LINCOLN — Rosa Nguyen, the bilingual daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, won the Rhode Island Spelling Bee Championship yesterday after spelling “presidio” followed by the championship word, “vituperative.”

Rosa, 14, an eighth-grader at West Warwick’s Deering Middle School, will go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

Thirty-four youngsters from fourth to eighth grade participated in the two-hour competition at Lincoln Middle School, sponsored by the Valley Breeze newspaper group.

Throughout the bee, Rosa had spelled with seeming confidence, rarely asking for repetitions or additional information. She successfully tackled “insidious,” “graffiti,” “salmonella” and “drivel,” to name a few.

But in the final moments, when presented with the word “presidio,” Rosa brought laughter by blurting out, “What?!”

After the judges provided an alternative pronunciation, and pronouncer Steve Aveson, a Channel 12 anchor, put the word in a sentence, Rosa spelled it correctly. (A “presidio” is a military post or settlement.) Rosa then had no trouble with “vituperative,” which means verbally abusive or berating.

The runner-up was John Ragland, a sixth-grader at the Jamestown–Lawn Avenue School, who brought many moments of high tension with his long pauses between letters. John kept the audience on pins and needles as he mastered “crocodile,” “singe,” “picaresque” and “subclavian” (below the collarbone), but was felled in the final round by the word “comestibles” (items suitable for eating).

The final four spellers also included Brittany Hazelton, an East Greenwich eighth-grader who attends Our Lady of Mercy School, and Charice Cejas, an eighth-grader at Woonsocket Middle School.

Brittany correctly spelled “vigilante,” “interrogative” and “charisma,” among others, but was stumped by “spurious” (false or counterfeit). Charice conquered “azure” “sayonara,” “nepotism,” and others, but lost on the word “taciturn” (habitually silent).

Charice, who left the stage looking crestfallen, afterward went to congratulate Rosa, the winner. Rosa quickly replied, “You did really good, too. I thought you were going to win.”

Rosa had been the runner-up in the spelling bee two years ago.

Rosa’s father, Nguyen Nguyen, is an electrical engineer who left his family in Vietnam after the war and 16 years later brought them to America. Rosa has a 32-year-old brother who is a microbiologist; her mother, Chau Nguyen, said Rosa is proud to be the first in her family who was born in America.

Rosa speaks Vietnamese at home, but she doesn’t think being bilingual helps her spelling. “My dad’s bilingual, and he can’t spell,” she said.

Rosa said she enjoys spelling because “it’s just easy.” She said she had little time to study for the bee because she had track practice and rehearsals for her school’s production of Annie, in which she plays “a homeless person who screams.”

Asked if she felt as confident as she looked while spelling, Rosa said no. “I never, ever think I’m going to win,” she confessed. Rosa, who plans to also compete in the upcoming Geography Bee, said her favorite subject is Italian and her career goals include writing, singing, or perhaps becoming a chemist “because I want to cure world diseases.”

Governor Carcieri kicked off the event with a warm-up round that didn’t count (the first word was “governor,” which Carcieri defined as “public servant”).

Carcieri, Valley Breeze publisher Thomas V. Ward, and Channel 12 anchor Aveson all mentioned in their opening talks that Rhode Island came close to not having a spelling bee this year when The Providence Journal withdrew as sponsor. Carcieri presented Ward with a certificate thanking him for stepping up to the plate to sponsor and organize the bee at the last minute. “It’s an important part of the heritage of what we do here,” Carcieri said.

Other sponsors include the Rotary Clubs of Rhode Island, Amica, Citizens Bank, Independent Insurance Agents of Rhode Island, Utility Contractors Association of Rhode Island, and Channel 12 (WPRI), which streamed the event live on its Web site. The bee will be rebroadcast Saturday at 1 p.m. on FOX Providence, Cox Channel 11.

ffreyer@projo.com