On the evening of November 2, the Trial final of the 25th 21st Century Coca-Cola Cup National English-Speaking Competition was successfully held in the Lecture Hall of the CFL. The competition is sponsored by the 21st Century of China Daily and organized by the Academic Style Construction Center of the CFL. Ma Hongqi, Vice President and doctoral tutor of the CFL, Hao Yunzhi, director of the English Department and master tutor, Hui Chunping, deputy director of the English department and master tutor, Zhang Yali, a teacher in the English department, and Stephen Procter, a foreign teacher attended the competition and served as judges.
Ten contestants were shortlisted for the final after the fierce preliminary contest. With the theme of No person is an island, the final covered a three-minute prepared speech and a two-minute impromptu speech. was drawn from the questions. In the questioning session, each contestant brought excellent performance to the audience. In the end, Xia Xiayu from the School of Economics and Zhang Jiayi form the College of Foreign Languages won the first and second places, both of whom would represent Nankai University in the Tianjin Division final.
In the closing ceremony, Ma Hongqi gave a concluding remark. He first expressed his praise of their performances and then encouraged them to grasp the heart of the topic, interpret it from different perspectives. All in all, the competition was a good way to demonstrate personal insights when they have had good linguistic proficiency. Finally, he congratulated the success of the competition and wished the players better results in the future.
It is reported that since founded in 1996, the 21st Century Cup National English Speech Contest was has received strong support and active participation from teachers and students and experts from the English education sector. The College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University has hosted the trials many times and won the Best Organization Award from the organizing committee.
