The debate that followed generated more heat than light. Some commentators implied the move is racist. But there is a sound educational reason that Stanford asked the Ministry of Education to remove Māori words from books for Year 1 students. Unfortunately, none of the media coverage has explained that reason very clearly.
Alphabets depict language sounds visually. If we know the rules governing the relationships between letters (or small groups of letters) and the sounds they represent, we can ‘sound out’ words we haven’t seen in written form before.
This is very helpful in teaching children to read. It means they don’t have to memorise the spelling of every word to read it. If a child learns about 40 rules for converting spelling to sound, they can sound out and recognise a word they have not seen in written form before, provided it is in their spoken vocabulary.
Learning to use spelling-sound correspondences is the first stage of the ‘structured literacy’ approach to reading that is now being used in New Zealand schools.
It works. England, where this approach was adopted more than a decade ago, is now seeing improvements in the literacy of its young adults.
English is an annoying language to learn to read. Only about 70% of its words obey the spelling-to-sound rules. These are called ‘regular words.’ Words that do not follow the rules are called ‘irregular words.’
Sounding out irregular words like ‘yacht’ doesn’t really help us recognise them. Applying the rules gives us the wrong sounds. These words just have to be learned visually. Even so, being able to sound out 70% of the words in their spoken vocabularies gives children a huge head start with reading.
To avoid confusing beginning readers, schools give them books that avoid using irregular words as much as possible. That enables them to become fluent in sounding out regular words before adding the complication of reading irregular words.
English uses the Roman alphabet. So do many other languages, including Te Reo Māori. But English and Te Reo have different rules for converting Roman letters to sounds. For example, in English, the letters ‘wh’ correspond to a /w/ sound, as in ‘where.’ In Te Reo, the same pair of letters corresponds to a /f/ sound, as in ‘whare.’
Many Māori words have become part of New Zealand English. Our young people need to learn to read them. But most Māori words do not conform to the regular spelling-sound rules for English. So, it is better not to use them in books for beginning readers.
That is why Stanford asked the Ministry not to use Māori words in Year 1 readers. She does not want to ban the Māori language from our schools, far from it. She has asked the Ministry to explicitly include Māori words in the English curriculum. In Year 1, though, including Māori words in children’s reading books would complicate the process of learning to read in English.
The converse is true for children at full immersion Kura learning to read in Māori. It would be confusing to include English words in their books.
Some commentators have said that including Māori words in English books is a great way to familiarise children with the Māori language. And that is true – once they have learned the regular spelling-sound mappings for English.
What about bilingual children? Couldn’t they benefit from having both languages included in beginning reading books? Not really. They would have to learn two sets of rules for converting spelling to sound, and switch between them, depending on the language to which a given word belongs. It is better to get children fluent with the spelling-sound rules for one language at a time.
It is different for spoken language. Children raised in bilingual homes can learn both languages seamlessly.
A child who is truly bilingual could start reading in either of their languages. In fact, a child who is at least as proficient in Te Reo Māori as in English should probably be taught to read in Māori first.
Te Reo is an easier language than English to learn to read. That is because all Māori words have regular spellings. If a child knows the spelling-to-sound rules for Te Reo, they can sound out any Māori word in their spoken vocabulary.
Having a substantial spoken vocabulary is essential for the ‘sounding out’ process to work. Otherwise, a child might sound out a word correctly, but if it is not in their spoken vocabulary, they will not be able to recognise it. The sound won’t mean anything to them. So, a bilingual child is best off starting to read in the language in which they know the most words.
It would serve our young people better if commentators took the time to fully understand the reasons for educational policies before using them as political footballs.
Dr Michael Johnston is a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
This is very helpful in teaching children to read. It means they don’t have to memorise the spelling of every word to read it. If a child learns about 40 rules for converting spelling to sound, they can sound out and recognise a word they have not seen in written form before, provided it is in their spoken vocabulary.
Learning to use spelling-sound correspondences is the first stage of the ‘structured literacy’ approach to reading that is now being used in New Zealand schools.
It works. England, where this approach was adopted more than a decade ago, is now seeing improvements in the literacy of its young adults.
English is an annoying language to learn to read. Only about 70% of its words obey the spelling-to-sound rules. These are called ‘regular words.’ Words that do not follow the rules are called ‘irregular words.’
Sounding out irregular words like ‘yacht’ doesn’t really help us recognise them. Applying the rules gives us the wrong sounds. These words just have to be learned visually. Even so, being able to sound out 70% of the words in their spoken vocabularies gives children a huge head start with reading.
To avoid confusing beginning readers, schools give them books that avoid using irregular words as much as possible. That enables them to become fluent in sounding out regular words before adding the complication of reading irregular words.
English uses the Roman alphabet. So do many other languages, including Te Reo Māori. But English and Te Reo have different rules for converting Roman letters to sounds. For example, in English, the letters ‘wh’ correspond to a /w/ sound, as in ‘where.’ In Te Reo, the same pair of letters corresponds to a /f/ sound, as in ‘whare.’
Many Māori words have become part of New Zealand English. Our young people need to learn to read them. But most Māori words do not conform to the regular spelling-sound rules for English. So, it is better not to use them in books for beginning readers.
That is why Stanford asked the Ministry not to use Māori words in Year 1 readers. She does not want to ban the Māori language from our schools, far from it. She has asked the Ministry to explicitly include Māori words in the English curriculum. In Year 1, though, including Māori words in children’s reading books would complicate the process of learning to read in English.
The converse is true for children at full immersion Kura learning to read in Māori. It would be confusing to include English words in their books.
Some commentators have said that including Māori words in English books is a great way to familiarise children with the Māori language. And that is true – once they have learned the regular spelling-sound mappings for English.
What about bilingual children? Couldn’t they benefit from having both languages included in beginning reading books? Not really. They would have to learn two sets of rules for converting spelling to sound, and switch between them, depending on the language to which a given word belongs. It is better to get children fluent with the spelling-sound rules for one language at a time.
It is different for spoken language. Children raised in bilingual homes can learn both languages seamlessly.
A child who is truly bilingual could start reading in either of their languages. In fact, a child who is at least as proficient in Te Reo Māori as in English should probably be taught to read in Māori first.
Te Reo is an easier language than English to learn to read. That is because all Māori words have regular spellings. If a child knows the spelling-to-sound rules for Te Reo, they can sound out any Māori word in their spoken vocabulary.
Having a substantial spoken vocabulary is essential for the ‘sounding out’ process to work. Otherwise, a child might sound out a word correctly, but if it is not in their spoken vocabulary, they will not be able to recognise it. The sound won’t mean anything to them. So, a bilingual child is best off starting to read in the language in which they know the most words.
It would serve our young people better if commentators took the time to fully understand the reasons for educational policies before using them as political footballs.
Dr Michael Johnston is a Senior Fellow at the New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
I spent many years teaching 18+ year-olds for whom English was a second (or third, fourth....) language. One difference between a child and a young adult is that the child will usually accept weird spellings without question whereas the adult will question it. I found it useful to explain to my students that today's spellings guide us to yesteryear's pronunciations, throwing in examples of yesteryear Germanic languages from which some words are derived e.g. 'night'/'nacht', 'yacht'/jacht' (Dutch for 'hunt'), 'plough'/'pflug' or [Dutch] 'ploeg'.
It's amazing how close the spelling/voicing correspondence is for English when you take a historical approach to the issue!
If NZ wants to end up speaking a pidgin form of English, then we have been going the right way about it. The more te reo we mix into our everyday English, over time it will become increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to understand us. Anyone who has studied linguistics would be well aware of this. With some 85% of world trade conducted in English and NZ a small exporting nation at the bottom of the world, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Having English as our primary (though not yet “official”) language is a competitive advantage we should not be setting out to destroy. Learn and speak te reo if that is meaningful to you, but best we don’t mix it up with everyday English.
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