Tuhinga Māhorahora: analyzing words to support teachers in Māori immersion classrooms

Abstract

As present we know too little about how children are using te reo Māori in immersion classrooms. The Tuhinga Māhorahora project significantly adds to our understanding by analysing children's writing in Māori and providing feedback to assist teachers in supporting the writing development of their students.

The project team has been collecting samples of children's written Māori in Years 1-5 immersion classrooms from participating schools in Christchurch. The children's writing is transcribed, marked up and entered into a searchable database. A pilot study was able to strengthen teacher knowledge about language use in the classroom by revealing the vocabulary that their students are using, and, crucially, the vocabulary not yet within the productive language output of the learner. Understanding what children's immediate vocabulary learning needs are can help ensure that programmes provide both quantity and quality of exposure in the target language, thus enabling children to express themselves adequately.

Here we report both on our work setting up the database and results of the analyses on the types and frequency of words being used, and not used, in writing by children in Māori immersion classrooms.