World Languages and Cultures Competition

2025 World Language and Cultures Competition is Tuesday, October 7th, 2024, from 9am to 1pm (Registration at 8am; Award Ceremony 12:30pm). The registration will open in late summer.

Our half-day annual World Languages & Cultures Competition is held in early October. The event invites high schools in the area to compete in Spanish, French, English Writing, Poster Board Presentation, and a topic in Japanese culture. The participants also enjoy Discovery Quest where they explore world cultures and enjoy activities to win a prize. An Award Ceremony follows the event. We also offer a professional development pedagogy workshop for the teachers. English Language Arts students and teachers are also encouraged to participate in English workshops, poster board presentation, and culture workshops!

One of the 2023 English writing winners, Chloe Buckenheimer, a current SRU freshman, attended the WLC event. She gave a speech and handed awards to the 2024 winners!

This year 522 students and 64 teachers from 32 schools participated. Some of the participants are interested in studying at Slippery Rock University!

Language Tests

• Spanish Level 1, 2, 3, 4, and Heritage Speakers
• French Level 1, 2, and 3

Level 1: For students who have completed 1 year of official education in the language.  

Level 2: For students who have completed 2 years of official education in the language. 

Level 3: For students who have completed 3 years of official education in the language. 

Level 4: For students who have completed 4 years of official education in the language.

2024 English Writing Workshops

WORKSHOP 1 Example: “Screen Caps: Writing the Weird” (2024)

American photographer Gregory Crewdson—lauded in reviews published by, but not limited to, The New York Times, Vogue, and CNN—inspires us to reflect on our lives through the creepy, strange, and weird. Students participating in this writing workshop will be exposed to Crewdson’s dioramic art that critiques, especially, American suburbia, and they will be given strategies for composing ekphrastic responses that become imaginative back stories for select Crewdson photographs. Join us and experience the weirdness in photography, and practice transforming that through your own weird in writing. (Genres: poetry, flash fiction)

WORKSHOP 2 Example: “Folding@Home - Binding Your Writing without Sewing” (2024)

Maybe you've got some writing on a page that you don't know how to bind up into a neat little book. Maybe you've just, oh I dunno, cut some pages out of an old, dead book and there they are, stacked up around your bedroom, groaning and laying around and asking for brains, as zombies do. Too nice for a zine, you think, but who has the time to stitch all these up into an actual book? Also how do you do that, it seems hard. But you don't have to sew anything! In this workshop we'll learn the basics of folding books using the "accordion" fold. You'll also gain usable practice working with paper, learning about grain, cutting, and glue, all while talking about and creating our own papercraft books. Students are welcome to bring printouts of their own work (short, small items work best) to cut and paste to the interior of the books.

2024 Poster Board Presentation

The SRU LLCW Department Poster Contest is open to students in English Language Arts and a foreign language and culture class. Students should share any research they have conducted this year in a visual format, such as a trifold or poster. Judges will review all posters/visuals and use a rubric to determine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. Be sure to include the title of your research as well as embed important researched information in the poster/trifold.

2024 Japanese Culture Workshop

Example: Japanese Calligraphy (2024)

書道 (shodo = “the way of writing”), the art of calligraphy in Japan has over 1,500 years of history. With a brush and sumi ink, students will learn authentic Japanese writing by a native Japanese calligraphy master as well as an SRU professor, Ishimaru-sensei. The top three students will win a prize. They are welcome to take their art home. All students in all subjects are welcome to register! No prior knowledge or skills in Japanese or calligraphy are required.

Typical Event Schedule

8:00-8:50

• Registration

9:00-10:00

• Group 1 Contest/ Group 2 Discovery Quest, ect.
• Group 1 Teachers - Workshop

10:10-11:10

• Group 2 Contest/ Group 1 Discovery Quest, etc.
• Group 2 Teachers - Workshop

11:30-12:30

• Lunch

12:30-1:00

• Award & Closing Ceremony

Teacher Information

Teachers, we have activities for you as well. We know teachers enjoy learning as much as teaching and workshops are offered for teacher attendance.

Additional Information

For more information regarding the World Languages and Cultures Competition, contact languagecompetetition@sru.edu.