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UKLO

UK Linguistics Olympiad

last changed 20 November 2009

Introduction

The UK Linguistics Olympiad is a competition for students who are still at secondary school, in which they have to solve linguistic data problems either individually or in teams. Similar competitions happen in a number of other countries, though it's only recently that they've taken place in English-speaking countries.

The UK Olympiad is part of a consortium of English Language Computational Linguistics Olympiads which developed out of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (for USA and Canada) in 2009, with two other anglophone countries taking part: Australia and Ireland. The consortium shares test materials so its member countries coordinate their test times.

The UK Olympiad also enters a team in the International Linguistics Olympiad . International olympiads for school students exist in a number of other subjects, especially in mathematics and the natural sciences; but they also include olympiads in philosophy and geography.

History

The linguistics olympiads have an international history dating from the 1960s in Russia, but the UK has only recently joined the movement. The first UK schools took part as guests of the newly founded All-Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO), which in turn built on the relatively new North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), which allowed AILO to use a selection of test material developed for use in USA schools. The committee charged with setting up UKLO is a subcommittee of the Committee for Linguistics in Education (CLIE).

UKLO Committee

The UKLO committee consists of the following individuals:

Arrangements for 2010

The arrangements are still being developed by the committee, but the following plan is likely to apply in 2010.

Round 1

  • Round 1 is taken and administered in schools.
  • It takes place on a single day in early February, and will need a half-day block of time. It will have to be synchronised with the olympiads in the USA, Canada, Australian and Ireland because at least some of the problems will be the same as those used in these other competitions. In 2010 it will be on Wednesday 3rd or Thursday 4th February.
  • Any School in the UK is welcome to enter as many pupils as they want. Schools in Northern Ireland are free to enter either the UK competition or the All Ireland one. Any pupils are eligible (regardless of whether they are UK citizens).
  • Pupils may be of any age (so far pupils from years 10 to 13 have taken part).
  • Test questions range from easy to hard, with maximum marks assigned according to difficulty so only good performance on hard questions will qualify for round 2. Taken either by teams or individuals in school, but only individuals will qualify for round 2.
  • Entry in Round 1 is free, but schools must provide their own photocopying and clerical expenses.
  • Tests will be marked centrally.
  • The committee will provide guidance on the expected difficulty and format of the questions, including a list of model problems that are available on the internet.

How to register your school for round 1

It would help us a great deal in fundraising etc if you'd register your interest as soon as possible. The schools liaison is being handled by Neil Sheldon, so we'd like you to send your details (see below) to him at <n.a.sheldon@mgs.org>. The details needed are:

a. your name
b. your email
c. the name of your school/college and what kind of school/college it is
d. the age and number (and any other relevant details) of the pupils you have in mind

Schools registered so far

  1. Birkdale School, Sheffield
  2. The American School, London
  3. Withington Girls’ School, Manchester
  4. The McAuley Catholic High School, Doncaster
  5. Manchester Grammar School, Manchester
  6. Downlands Community School, West Sussex
  7. Kirkham Grammar School, Lancashire
  8. West Kirby Grammar School, Wirral
  9. Bournemouth School for Girls, Dorset
  10. The Forest School, Horsham, West Sussex
  11. Chesterfield High School, Crosby, Liverpool
  12. Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton, N Yorks
  13. King Edward VI College, Nuneaton
  14. Kingswood School, Bath
  15. Warden Park School, Cuckfield, West Sussex
  16. Watford Grammar School for Boys, Watford
  17. Saint Felix School, Suffolk
  18. St Edmund’s Catholic School, Portsmouth
  19. Bury Grammar School Girls, Lancashire
  20. Chipping Sodbury School, Gloucestershire
  21. Sackville School, West Sussex

Some facts and figures about registered schools

  • Greatest number of pupils entered per school: 28
  • Smallest number of pupils entered per school: 2
  • Oldest pupils entered: 18
  • Youngest pupils entered: 12/13
  • Types of school: independent, comprehensive (11-16 and 11-18),
    maintained selective, voluntary aided faith school, international.

Round 2

  • Round 2 is taken in a single central location (tba) - possibly a university linguistics department.
  • It takes place in early March. Once again the date has to be synchronised with other countries. In 2010 it will be as near as possible to Wednesday March 10th.
  • Round 2 is just for the individuals selected through round 1.
  • Round 2 is residential and will span at least two days.
  • It includes some tutoring and working in groups as well as the competition.
  • It includes some combination (tba) of individual and team tests.
  • Round 2 selects the national team of four to represent the UK in the International Linguistics Olympiad, as well as reserves and possible members of the next year's team.

The International Linguistics Olympiad

  • In 2010, the ILO will take place in Sweden during July.
  • The UK team will be accompanied by the teacher who accompanied the 2009 team, Neil Sheldon (from Manchester Grammar School).
  • At least some of the team's travel expenses (and possibly all of them) will be covered by the UKLO committee, and their expenses within the host country will be covered by the host organisers.


Questions to be answered

  1. What funding do we need for 2010, apart from a travel subsidy for the UK team?


If you have:

  • thoughts on these questions,
  • other questions,
  • thoughts about the provisional plans outlined above,

please direct them to Dick Hudson, who will either try to deal with them himself or put them to the committee for discussion. His email is A@B, where A = dick and B = ling.ucl.ac.uk.

What are the test questions like?

A great many questions from previous linguistics olympiads are available on the internet:

  • two easy problems
  • another two easy problems
  • a large collection of problems, of different levels of difficulty, used in the North American Olympiad (aka NACLO or NAMCLO)
  • an even larger collection of problems, including those from the International Linguistics Olympiads. (Log in as 'guest'.) If you click 'browse all', you'll see a long list of test questions, mostly paired with their solutions. Not all are written in English, but a large number are.