Welcome!


This page was drawn up by the ESL evaluation committee of Tallinn EUDC 2008, which are Branka Marusic (Zagreb), Giles Robertson (Cambridge) and Jens Fischer (Berlin).

The survey on this page serves to evaluate the language status of competing teams in EUDC 2008.

Teams will either compete for the main break only, or they will be granted ESL (English as a second language) status, making them eligible for the ESL break in addition to the main break.

Only teams that wish to apply for ESL status need to fill out the survey (see below: General remarks).

For recent messages and updated postings, please check below the survey.

ESL Criteria


The criteria used in determining whether you are an ESL team are found in article 24 section 4 of the EUDC Constitution:

(4) The Championships shall include a tournament to decide upon the best team which is ESL. Teams wishing to participate in a Round of the Championships as ESL must preregister as such. The eligibility of such teams shall be at the discretion of the organising committee of that Round of the Championships with a right of appeal to the Council. In deciding upon the eligibilty of an ESL team, the organising committee of the Round and the Council shall have regard to the following criteria:

(a) the language used at home by the team members;
(b) the languages used in teaching at the team's institution;
(c) the national language(s) of the team and its members; and
(d) whether any other linguistic barrier exists to the team members speaking English.

These criteria should be applied to both members of a team requesting ESL status. Criteria exist for guidance only and are intended to help answer the question as to whether the members of a particular team suffer any significant disadvantage in being required to debate in English rather than their first languages of choice.

The committee's interpretation of the ESL criteria


The committee uses the different criteria of article 24 (4) to assess whether or not a speaker suffers a significant disadvantage when using English as the language of debates.

Based in part on the definition adopted by Worlds Council in Bangkok, we would expect speakers to be suffering a significant disadvantage when their native language is not English, and they have

a) Not spoken English as a primary language in their home or social circle, and
b) Not spent more than five years when of school age or above in a country where English is the primary medium of exchange, and
c) Not spent more than five years in an educational institution where English is the effective medium of instruction.

However, we acknowledge that the benefit derived from different experiences changes from person to person; and we therefore expect to have to apply some flexibility in evaluating speakers against these criteria, with the overall aim of maintaining a consistent division across the tournament.

General remarks for filling out the survey

  • We will use the survey below to determine whether you "suffer any significant disadvantage in being required to debate in English".
  • Only fill out the survey if you wish to apply for ESL status.
  • Teams that do not submit the survey until June 20th cannot be considered for the ESL-break.
  • Only complete surveys will be considered.
  • In order to be eligible for the ESL-break, both speakers need to be determined as ESL.
  • If we invite you for an interview, it merely means that we want to find out about your abilities to speak English personally.
  • Interviews are scheduled to take place at Hotel Olümpia on June 22nd and the morning of June 23rd.
  • The committee's decisions will be posted online.
  • Teams that are not satisfied with their ESL evaluation have a right to appeal to the Council.
  • Instance of appeal will be the pre-Council, taking place on June 23rd, starting at 10 a.m.
  • Teams that arrive after pre-Council can still be interviewed.
  • Teams that arrive after pre-Council will not have a chance to appeal to Council if they are dissatisfied with the committee's decision.

Please fill out this survey

26 May 2008

Dear participants of Tallinn EUDC 2008,

the org comm of the upcoming Tallinn Euros competition has appointed a committee to check the eligibility of teams to compete as "English as a second language" (ESL).

Under the constitution, ESL teams compete in a separate competition (the "ESL-break") in addition to the main competition ("main break"), whereas teams without the ESL privilege can only compete in the main break.

Unlike WUDC, in EUDC there is no "English as a foreign language" (EFL) category, so teams will either compete as "Main break only" or as "ESL".

All teams that wish to compete in the ESL-break must apply for the ESL-status to the committee. The only way to apply is through the website esl-committee.blogspot.com, and for the sake of clarity no previous application and/or communication can be taken into consideration.

On the page esl-committee.blogspot.com, you will find further information as to the criteria that under the EUDC-constitution and in our eyes mark the distinction for ESL-teams.

The survey on that website is designed to somewhat measure your English speaking abilities. Please try to provide as much relevant
information as possible. Teams that do not wish to apply for ESL-status do not need to answer the survey. All information provided will be kept confidential and used for evaluation purposes only. The decision whether teams compete as "ESL" or "main-break only" will be publicised.

The deadline for ESL applications is June 20th, 6 p.m. GMT. We would welcome it however if you could apply as soon as possible.

We will soon release a list with our decisions on the classification of teams. The classification will be either "ESL", "Main break only", or "Interview". The list will be made available through esl-committee.blogspot.com, so please check it regularly.

All teams termed "ESL" on that list are eligible for the ESL-break without further necessary steps. "Main break only" are all the teams that did not apply for the ESL-status. "Interview" are all the teams that have applied for ESL, but we are unsure about and would like to talk to personally in Tallinn.

Interviews are scheduled to take place at Hotel Olümpia on June 22nd and the morning of June 23rd before pre-Council. We will release more detailed information on this prior to the start of the competition.

All teams that are dissatisfied with the committee's decision have a right to appeal to pre-Council. Pre-Council is the only instance of appeal.

All teams arriving after pre-Council will still have a chance to be interviewed. These teams however will unfortunately not be able to appeal the committee's decision whatsoever.

Please direct all your inquiries regarding ESL to esl.committee@gmail.com. This is the only e-mail-address we will use for any question concerning ESL matters. Before you ask us however please make sure to check esl-committee.blogspot.com - that site contains comprehensive information already. Also, please do not contact us regarding other questions of registration. We only get provided the reg data from the org comm, so if you are unsure about your registration, please contact org comm directly.

According to the EUDC org comm, the e-mail-addresses provided through the EUDC website registration are still incomplete. Thus, all official communication concerning ESL will only be distributed through the listservs EUDC and BD as well as published on esl-committee.blogspot.com. Please forward this message to your national and club listservs to make sure that people can apply for ESL in time. Thank you.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Tallinn!

Branka Marusic, Giles Robertson and Jens Fischer
EUDC 2008 ESL committee
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