Chennai :

V S Aarthi, a Class 9 student from SBOA Matriculation School and Junior College at Anna Nagar, won the first prize at an extempore speech competition conducted by the British Council here on Thursday.

Amrutha Desikan and Akileah Raman (both from PSBB school at K K Nagar) won the second and third prizes, respectively.

As many as 50 students from 10 schools in the city participated in the competition. The contestants for the competition were chosen based on their performance in a computer-based English language competency test held last week.

The British Council has launched an English language competency test — Aptis — in Chennai and Delhi to test the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of students aged between 13 and 17 years.

“The test content has been designed based on the day-to-day activities of teenagers, and the topics reflect the scenarios that they go through every day,” said Gwen Caudwell, Aptis product development manager.

Caudwell said the test content had been designed based on global parameters but the topics had been chosen based on the activities that are carried out in India.

Mei-Kwei-Barker, director, South India, British Council, said, “The response for the test has been good, both in Delhi and Chennai. The students have performed well in speaking.”

Aarthi said, “Winning this extempore contest has given me a moral boost. I can now do public speaking anytime, anywhere.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Adarsh Jain, TNN / February 26th, 2015