Eagle-eyed viewers of the Scripps National Spelling Bee will notice some changes in the competition this year – both through the competition and, potentially, as we work to declare a winner.
First, what we know will happen: Four times through the course of the competition, spellers will receive vocabulary questions that they’ll have to answer to continue spelling. The word meaning rounds started during last year’s virtual competition and received good feedback from spellers, said Molly Becker, the Bee’s senior manager of editorial programs.
Vocabulary questions will come after the first spelling round in the Preliminaries, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals. Spellers will get a multiple-choice question with three potential answers and will have 30 seconds to give the correct definition of their word. The choices are displayed on a monitor; they can ask for the question to be repeated, but aren’t able to ask questions about root words or anything else. Spellers have to correctly give the definition, and not just the letter choice, to get the right answer.
“We believe that in the Bee, we’re not just encouraging spellers to memorize letters in a certain order,” Becker said. “We want their study of language to introduce them to new ideas, languages, cultures. By introducing word meaning, we’re encouraging study of the entire language and not just spelling.”
She said viewers appreciated the questions, and felt like they were better able to play along. The questions are spearheaded by Ben Zimmer, a lexicographer and Wall Street Journal columnist.