2021 National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest (NPSREC)This contest, established in 1999 by ACTR, has become a signature Russian language contest for post-secondary students around the country. Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited to participate in the annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR).
Essay topic was emailed on Feb. 14th.Important Dates and Information
Quick Links
Registration
Administering the Contest Submitting the Essays and "Student Declaration and Waiver" Forms Evaluation of the Essays Overview of Categories and Levels Instructors must register their students through the link below. The deadline for registering students for the 2021 National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest is February 10th. Instructors at an institution with at least one current ACTR member, with paid dues, are qualified to register students. There is a non-refundable $5.00 registration fee for each participating student. No late registrations will be accepted.
Click here to find instructions for administering the essay contest in 2021. [link coming]
Preventing Cheating Because this contest may be held remotely in some states/institutions, instructors are responsible for determining how to prevent cheating. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, participants will fill out the waiver and declaration online using this Google form.
See this page for instructions for naming and submitting essays. All essays will be evaluated anonymously; no essay will be identifiable by the name or institution of the student who wrote it. Three judges in Moscow will evaluate essays according to content (the ability to express ideas in Russian and communicate information about the topic) and length, lexicon, syntax, structure (grammatical and orthographic accuracy), and originality or creativity. The judges' results are expected by April 1st, and winners will be announced around mid-April in the ACTR Newsletter and on ACTR website. Gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention certificates will be awarded for the best essays at each Category and Level.
Instructors must place their contest participants into the appropriate CATEGORY and LEVEL.
OVERVIEW OF CATEGORIES AND LEVELS
There are three CATEGORIES:
The LEVELS for Categories A and B are based on the number of contact hours of formal Russian language instruction at the time of the essay contest, including high school. See below for the criteria. The LEVELS for Category C are based on the degree of exposure to Russian and contact hours of formal Russian language instruction in college only. See below for the criteria. For study abroad or other immersion programs: Calculate the number of contact hours of formal language instruction, multiply that number by 2, and use the result as the total number of contact hours. Category A: Students who do not and did not ever speak Russian or any other Slavic language at home.
Category B: Heritage speakers of a Slavic language other than Russian AND/OR native speakers of languages of the former Soviet Union who have had some prior experience with Russian.
Category C: Students who were born to Russian speaking families and received most or all of their education in English. These students did not have any formal instruction in Russian before college.
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2021 CONTEST FORMS
2021 Contest Instructions
2021 Declaration and Waiver Essay Template FORMS FOR OTHER YEARS Contest Instructions Student Declaration and Waiver Essay Submission Instructions CONTACT US
Registration inquiries: Dr. Jennifer Bown jennifer_bown@byu.edu Category placement inquiries: Dr. Alla Smyslova as2157@columbia.edu Submission inquiries: Dr. Nina Bond nbond@fandm.edu |