Learning a third language has been a reality for students and teachers at Pongakawa School since the start of 2007.
When principal Craig Haggo raised the idea, the staff accepted it as an interesting challenge. They had resource people within their school community, including parents, a teacher aide who had been learning Spanish and a teacher who spoke French as well.
The school has a strong Māori language and kapa haka tradition - all students learn Te Reo, which is timetabled once a week. Raising Māori student achievement is a strong focus, being one of the government goals.
Teacher, Frances Patete explains, “Third language learning ties in well with that. We decided we could marry the two approaches. We have a resource, which is wonderful, but we have a particular approach with Māori, so we have linked the two.”
In 2007 the school offered German, Spanish and French, and Year 7 and 8 students elected which language they’d like to learn. Each teacher worked with a support person.
They just loved it. They felt so important speaking another language - skiting to people. They are beautiful speakers because Māori is strong in the school. Their ear for language seems pre-tuned.
Planning and support
The MOE resources have proved indispensable and guide teachers step by step.
The teachers worked closely with University of Waikato School Support Services adviser, Shirley Bain, as they set up the programme.
She says, “The first step was to have a meeting at the end of 2006 . We looked at strategic planning for 2007 - what would be taught, when, for how long and how this would link with 2008 and beyond. I took them through the resources - unpacked them a little more and we discussed what on-going support I could offer. Often schools aren’t quite sure what support is available.”
The teachers were specific about what they wanted to do, and what they wanted to achieve. They were keen, motivated and very willing.
From these discussions an action plan was developed around the questions:
- What do we want to achieve?
- How are we going to get there?
- How will we know we are getting there?
- How will we know we have got there?
The advisers provided modelling and observation sessions throughout the year, and along with the teachers organised a resource-making day to develop their resource base and explore online resources. The teachers also attended the three-day School Support Services learning languages PD course in Hamilton. These are language specific courses offered yearly to give PD to teachers new to language learning.
Frances says, “It was worth it - and I think all teachers planning to do this should go. Primary school teachers are not always used to different approaches to teaching another language. The emphasis is on the language all the time and you hardly ever have to use English in the class because the approaches they demonstrated were great. We learnt a lot from that - and we took our support people.”
She describes phase one was really just “getting through” and learning. Now they were entering phase two they had a clearer view of what they wanted changed and now they have a programme tailored to their own school.
At the start of this (the second) year, Shirley met with the teachers and discussed their aims for the year which included exploring further ways to collect data and formalising their documentation.This year the school is offering Spanish, French and Italian, and have developed their learning languages summary specific to their school.
Learning languages summary (Word, 130 KB)
Making connections
Learning languages has been integrated into school events such as pet day and the annual disco. The mihi that students prepared in Māori was also prepared in the third language for the disco night. Their costumes reflected the country of the language they were learning.
Learning languages have also been integrated into the reporting process. The mihi is included in the students’ portfolios as a record of best work to be shared with parents.
“Our community just loves the fact that we’re encouraging language learning. If our community can provide these support people, I’m sure many others can too.”
The teachers are now recording data about student achievement. They are still working on a process for doing this with support from Shirley.
Teachers' capability and personal growth
Frances says that the last two years have been both challenging and stimulating, but she has relished taking on something completely new and exciting. When they first started she knew little about Spanish.
She explains that the second year programme is going much more smoothly. She relied heavily at first on her support person, Maggie, who had the language knowledge. Frances helped with the teaching approaches and classroom management, while Maggie imparted the information. When Maggie went to Spain last term she realised “It’s all on me!” But that has proved worthwhile too.
She adds, “So even if you think it’s another school job, it’s actually personal as well. It’s a fascination for me now. I’d never miss my Spanish classes. This happened when Maggie went to Spain and I really had to engage myself in it. It’s great to think my brain can still do that! I am absolutely planning to go to Spain.”
One student’s reflection notes that Fran’s language teacher helped the class too. “So they then realised that I was a learner too, and that I was doing my best to help them learn. But I also need to revisit and correct mistakes.”
This was not unique to me - it was the experience of other teachers as well. Another teacher has been fascinated by the learning activity for herself.
Team teaching and learning
Frances team teaches with teacher aide, Maggy Buhler who says, “Spanish is a lovely language to learn. It’s great to see how enthusiastic the children are. I think its wonderful for children to be exposed to language and realise that in other countries people speak several languages, and that another world exists outside of their own.”
“My husband and I have been learning Spanish for several years. We went to Spain and started to learn Spanish for that. When we came back we decided to continue. We went to a night class for a while, then went to correspondence school. We got up to level 13 last year and decided to go to Spain again this year.”
“I work in the office and the library and now I’m helping with Spanish, which is great for me. I’m having to front up in front of children. It helps keep my language learning going. The hardest thing is thinking on the spot.”
We’re learners together in the class,” adds Frances. “The children are seeing us as learners. It’s quite refreshing for us to see we’re not letting them down by not knowing, but that we’ve responded and found out. It’s a challenge ‘not to know’, but they’ve acknowledged that I’m learning too.
Students' comments
Jackie (Year 8)
I learnt Spanish last year. This year I’m doing Italian. Spanish was more of a struggle than Italian although they are pretty similar. Once you got used to the Spanish pronunciation it rolled more easily. With Italian the hardest bit has been the verb tables - we’ve been doing that for the last couple of weeks. It’s been quite challenging, but also enjoyable - as has learning the comparisons between English and another language. The way sentences are put together are very similar, like if someone says in English “The day is sunny”, that structure is the same in Italian. Whereas, in Māori, the sentences are different. I love learning Italian, because it gives you an experience of a different culture and the way people live and speak.
Teiarere (Year 8)
I really like learning French. It’s a language I’ve wanted to learn for a really long time. It’s enjoyable - when you get older you know you’ve got another language you can speak. The hardest part is the pronunciation, There are some words that are really hard to pronounce. New Zealand in French is Nouvelle Zelande - that was a really hard word to pronounce when we first started to learn. I’m getting better and confident about most things. There are a few things we haven’t learnt yet.
Students' written evaluations
“This term third languages has been cool because I’ve learnt so much more about Spanish language and I achieved lots and got so much out of the Spanish lessons that we’ve had. We also got some tips from our PlayStation and also from Mrs P’s Spanish teacher - and that helps.”
“I have enjoyed Spanish a lot I think it’s worthwhile to learn. I can count up to 110 and I’m still learning more and I really enjoy it because my Dad can speak a bit of Spanish so I talk to him and ask him questions in Spanish, and my Dad can say in Spanish ‘When the sun is hot everything is fine’.”
“Thank you Mrs P for teaching me. You have done well and I have really enjoyed what you have teached [sic] me.”
“The past term third language for me has been very cool. I’ve learnt a lot of things in my third language class and for me learning Espagnole has not been that hard. With our Spanish teacher away for one term last term, it was a little hard for our other Spanish teacher, but she got there.”
- Tags:
- ka hikitia
- learning languages
- middle
Published on: 14 Oct 2008
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Brooke Watts - Dec 21, 2010 at 3:17pm:
I agree that the languages at Pongakawa are good. I had a great time learning them and being able to at least speak another language. It has come in handy being at college because you have to at least learn two types of languages. So a big thanks to Mrs Poihipi , Mr James and Mrs P you all were a really big help good luck for the coming years .