School children from all corners of Ireland will be reciting dictionary words and fine-tuning their pronunciation skills to in a bid to become the nation’s top speller.

Over 1,000 schools from all 32 counties have entered the fourth annual Eason Spelling Bee, which kicked off with the county bees taking place nationwide from 4 February.

Winners from the county bees will then be invited to take part in the provincial competition later this year before the overall final in June, where the four provincial winners will battle it out to be crowned the 2014 Eason Spelling Bee Champion.

"Spelling is a fantastic way to open up the world of learning to children in a fun way, and creating the building blocks to support a lifetime of reading and literacy," says Catherine Cahill, brand manager at Eason. "The support from teachers and parents across the country has been superb and we are looking forward to meeting all of the talented ‘bees’! ”

The 2014 Eason Spelling Bee also has the support of Ryan Tubrity and RTÉ 2fm. "We met some many fantastic kids along the way who could out-spell many of us and with record numbers getting involved this year the challenge is going to be even more exciting, ” said the radio presenter and Late Late Show host.

This year children will be able to test their word knowlded with a new mobile app available later this month. The free app for iOS devices simulates the live competition, reading out word at various difficulty levels that must then be typed in. Eason says it will be regularly challenging users of the app throughout the year with new words.

For more details on the spelling bee visit easons.com/spellingbee and tune in to RTÉ 2fm for updates.