MSMS Students Advance to NACLO Invitational Round
This year marks NACLO’s eleventh year in competition administration.
March 20, 2018
On the morning of March 8, three MSMS students engaged in a contest that would test their logic skills and abilities to analyze foreign languages under a time restraint. These students were senior Gary Nguyen, junior Hamilton Wan and senior William Johnson. The herculean task that these three remarkable students competed in was the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad.
The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO) is a contest designed to evaluate the ability of high-school students to examine and analyze languages beyond their recognition. This competition consists of three rounds: the Open Round, the Invitational Round and the International Linguistics Olympiad. Competing students do not need to know any other languages besides English, but the task is made easier if students possess these skills. To solve a major percentage of this daunting task, students must recognize patterns between familial languages, understand the structures of each presented language, and utilize mathematics to their advantage.
On Jan. 25, a group of students embarked on their journey through the Open Round, and in doing so, they aimed to earn their right to compete in the Invitational Round. Under the time restraint of three hours, students who participated in this round completed sections A through H. On Feb. 21, students received their results, and out of 21 students, only the three aforementioned students advanced. Ms. Lori Pierce, the MSMS contest administrator, organized the anticipated morning for the three. The trio was restrained under four hours and tasked with completing sections I through R.
“Personally, I thought the invitational round was, overall, easier than the first round,” MSMS senior Gary Nguyen expressed. He expressed that while there were more challenging problems that required extensive thought, he felt more comfortable completing the invitational round. This year marks the second year of Nguyen’s participation in this competition. “My homeschool didn’t offer NACLO, so this year was the second time I’ve participated,” Nguyen said. If Nguyen had known earlier about this competition, he expresses that he would have grown more as a participant.
For those who wish to participate in this linguistic competition, Nguyen advises that preparing through practice competition problems is the best method. “As counter-intuitive as it may sound, reading linguistic textbooks won’t help. The test does not focus on the derivation of the language, but rather, it relies on ciphering the characterizations of the language such as structure and vocabulary,” Nguyen explained.
In the coming weeks, students across the nation who score exceptionally well will be invited to compete for the United States in the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL). In the past, the United States has been successful in competition, bringing home 59 medals, nin trophies, seven first-place team cups, 19 best-solution prizes, 19 honorable mentions, and two team contest honorable mentions.
