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| Korea Times President Oh Yong-jin, right, and ETS Korea Country Manager Paul Lee pose after signing an agreement on the English Presentation Contest at the newspaper's headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
By Hong Ji-min
The Korea Times and ETS Korea signed an agreement to hold the first English Presentation Contest, Tuesday. ETS, the creator of the TOEFL iBT® test, is officially the main sponsor of contest to be hosted by the nation's longest-published English newspaper.
In celebration of its 70th anniversary, The Korea Times will host the inaugural English Presentation Contest to help Korean middle- and high-school, undergraduate and graduate students cultivate the global mindset necessary to grow into future leaders and to improve their English fluency.
Korea Times President Publisher Oh Young-jin and ETS Korea Country Manager Paul Lee signed a sponsorship agreement for the event during a ceremony at the daily's headquarters in Seoul.
Amid COVID-19 challenges that have made physical gatherings next to impossible, the newspaper hopes to help young people develop their talents through submitting content for the contest via video platforms such as YouTube.
"We are pleased to host this meaningful event in cooperation with ETS Korea. We want this event to become an opportunity for students to foster creative and logical thinking as well as English-language presentation skills," Korea Times President Oh said. "We will strive to make this contest a platform to help students grow into future leaders."
ETS, the creator of the TOEFL iBT® test, is a nonprofit organization that develops assessment products with industry-leading insight, rigorous research and an uncompromising commitment to quality. ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually in more than 180 countries worldwide.
Paul Lee, country manager of ETS Korea, said, "We are more than happy to sponsor The Korea Times in hosting the English Presentation Contest funded by the TOEFL® test. We hope the contest can help young students prepare themselves for the new post COVID-19 world with strong English skills essential for various future communications either domestically or across borders."
Lee also said that ETS will "continue serving the needs of Korean students and provide practical support" as it is committed to improving education through its assessment tools known around the world.
Participation in the contest is open to middle and high school, undergraduate and graduate students. Those attending schools in Korea can enter the contest, but students from countries using English as an official language are ineligible. Applicants can either apply as an individual or as a team of up to three people.
Applicants should upload a video clip addressing the topic for a maximum of five minutes to YouTube or other channels, and submit them via the website https://bit.ly/2AHS0QO from June 20 to July 31.
Contestants are evaluated in four areas: topic development, delivery, language use, quality of the video.
After the final evaluation, 12 winners from four categories will be announced in mid-August, and an awards ceremony will take place on Aug. 27.
Details regarding the contest can be found at the following link,
https://koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/06/780_291447.html.
