Bilingual Children's Language and Literacy Development: New Zealand Case Studies: 4 (Child Language and Child Development) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853597112 ISBN 13: 9781853597114

Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2003

Synopsis

This text contains case studies relating the experience of bilingual children in various settings in New Zealand primary schools. The contexts include a Maori immersion school, a Samoan bilingual unit, and mainstream classrooms which cater for immigrant and deaf children. Suggestions for educational policy, teacher development and research are made.

About this title

About the Authors

Roger Barnard is a Research Associate in the Division of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His research interests include second language education and language policy. His most recent book is Narratives of Qualitative PhD Research: Identities, Languages and Cultures in Transition (co-edited with Y. Gurney and Y Wang. Routledge, 2023).

Ted Glynn is Foundation Professor of Teacher Eucation at the University of Waikato. He has a background in applied behaviour analysis, inclusive education, and bicultural and bilingual education as well as extensive experience in working to improve the literacy outcomes for Maori students in both mainstream and Maori immersion settings.

From the Back Cover

Key Features: New Zealand has awoken to the complex linguistic and cultural diversity in its midst, but has no national languages policy. This book sets out the current situation and the key elements for the future. The case studies present challenges for bilingual children's language development which are common to many situations and will help teachers make decisions for their students

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Bilingual Children's Language and Literacy Development

By Roger Barnard, Ted Glynn

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2003 Roger Barnard, Ted Glynn and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85359-711-4

Contents

Notes on the Contributors, vii, 
Introduction Roger Barnard, 1, 
1 Languages in New Zealand: Population, Politics and Policy Roger Peddie, 8, 
2 A Community Elder's Role in Improving Reading and Writing for Maori Students Ted Glynn and Mere Berryman, 36, 
3 Reciprocal Language Learning for Maori Students and Parents Mere Berryman and Ted Glynn, 59, 
4 Samoan Children's Bilingual Language and Literacy Development John McCaffery and Patisepa Tuafuti, in association with Shirley Maihi, Lesley Elia, Nora Ioapo and Saili Aukuso, 80, 
5 A Five-Year-Old Samoan Boy Interacts with his Teacher in a New Zealand Classroom Elaine W. Vine, 108, 
6 Students from Diverse Language Backgrounds in the Primary Classroom Penny Haworth, 136, 
7 Private Speech in the Primary Classroom: Jack, A Korean Learner Roger Barnard, 166, 
8 The Construction of Learning Contexts for Deaf Bilingual Learners Rachel Locker McKee and Yael Biederman, 194, 
9 Community Language Teacher Education Needs in New Zealand Nikhat Shameem, 225, 
10 Students as Fact Gatherers in Language-in-Education Planning Donna Starks and Gary Barkhuizen, 247, 
11 Responding to Language Diversity: A Way Forward for New Zealand Education Ted Glynn, 273, 
Glossary of Terms Used in This Book, 282, 
Index, 284, 

CHAPTER 1

Languages in New Zealand: Population, Politics and Policy

ROGER PEDDIE

Introduction

In the last months of 2002, a major public debate about immigration erupted in the media and in the Parliament of New Zealand. Sparked by minority party leader Winston Peters, the debate centred on the sharply-increased numbers of Asian migrants who had settled in New Zealand in recent years (see later in the chapter). While strong feelings were expressed, and various 'statistics' were presented, the issues revolve around two main areas. First, there are concerns about cultural differences in a country where a common rhetoric holds that 'real New Zealanders' are white/Anglo English-speaking peoples, with some acceptance that Mäori also have some stake – provided they do not want too much of 'our' resources or (even worse) some form of independence from 'us'. Second, when migrants come here they should not only accept 'our' culture, but should very definitely speak 'our' language – English.

This chapter, while acknowledging that language is never fully separated from culture, examines the languages policy and practice of New Zealand, particularly as these apply to the primary school sector. After this introduction, there are five further sections. The first examines the current situation of languages, using figures from the 2001 census, and updates from Statistics New Zealand to document the languages 'profile' in New Zealand. It also introduces some of the key issues concerning languages, both nationally and internationally in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

The chapter then analyses some very important moves by community language and professional interest groups in the 1980s and 1990s, who worked hard, but unsuccessfully, to develop a national languages policy in New Zealand. It refers to the more successful development of a languages policy in Australia, and offers some reasons why a comprehensive national policy has not, to date, been developed in New Zealand.

The next section presents recent data on language learning in New Zealand schools and (much more briefly) other institutions in an attempt to establish the extent of such learning and to see if there is a 'logic' or rationale for it, given current social and national needs. There are brief comments on the range and selection of languages, particularly in respect of possible 'languages policy' issues raised in the previous section.

The recent and highly significant Second Language Learning Project (SLLP), implemented in 1995–98, is summarised in the section that follows, which is based on a comprehensive evaluation of the SLLP carried out in 1997–98 by a team headed by the author (Peddie et al., 1998).

These sections together demonstrate the complexity of trying to reach straightforward decisions about language policy in what is a highly contested field, and the chapter ends by examining a possible way forward. It accepts that the continuing neo-liberal policy of decentralisation and minimal government spending (evident in several governments and coalitions since the mid-1980s) will mean that a comprehensive and well-funded national policy on languages is most unlikely to emerge. But it also argues that central government still needs to adopt a clearly articulated 'strategy' over at least the next five years to ensure that New Zealand's rich language resources are sustained, further developed, and recognised as a significant social, cultural and economic asset.

Language and Languages in New Zealand

New Zealand is increasingly a multi-ethnic and multilingual society, and its linguistic 'balance' has shifted quite sharply since the mid-1980s. In turn, this shift has led to some fierce political and community debates about who should be 'allowed' to migrate to New Zealand. This section gives a brief overview of the language scene in New Zealand, based primarily on data from the national census in 2001, but with additional information drawn from other sources (Statistics New Zealand, 2002a).

New Zealand is still thought of by many as quite a 'British' country. The truth is that New Zealanders come from an increasingly wide variety of backgrounds. In 2000 (though earlier numbers have fluctuated), New Zealand accepted comparatively many more migrants than Australia did (NZ Immigration Service, 2001a; DIMIA, 2001). Significant numbers of these people have come from Asian or other non-English-speaking backgrounds. They have added to the richness of the culture of a small nation that was already moving – some would argue, very slowly – towards an acceptance of its main bicultural heritage; between the tangata whenua (people of the land), the Mäori, and the Anglo-European (often referred to as Pakeha). The data in Table 1.1, drawn from the 2001 Census of New Zealand, give a summary indication of the major groupings in New Zealand in that year. It should be noted that all ethnicities were recorded, which is why the total number of responses is more than twice the total population.

Tables such as this one need very careful interpretation, particularly when making comparisons with earlier census data, as the census ethnicity question in 2001 was changed from the one used in 1996 (Statistics New Zealand, 2002b). While the figures above are in some cases (reportedly) very close to the 'true' numbers of individual residents, others are quite obscure. The 23,500 who said 'European' and the 16,500 who said 'British' are arguably likely to include a number of New Zealand-born Pakeha/ European, and perhaps some South Africans still holding British passports; whereas the 35,000 who said 'English' are quite likely to have been born in England. The latter situation is likely also to be true for the more than 13,500 'Scottish' and the nearly 12,000 'Irish'. For those groups who do not commonly intermarry (e.g. the Chinese), or who are very new arrivals (e.g. the Koreans), the figures in the table are likely to be a fairly accurate indicator of the number of 'New Zealanders'.

Of the non-Anglo-Celtic European groups in New Zealand, the Dutch is the largest group, with the census showing some 27,500 Dutch. Others estimate that as many as 80,000–100,000 New Zealanders could be of Dutch descent (e.g. Schouten, 1992: 257). There are over 21,000 'Australians', but more than 50,000 people were born in Australia (Bedford, 2003). No other Anglo or European group numbers over 10,000 (although the Germans come close with over 9,000). This is partly because many New Zealanders migrating in the nineteenth century from, for example, Scandinavian countries, would no longer identify such countries as markers of their ethnicity. Mainly white South Africans have arrived in significant numbers in recent years and, with continuing migration, the total was perhaps closer to 20,000 by the end of 2002.

Migrant groups from Pacific Islands with close links to New Zealand arrived in large numbers in the 1960s and 70s. For some decades, there have been many more Tokelauans and Niueans living in New Zealand than in their home countries. Two-thirds of these Pacific Island peoples live in greater Auckland, helping to make this conurbation the largest Polynesian city in the world.

Table 1.1 shows that the Samoans are a very large group, and for some 20–30 years they have been the largest non-Anglo/Mäori ethnic group. But, as can also be seen from the table, the total number of Asian New Zealanders was close to the Pasifika (Pacific Island peoples) total and, with continuing Asian migration, is likely to have surpassed it by late 2002. In particular, the number of ethnic Chinese was closing rapidly on the total originating from Samoa. Again, given recent migration figures, the total for ethnic Chinese will have almost certainly moved ahead of the Samoans within a year of the 2001 census.

Chinese migration is very interesting – and complex. There were Chinese in New Zealand in the nineteenth century, but numbers stayed moderately low, mainly because New Zealand (like Australia), introduced discriminatory laws that made Chinese migration very difficult (NZ Immigration Service, undated). In the 15 years following the 1986 census, however, the Chinese population grew by more than 500%. Migration of Chinese, often under business migrant schemes, especially the 'Investor Category' has continued and, as a percentage of new residents, post-census figures are still rising. In the year 2001–2002, for example, Chinese represented 64% of the Investor Category, up from 46% in the previous year (NZ Immigration Service, 2001b, 2002).

The earlier Chinese often spoke Cantonese/Yue or other southern languages, but more of the recent arrivals speak Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin). 'Chinese' refers here to the ethnic group, and includes several thousand from Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-East Asia; but the vast majority of more recent migrants are from Peoples' Republic of China.

The ethnic Indian population has also risen sharply in recent years and in 2001 was about four and a half times its 1986 figure. Contrary to popular belief, this is not because large numbers of ethnic Indians migrated from Fiji following the military coups there. The 2001 census revealed fewer than 2000 Fiji-Indians out of a total of over 60,000. The recent arrivals have migrated mainly from India, but also from Malaysia, Singapore and other parts of Asia. Those from India represented the largest group (24%) of the 31,359 people approved for residence under the 'General Skills' Category in 2001–2002 (NZ Immigration Service, 2002: 1). These data suggest that the total ethnic Indian population may have exceeded 70,000 by the end of 2002, making Indians very decisively the fifth largest group in New Zealand.

The Indian peoples of New Zealand speak a wide variety of languages, including Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil and (increasingly) Hindi. There are also more than 7,000 Sri Lankans, but only just over a thousand from both Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Another smaller, but fast-expanding, Asian group, most of whom have arrived since the early 1990s, is the Koreans, with an estimated total population of at least 20,000, almost all of whom are living in Auckland. With the sharp economic downturn in Korea during 1998, and earlier changes in New Zealand migration rules, Korean migration slowed between 1997–99, but has since increased again. The number of Filipinos has begun to rise, while the Japanese are another small but fast-growing group. In complete contrast to the situation in Australia, there are fewer than 3,500 Vietnamese, a figure that is lower than comparable earlier census figures, reportedly owing to continuing cross-migration to Australia.

The debate about 'Asians' referred to earlier, however, seems to ignore two other very important points. First, the total numbers of Asian tourists and visitors has increased significantly in recent years, mainly owing to an increase in tourists from Korea and China. Indeed, visitors from Japan, China and Korea in the year up to September 2002 totalled almost 300,000 (Tourism Research Council, NZ, 2002). Second, the number of Asian and especially Chinese full fee-paying (FFP) international students in New Zealand has sky-rocketed since the late 1990s. In 2001–2002, just under 32,500 student visas were issued to Chinese (NZ Immigration Service, 2002: 85), while an unknown number were also taking English-language courses of less than three months on visitors' visas. The University of Auckland had more than 3000 FFP students in 2002, more than 50% of which were Chinese. Throughout Auckland and in other key target areas (such as Christchurch or Wellington), there are also numbers of Chinese students in private education providers. Added to these Chinese figures, the NZ Immigration Service reports that in 2001–2002 more than 12,000 student permits were issued to South Koreans, 4500 to Japanese, and more than 10,000 to other Asian groups (NZ Immigration Service, 2002).

A large number of these Asian students are based in Auckland. Thus, when 'your average Kiwi bloke' walks down Auckland's Queen Street (the main shopping street), it is highly likely that a significant number of the 'Asians' he sees are not migrants at all.

How are these migration and related data reflected in language statistics and languages policy? English is certainly the standard language of trade, social intercourse, commerce, government and education. Since 1987 te reo Mäori (the Mäori language) has been an Official Language, recognised in Parliament and the courts (see next section). In recent years, there has been a major revival of te reo Mäori and Mäori culture in New Zealand, with much greater attention being focused on the language and cultural rights inherent in the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), signed by a number of prominent Mäori chiefs and the British Crown in 1840.

Just over 160,000 people recorded in the 2001 census that they spoke some te reo Mäori. But a closer examination of non-Mäori recorded as Mäori-speaking suggests that most of these in fact listed 'Mäori' as one of their ethnicities (Galbraith et al., 2002). This confirms much earlier work by Benton, which showed that very few non-Mäori were fluent in te reo Mäori (Benton, 1979). But another very important way of interpreting the census data is to note that fewer than a third of all who were recorded as Mäori in 2001 claimed to be able to speak te reo Mäori (see Tables 1.1 and 1.2).

Many recent arrivals continue to speak their own languages. Signs in hospitals and other public buildings are increasingly in several languages (often including te reo Mäori, Samoan and, more recently, Chinese). Unlike Australia, however, New Zealand has no official languages policy giving direction or special assistance to the teaching, learning or maintenance of languages other than English. Some assistance with learning English is given to those with language backgrounds other than English but, despite a sizeable boost in recent government budgets, the per capita amount is still well behind that of Australia. The issue of languages policy in much more detail in the next section.

Table 1.2 gives the 2001 census figures for all languages recorded as spoken by more than 4,500 New Zealanders (or just over 0.1%). It should be noted that the census question asked about languages 'in which you can have a conversation about a lot of everyday things'. This is clearly not the same as asking about languages normally spoken on a daily basis, nor is it a measure of genuine fluency. Note that the total number of responses was only 4,429,347 (less than 1.2 times the total population. This suggests that a significant percentage of the population, almost certainly over 80%, is monolingual (and, based on earlier census data, monolingual in English).

This table also needs some interpreting. The numbers in (especially) French, German and Japanese will to a certain extent represent school and tertiary-language learners as well as native speakers, so the numbers of fluent/native speakers are likely to be markedly fewer than the figures in Table 1.2. Similarly, all numbers are 'as recorded' and give no guarantees of genuine proficiency in the language.

Third, the numbers in some cases appear to be lower than migration and other population data might suggest. In the case of Chinese languages, more than 80,000 ethnic Chinese have arrived in New Zealand since the 1986 Census. The total of 69,180 speakers of the three Sinitic languages listed in the table (Cantonese/Yue, Northern Chinese/Mandarin and Min), does not seem to reflect this. But a further 24,000 simply indicated 'Sinitic', without specifying further which language, while several smaller groups recorded that they speak other (specified) Sinitic languages.

Fourth, the table shows that some languages that could be valuable for New Zealand's economic growth (see Peddie, 1991), are modestly well represented (e.g. Japanese, Korean), and others are now starting to rise (e.g. Arabic, Russian, Spanish and Thai). Finally, the reasons for so many New Zealanders not answering the language question on the census remain unclear, although 'None' does of course include infants who are too young to talk (some 76,000).

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1853597112
• ISBN 13: 9781853597114
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Barnard Roger, Glynn Ted