The “Guangming Cup” English voice performance contest wrapped up at the Guangming District Foreign Language School on November 24. Ten first prize winners, 20 second prize winners and 30 third prize winners were selected out of 120 primary school students who entered the finals of the competition. “Tencent Ying Yu Jun”(meaning “Tencent Mr. English” and with a web version at teacher.study.qq.com) is an app developed by the tech giant to assist English teaching and learning in primary schools. With the help of the app, the 120 finalists were selected out of more than 30,000 participants in the contest. In line with the Chinese Government’s “double reduction” policies that promise to relieve the burden of homework and after-school tutoring for students of the ninth grade and under, Guangming District started to explore new and interactive forms of homework for students. The district also began a partnership with Tencent last year, desiring to improve the efficiency and quality of English teaching in all 41 schools in Guangming. With a focus on the English proficiency of students, especially in speaking and listening, the Guangming Education Research Institute organized the contest. The Tencent app, supported by AI recognition technology, completed the evaluation process in the first round and helped select the finalists. In the finals, groups of six were formed by random picks, who were then required to give on the spot voice performances of film scenes provided by the app. With costumes and props prepared in advance by the organizers, the finalists gave lively performances of snippets from films and shows such as “Kung Fu Panda,” “Peppa Pig” and “Zootopia.” The jury evaluated their performances according to their pronunciation, synchronization with the scenes and expressiveness. With the ability to evaluate and correct the pronunciation and grammar of students’ homework, the app has been widely adopted for English teaching in cities including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. (Debra Li) | 