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Te Reo Māori in the New Zealand Curriculum: Draft

Communicative language teaching

Communicative language teaching enables learners to engage in meaningful communication in the target language. Such communication has a function over and above that of language learning itself. Any approach that enables learners to communicate real information for authentic reasons is a communicative approach.

Classroom-based language learning will inevitably be artificial in some respects. However, communicative language teaching requires keeping such artificiality to a minimum and avoiding language exercises that are out of context and essentially meaning-free. A task-based approach to the curriculum promotes the idea that language should be treated “primarily as a tool for communicating rather than as an object for study or manipulation.”¹

Language learning involves much more than control of language forms. It also involves, for example:

• fluency as well as accuracy;
• listening and speaking as well as reading, writing, viewing, and presenting;

• sensitivity to what is culturally and linguistically appropriate in different contexts;

• awareness of how conversations progress and how different types of text (such as personal letters and instruction manuals) are constructed.

It is unrealistic to expect error-free production at all times.

Students reach higher levels of competence in te reo Māori when they are actively engaged in the language, that is, when they are taking part in tasks related to subjects that they find genuinely interesting and relevant. As students learn to use te reo Māori with increasing accuracy and appropriateness in relevant, meaningful contexts, their confidence and proficiency will grow.

These curriculum guidelines facilitate a communicative approach to the teaching and learning of Māori language. Meaningful communication in te reo Māori is the key outcome. This means that the activities in which learners engage, including assessment activities, should involve communicating real information for authentic reasons. Communication is fundamental to language learning. Learners need to communicate meaningfully if they are to progress. There is little point in communicating what is already known. This simple observation underpins the recommended approach.

Encouraging students to use te reo Māori for meaningful communication

Communicative language teaching aims to provide meaningful, authentic contexts in which learners can encounter and practise the various aspects of successful communication. Successful communication involves more than the knowledge and use of grammar and vocabulary. It also includes, for example:

• sociolinguistic competence – the ability to produce appropriate language in various contexts, interacting with various participants, with reference to social and cultural norms;

• strategic competence – the ability to sustain conversation and repair
  breakdowns in communication;

• discourse competence – the ability to coherently produce and shape
  a range of spoken, written, and visual texts that are characteristic of
  a particular language.

Communicative tasks need to reflect real-life communication as closely as possible and establish a genuine need for communication, for example, by asking learners to seek or provide the information required to complete the task successfully. If an activity involves a student asking to be told something that they already know, the activity is not a communicative one – and the students are not likely to find it rewarding.

It is also important to provide form-focused instruction in language programmes in ways that suit learners’ stages of cognitive development and language proficiency. An effective way to do this is to provide exposure to specific language forms implicitly through well-constructed communicative tasks that naturally lead to the use of those forms. Teaching grammatical rules explicitly and expecting learners to memorise them is less effective. An important part of a language teacher’s repertoire is knowing how to teach language forms in meaningful and effective ways.

Level 1 of this curriculum focuses on the presentation of formulaic language; that is, language that can be used meaningfully in a specific context without reference to how it might be adapted for use in other contexts.

The teaching, learning, storage, retrieval, and use of vocabulary all play a central role in language learning. Where vocabulary is introduced and practised in communicative contexts (rather than in lists), learners are more likely to see the relevance and to be sufficiently interested and motivated to remember words. If teachers use Māori words and expressions regularly – in, for example, classroom instructions – in ways that make their meaning clear, receptive acquisition (where learners can recognise the words and their meanings when they hear them) is likely to take place before productive use (where learners can not only recognise words but also use them themselves).

It is important not to introduce too much too quickly or to attempt to cover every aspect of te reo Māori in school programmes. Te reo Māori programmes that introduce too much too quickly do not give students a genuine opportunity to learn the new material. They may even undermine student confidence and motivation. Teachers, particularly those who are highly proficient in te reo Māori, should always remember to use language that is appropriate for the age and existing competencies of the students and consistent with the specified aims and objectives of each curriculum level. Teachers should bear in mind that satisfactory completion of level 8 signals that students have a good grasp of many of the important aspects of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, which provides a solid basis from which to pursue further learning. It does not mean that their proficiency should match that of a native speaker of te reo Māori.

From the very outset of a language-learning programme, the learning should be not only enjoyable but also purposeful, systematic, and effective – with regular feedback provided that assists students’ progression through the levels. Students should be exposed to a balanced programme of age- and level-appropriate listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and presenting. The programme should also be balanced in terms of four main components: meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, fluency development, and form-focused instruction.

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