominates in the Spelling Bee Hive.

The concept is thought to have originated in the United States. Spelling bees are common only in countries where English is spoken because other languages have a more predictable spelling system.

Spanish, Italian, and German display relatively straightforward relationships between their written forms and their standard pronunciations. My mother who, is studying languages as she has read it is a good way to keep Alzheimers at bay agrees with this. She is studying French and German, which she did at school many years ago, on Duolingo. She says she can spell the German words especially easily as they are spelt as they are pronounced. Swedish which she is also learning is not so easy for her to spell. The history of the development of the English language is one of the reasons the spelling is difficult. English borrows from so many other languages.

Is English Spelling Difficult?

We are often told that English spelling is difficult with inconsistent rules. One of the main reasons that English seems so irregular is that we have lots of different spellings for the same sound. For example, the /k/ sound can be spelled with several different letters and letter combinations,

For example, k (king), c (cat), ck (back), qu (queen), and ch (chorus).

Why is this? Modern English has been influenced by several core languages, mainly Anglo-Saxon, Norman French (a dialect of Old French used in medieval Normandy), Latin, and Greek. Because each of these languages contributed its own conventions for spelling speech sounds and syllables, the spelling of a word is often related to, and even explained by, its history and language of origin. For more on this click here.

 

 

How to practise for the spelling bee

The best way to practise for a spelling bee is to practise every day on the Spelling Bee Games & Tests App, download for free and try it out!