Code-Breaking Students Who Won First Ever Linguistics Olympiad Malta Celebrated
An award ceremony for the winners and participants of this year’s first ever Linguistics Olympiad Malta was held on the 26th June – celebrating the success of Giulia Muscat, Liliana Francalanza and Oskar Lutterbeck, Junior College’s winning team, who received a voucher worth €150.
“All the participants did really well,” said Alexandra Vella to Lovin Malta. Vella is a professor of linguistics at the Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology, who helped organise the LOM.
All those who competed received a certificate of participation, while the three-person winning team Junior College received a voucher worth €150 to split three-ways – as well as one winning an additional token voucher worth €50 for their school.
On 20th April, a total of 18 participants pitted their intense brain-power against challenging puzzles, engaged their problem-solving and cracked linguistic codes – all in the spirit of friendly (but fierce) competition.
The LOM was organised as a local offshoot of the International Linguistics Olympiad – one of 13 International Olympiads across a variety of academic subjects.
The ILLT is hoping to capitalise on this momentum to spur Maltese students into a shot at the ILO next year.
“Our hope is that in close collaboration with the schools, we can get started early in the upcoming academic year,” said Vella.
“We would do so by sharing information, but also by setting up Linguistics Olympiad clubs in schools through which interested students will get the opportunity to work on solving language puzzles, thus exercising logic and reasoning to hone their problem-solving skills, all whilst working with others, developing teamwork skills, and having fun.”
The ILLT asked Lovin Malta to encourage any potential sponsors or volunteers interested in contributing towards next year’s Linguistics Olympiad Malta to get in touch here.
“With the necessary funding, next year, we may be able to offer a team of students the possibility of participating in the International Linguistics Olympiad alongside teams from other countries!”
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