Official 2012 Nasah Spelling Bee Rules and Procedures

1. Each contestant must be a qualified finalist for spelling bee after competing in the
elimination round.

2. The Bee challenge will be done by level; this means that there would be a champion
for each level.

3. The officials of the Bee shall include the spelling master (T. Marj), 3 judges (T. Ed
T. Mel and T. Meriam) and a time keeper, (T. Aiza) and a round adviser (T. Pearl)

4. The words used in Spelling Bee shall be based on the competing level which is
selected randomly from the dictionary by the assigned English Teachers (T. Marj, T. Meriam and T. Pearl)

5. Words shall be pronounced according to the diacritical markings in Websters

Dictionary, from which the pronouncer shall select the definitions that she gives. With the approval of the judges she may give a fuller explanation of the meaning of a word or part of speech to supplement the dictionary definition or definitions quoted.

6. The contestant may ask for the language origin of a word. Only the etymology and
history of the word will be given. The pronouncer shall grant all such requests until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the contestant.

7. Each contestant is given 60 seconds to spell the given word. The contestant is given
30 seconds to spell after he/she first utters the word. The judges may disqualify a contestant who ignores a request to start spelling after the first 30 seconds.

8. The time keeper shall keep a record of all students who have reached the 30-seconds
time limit. A yellow sign will indicate that you have 30 seconds left and a red sign indicates time is up.

9. If a word has one or more homonyms, the pronouncer will indicate through sentence
use which word is to be spelled. If the given word is not properly identified, either by sentence use, definition or by distinguishing the homonyms, any correct spelling of any homonym of the word will be accepted.

10. The pronouncer will initiate the Spelling Bee with a practice round using volunteers
to show the format of the Spelling Bee. 11.The spelling Bee shall be conducted in rounds. Each contestant remaining in the Bee at the start of the round shall spell one round word, except as provided in Rule 20.

12. The pronouncer will follow the procedure of (1) pronouncing the word, (2) using the
word in a sentence and (3) re-pronounce the word.

A contestant must:

13.Repeat the word before spelling. This is to ensure that the contestant heard the
correct word.

14. Spell the word orally. Students must not be allowed to write the word before
spelling it. Look at the judges or audience when spelling the word.

15. Must utter the word again to indicate that they are done spelling. 16. Ask for any pronunciation, meaning or sentence to be repeated for clarification
before saying the word. The judges will grant the request until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the contestant. The contestant then will be advised to begin the spelling and the time will begin.

17. If the word given is a proper noun, it needs to be indicated by the contestant. For
example, if the word given is Pampanga, the contestant must spell the word as follows; Capital P-A-M-P-A-N-G-A.

18. A contestant shall have a full minute to spell the word. The student shall have 30
seconds from the time the student pronounces the word until he/she must begin spelling.

19. Having started to spell the word, a contestant may stop and start over, retracing the
spelling, there cannot be a change of letters or sequence for those first pronounced. If the letters and their sequence are changed in the respelling, the speller will be disqualified.

20. Upon missing the spelling of a word, the contestant immediately drops out of the
contest. The next word will be given to the next contestant. If none of the contestants remaining in the Bee at the start of the round spell a word correctly during the round, all shall remain in the competition.

21.. No talking will be allowed among the contestants or between contestants and
members of the audience. If a contestant receives assistance from anyone in the audience, he/she will be disqualified. The audience is also requested to remain to their place and keep quiet to avoid confusion for the contestants.

22.Any questions relating to a spelling of a word should be referred to the Spelling Bee
officials. No grievance will be entertained after the next word is given to the next speller.

23. To decide the second and third place winners, the Bee will continue with the
contestants who were eliminated in the last previous round. Rules will apply as they did for the determination of the champion.

24. The officials decision is final.