Abstract
The place of English language instruction in Mäori medium schools is controversial, with many schools choosing to either exclude it from their curriculum or pay lip service to it. How schools support students’ academic English language growth is an issue that remains unresolved and under-researched. This chapter reports on a research project that investigated the English transition programmes of three Mäori medium schools. It used interviews and observations of key personnel of these schools to explore how they arrange their English transition programmes and what issues they face. It also assessed the literacy achievement of the Year 8 students of each school.
The project found that there is a direct relationship between the quantity and quality of exposure to English instruction and student achievement. The schools that included a more significant English transition programme, and were staffed by teachers who were knowledgeable about the needs of bilingual students and how to attend to them, had more effective programmes and more satisfied students. This paper argues that it is essential to plan for the English language outcomes of Mäori medium students, and that planning should consider their language skills acquisition over the full 13 years of their formal education.
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Notes
- 1.
Māori-medium programmes are divided into four levels (1–4) according to the quantity of Māori instruction that occurs. Level 1 programmes include 81–100 %, Level 2, 51–80 %; Level 3, 31–50 % and Level 4, 12–30 %. School funding is also regulated by these levels with Level 1 programmes attracting the highest level of funding per student.
- 2.
The Ngā Kete Kōrero framework grades Māori readers into five levels; kiekie (emergent readers), harakeke (early), pingao (fluent), miro (fluent) and whatu (secondary school level).
- 3.
The New Zealand curriculum (New Zealand Ministry of Education 2007) measures student attainment within eight levels with each level measuring approximately two chronological years. Year 1 and 2 students would work at Level one of the curriculum, year 3 and 4 students, Level two, etc.
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Hill, R. (2014). Finding a Space for English: A Case Study of How a Māori-Medium School Negotiates the Teaching of Māori and English. In: Rinehart, R., Barbour, K., Pope, C. (eds) Ethnographic Worldviews. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6916-8_5
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