Starting odd semester of academic year 2015/2016, American Corner of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) organized Spelling Bee 2015 on Wednesday (2015) at hall of American Corner. Spelling Bee 2015 is a competition of forming English words with the letters in the correct order. The competition is for 11 grade high school students. “It is conducted by the support of the U.S. Embassy to Indonesia. Thus, the participants do not required to pay any fee,” informed Puthut Ardianto, S.Pd., M.Pd. as chief of the Spelling Bee 2015.

He inserted that since the competition was officially announced, senior high school students were enthusiastic about participating the competition. 70 high school students across Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY) registered the competition. “However, since we could not accept all the participants, we only received 55 participants in the technical meeting, and today only 47 participants of 17 high schools re-registered,” Puthut mentioned.

He conveyed that American Corner appreciated high school students’ interest in the Spelling Bee even though the number of participants should be limited because the number of wordlists was only 50 words. “Since the wordlist has been determined only 50 words by the U.S. Embassy so that the participants should be restricted. It also considers the duration. A participant has two minutes to spell. If all of them were accepted, the time will not be efficient.

Puthut, who is also a lecturer of English Education Department, conveyed that in the technical meeting the participants were informed that the words were taken from ‘Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition’. It aimed at easing participants to learn contested vocabularies.

As Director of American Corner of UMY, Puthut stated that the event pointed at acquainting American Corner of UMY, the use of American English, and the culture. “The Spelling Bee 2015 is also a medium to promote UIMY to high school students,” he asserted.

Additionally, the winner of the Spelling Bee 2015 will represent Yogyakarta Special Region in National Spelling Bee held by the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on 22 September 2015. “Today all American Corners in Indonesia have conducted Spelling Bee 2015. The winner representing Yogyakarta is Atiya Nahda Fadilla from SMA N 4 Yogyakarta,” Puthut informed. Besides, the runner up was Halida Damayanti from SMA N 3 Yogyakarta.