A Road to Success in Language Olympiads: A Comprehensive Analysis of EFL Olympiad Tasks in Russia from Inception to 2023

Abstract

Language Olympiads have been effectively used by Russian universities for enrollment purposes for years. Consequently, secondary and high school students are often coached to participate in these Olympiads to improve their chances of university admission. This research aims to trace the development and transformation of tasks used in EFL Olympiads over the past decade to identify the most common types, thereby providing school English language teachers with a clear framework to better prepare students for these competitions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze past Olympiad papers from 2015 to 2023. An in-depth analysis of the tasks in top language Olympiads revealed the predominance of tasks focusing on receptive skills, integrated skills, and cultural knowledge, in contrast to those assessing productive and creative skills. While tasks aimed at evaluating productive skills are largely absent in the elimination rounds, they account for more than 50% of the total score in the final rounds. Speaking tasks for secondary and high school students are minimally represented among the Olympiad tasks. Additionally, there is a noticeable trend toward assessing participants’ knowledge of the history, literature, and culture of English-speaking countries, both directly and indirectly, while testing both receptive and productive skills. Moreover, tasks assessing integrated skills, which were previously the least common, are now gaining prominence. The findings suggest that preparation should focus more on skill development rather than on individual tasks. This shift would facilitate simultaneous preparation for multiple EFL Olympiads and improve students’ performance in the short term. This study also contributes to the field of professional discourse and the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) by highlighting how the evolving nature of EFL Olympiad tasks can inform the development of targeted ESP curricula that better align with the communicative and cultural competencies required in academic and professional spheres.