C&Pa Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Learning Languages 4

… third and final strand which is often described as the core strand: Communication.

Whereas the language strand and the knowledge strand are used primarily to front-load ākonga with the study of the target language and the study of the target culture and comparing it with their own culture/s, the communication strand is about using the target language and culture to make meaning. As their linguistic and cultural knowledge increases, ākonga become more effective communicators, developing the receptive skills of listening, reading, and viewing and the productive skills of speaking, writing, and presenting or performing.
The learning outcomes for this module are as follows:
– to understand how the Communication strand of the Learning Language curriculum is the core strand, supported by the language knowledge and cultural knowledge strands
– to connect the notion of Communication to the six intercultural teaching principles of Newton et al. (2010) to the teaching of languages in New Zealand primary schools

Further information on the six principles can be found in the following document:
Newton, J., Yates, E., Shearn, S., & Nowitzki, W. (2010). Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching: Implications for Effective Teaching and Learning. A Literature Review and an Evidence-Based Framework for Effective Teaching. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

A huge thanks to Tui Tuia Learning Circle from whom material for this module is from. Here is a link to a selection of padlets with links to help develop your competency to teach in a range of target languages and cultures.
https://tuituialanguages.padlet.org/Tui_Tuia_Languages/krzznppbi2r9

Newton et al. (2010) ICLT Principle #1: Integrate the target language and culture into your classroom from the outset.

Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching

Communication is the CORE strand of the Learning Languages curriculum. It brings the supporting strands of ‘Language Knowledge’ and ‘Cultural Knowledge’ together through the act of ‘Communication’.

…languages and culture are inseparably linked to the social and cultural contexts in which they are used. Language and culture play a key role in developing our personal, group, national and human identities. 

There are three cultural viewpoints to consider when teaching a target language/culture in Aotearoa. 

1. A Te Ao Māori cultural worldview.
2. The culture/s of those in the classroom/school of ākonga and teacher/s if non-Māori.
3. The culture of the target language. 

…to starting building understanding and knowledge of the target language and culture into our classrooms from the very first day…

1. We can access the rich cultural context found in simple greetings such as behaviour when meeting someone for the first time. 
2. We can explore and compare gestures and body language across cultures. [cross-cultural communication]
3. Self-introduction are the most common form of target language learning at the beginning of the year around classrooms in Aotearoa. Explore with your ākonga why people introduce themselves in a certain way, what are the meanings and similarities between cultures. As Māori, we introduce ourselves based on where we come from, our ancestral land/s, and tribal affiliation/s. This is shared through a pepeha or a mihi. Japanese similarly give their family name before their first name. Both Māori and Japanese cultures pay respect to their whānau before acknowledging themselves as individuals. How to people introduce themselves in the target language/culture that you are teaching?
4. Expressions of politeness and respect.
5. Entering the classroom: Shoes are often taken before entering a marae and many homes belonging to Māori whānau. Shoes are not worn inside many Asian and Pasifika homes. When students enter your classroom from the beginning of the year, could this be an opportunity to teach culture? 
6. Greeting and Thank-you: Teaching students to greet and thank you as their teacher in a culturally appropriate manner as per the target language/culture. 

Principle #2: Engage ākonga in genuine and rich social interaction.

Research (Noels & Clément, 1996; Dellit, 2005; Rubenfeld et al., 2006) shows that contact with a target language and culture can promote positive attitudes in ākonga. 

1) Using target language phrases to get their genuine needs met within the classroom.

Activity: List some phrases or questions that ākonga might genuinely ask and need in your classroom. Use these as a springboard for teaching ākonga these phrases/questions in the target language for use in a genuine, real-life context within your classroom. 

2) Role-play and tasked based-learning to practice culturally appropriate behaviours.

In the target language/culture you are teaching, what culturally appropriate behaviours might you carry out or role-play in your class to build intercultural competence in ākonga?

Activity: List some culturally appropriate behaviours and tasks in the target language/culture you are teaching that you could genuinely integrate within the day-to-day running of your classroom. Use these as a springboard for teaching ākonga the target language and culture for use within and outside your classroom. 

Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC): Exchanges (like to different countries!), trips to restaurants, marae, festivals, language camps and multilingual marae noho are ways in which real-life based learning build genuine and rich social and cultural interaction.

Principle #3: Develop an exploratory and reflective approach to culture and culture in language in your classroom.

Newton maintains that culture is manifest in language in OBVIOUS ways. Overt forms of politeness, for example, are evident in culturally distinct forms such as karakia, a ‘ava’ ceremony, Japanese tea ceremony.

…culture is manifest in language in SUBTLE ways too. These include ways that cultures have distinct patterns and linguistic form to give conversational feedback to others, the degree of tolerance for overlapping speech and interruptions, the degree of indirectness in speech acts such as rituals and requests. There are a vast number of other communicative subtleties displayed in everyday use of language.

Activity: Brainstorm other communicative subtleties that ākonga might connect with in and outside the classroom.

How can we develop this principle with our ākonga in our classroom?

1. Observe and consider culturally appropriate behaviour, both verbal and non-verbal
2. Encourage students to be COMMUNICATIVE INVESTIGATORS or COMMUNICATION DETECTIVES.
   • Get them to explore the subtleties of communication in the target language/culture and compare it with their own and the cultures of staff and ākonga in the classroom, noticing what is the same and different between the different forms of communication.
   • Ākonga could present their findings of subtle rules in a three-way Venn diagram for example. Showing the overlap between three cultures on any subtle form of communication (Māori, non-Māori culture of ākonga/staff and target culture).
   • This could be extended to encourage writing a form of interaction such as a play where such knowledge is woven into it. 

Principle #4: Foster explicit comparisons and connections between languages and cultures.

Principle #5: Acknowledge and respond appropriately to diverse learners and learning contexts.

Student cultural and linguistic diversity is seen as a pedagogical resource that teachers need to be aware of when teaching in the learning languages area. Teachers have a clear responsibility to manage the representation of and participation in cultures which are new to ākonga, and to show an appreciation of, and respect for the cultures that ākonga bring with them into the classroom. 

1) Positive and purposeful relationships: These are key and often at the core of most teachers’ philosophy of learning. Learn from your ākonga about who they are. Know your ākonga and help them to get to know each other. 

2) Co-construction: Ākonga might bring an artefact or photograph of an item of cultural significance to share with the class. For example, they might bring something that belongs to a grandparent to describe in the target language. 

3) Where our school is located: Every school is on land that has a pre-colonial history. Find out who the original people, tangata whenua/mana whenua, are and learn their stories or pūrākau. Acknowledge those stories in your teaching, perhaps there are waiata that they want to share and pass onto ākonga. 

4) Guide creation: Ākonga could create a guide in the target language for visitors to the school about who the mana whenua are and what their stories are. They might write instructions for a pōwhiri to share with visitors.

5) Ensure posters, texts and images in the classroom represent the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand: Teachers need to ensure that the classroom has a diversity of images, representing the languages and cultures of those in the classroom and school and also throughout Aotearoa. 

Principle #6: Emphasise INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE rather than NATIVE SPEAKER competence.

The final principle challenges the implicit benchmarking of ākonga proficiency or progress against native-speaker competence, and proposes instead that intercultural competence provides a more realistic goal of instruction. Native speaker competence is an impossible target for most language learners. Don’t forget this for your ākonga and for yourself as teacher! A primary goal of learning languages teaching in the Aotearoa New Zealand primary school context is for ākonga to learn to act appropriately in diverse cultural settings, without losing their own identity.

Some things to be aware of:

1) International dress up days need to have guidelines about appropriation. Ākonga should know not to take from another culture and rather ought to seek permission to wear cultural clothing and needs to be freely given by people from that culture. This might be through the friends and family friends of ākonga and done through dialogue and respect. 

2) Foster open-mindedness: No one person or whānau is an absolute authority on their culture. People who come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds to speak or share about their culture and/or language with ākonga have their own idiosyncracies that might not be part of the wider cultural group.

3) Avoid over-correcting ākonga attempts at language: When ākonga don’t speak the target language perfectly, as a teacher, avoid over-correcting them. In doing so, you are signalling that the goal is native speaker confidence. In the same vein, this does not mean NEVER correct mistakes ākonga make in language attempts