Tapiritanga 1: Te kuputaka Pākehā
Appendix 1: Glossary of English terms

This glossary describes how some specialist terms are used within this document.

Achievement objectives (Ngā whāinga paetae)
Achievement objectives are broad statements of anticipated learning outcomes. At each curriculum level, new achievement objectives are introduced. As a group, these achievement objectives represent the expected outcomes for that level.

Communicative language teaching (He akoranga whakawhiti reo)
Communicative language teaching is teaching that enables students to engage in meaningful communication in the target language. Any approach to language learning that enables students to communicate real information for authentic reasons and to perceive themselves as communicators is a communicative approach.

Comprehensible input
Language learning input is the language we hear or read. If we are able to understand what we hear or read, the input is comprehensible.

Curriculum guidelines (Te aho arataki marau)
Curriculum guidelines inform teachers’ programme planning by setting achievement objectives for students to work towards and by suggesting a range of possible tasks and activities through which students can meet these objectives. These guidelines also suggest contexts in which language learning might take place. They do not specify the content of reo Māori programmes for each group of Māori language students in any particular context. (See also 'Language learning context'.)

Curriculum levels (Ngā taumata)
In The New Zealand Curriculum, achievement objectives for each learning area are provided at eight levels that define a progression of difficulty. The curriculum levels do not necessarily coincide with year levels. The achievement objectives in these curriculum guidelines are aligned with those for the learning languages area in The New Zealand Curriculum and reflect the same levels of difficulty.

Discourse competence
Discourse competence is the ability to understand and produce the range of spoken, written and visual texts that are characteristic of a language so that the texts are well formed and clear. It includes the ability to convey information coherently to those who listen to, read or view those texts.

Fluency
Fluency is the ability to listen to, speak, read or write a language, so that it 'flows' readily, by recognising and producing spoken words and rapidly decoding or encoding and making meaning from written text.

Formative assessment (Aromatawai arataki)
Formative assessment is the monitoring that occurs throughout the process of learning, providing students with feedback on how they are doing and what their next learning steps are. Its purpose is to provide students with the concrete and specific information they need to be able to evaluate and therefore improve their own learning.

Language learning context (Te horopaki mō te ako i te reo)
Language learning cannot take place without contexts that provide meaning and purpose. These include relevant socio-cultural themes (for example, manaakitanga/hospitality) topics (for example, sport and leisure gatherings), and text types (for example, posters, flyers and email messages).

Language form (Te takoto o te kupu)
When people are talking about language, they generally contrast 'form' with 'meaning'. A person may communicate their meaning quite well, but their language forms may be incorrect. Examples of language form are: spelling, plural forms, past-tense forms, and question forms. Form can also apply to the longer structures in sentences and texts.

Language modes (Ngā ara reo)
There are six language modes: reading, writing, viewing, listening, speaking and presenting. There are two oral language modes, two written language modes, and two visual language modes. Speaking, writing, and presenting involve producing language (that is, output), and listening, reading, and viewing involve processing language produced by others (that is, input).

Morphology
Morphology is the study of the forms of words and how they are constructed in terms of parts that have meaning. For example, whakawhanaungatanga can be divided into whaka, whanau, nga, and tanga, each of which is also used to convey the same individual meaning in many other words.

National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)
The National Certificate of Educational Achievement is Aotearoa’s most important qualification for secondary school students. It is based on achievement standards and unit standards that describe broad outcomes and recognise three levels of performance.

Phonemes
Phonemes are the smallest segments of sound used in a spoken language. For example, m, o, o, ng, wh, and u are examples of phonemes used in te reo Māori.

Pragmatic meaning
In linguistics, 'pragmatic meaning' is a term for meaningful language that is used for real communication.

Presenting (Whakaatu)
Presenting is one of six language modes (reading, writing, viewing, listening, speaking and presenting). It involves producing texts that have visual features, which may produce their effect independently or in combination with verbal features, such as the combination of words and images in advertising brochures or gestures and body positioning in performance. (See also 'Viewing'.)

Productive language (Te reo whakaputa)
Productive language is language used to speak, write, and present information for different purposes and audiences. (See also 'Receptive language'.)

Proficiency target statement (Te tohu tauākī)
A proficiency target statement describes the kind of language students are expected to be able to understand and produce when they have completed each pair of curriculum levels. There are four proficiency target statements for the eight curriculum levels.

Receptive language (Te reo torohū)
Receptive language is language that is received and interpreted by a listener, reader or viewer. (See also 'Productive language'.)

Recursive process
A recursive process is one that is repeated over and over again in order to fulfil its purpose.

Self-access centre
A self-access centre is a resource centre where students can access materials in te reo Māori (or those in other languages that they are learning). It supports self-directed learning and the development of learner autonomy.

Socio-cultural themes (Ngā kaupapa ahurea-pāpori)
Socio-cultural themes are ideas or concepts that are socially or culturally significant. The suggested socio-cultural themes at each curriculum level relate directly (for example, whakapapa/genealogy) or indirectly (for example, te akomanga/the classroom) to tikanga Māori. A well-chosen socio-cultural theme can provide an overall context that gives unity to the teaching and learning at that level.

Socio-linguistic competence
Socio-linguistic competence means the ability to produce the language that is appropriate in various social and cultural contexts and when interacting with different kinds of people.

Strategic competence
Strategic competence is the ability to repair breakdowns in communication, using a range of strategies such as repetition, paraphrasing, miming, avoiding problematic concepts and asking for help.

Text types (Ngā momo kōrero)
The distinctive patterns that can be recognised in oral and written texts relate to particular purposes for speaking or writing and are referred to as text types or genres. Each text type has a structure and characteristic features that enable it to meet its purpose and engage its intended audience. Different languages have some unique text types as well as some that are shared with other languages. Written text types include personal and business letters, forms, manuals and reviews. Spoken text types include weather forecasts, lectures, sports commentaries and news bulletins. Visual text types may include performance, static images, web pages, signs and symbols, television and other media. Some text types are specific to certain communities and have cultural significance. Thus, for example, Māori communities include whaikōrero among spoken text types. In the tables at each level, culturally significant text types (for example, waiata Māori) precede more general text types (for example video presentations).

Topics (Ngā kaupapa)
Topics are subjects for reading, writing, debate and discussion. They are suggestions only; there are no prescribed topics. In the tables at each level, topics relevant to tikanga Māori precede more general topics.

Viewing (Mātakitaki)
Viewing is one of the six language modes (reading, writing, viewing, listening, speaking and presenting). It involves processing texts that have visual features, which either stand alone or are used in combination with oral and/or written language. These can include advertisements made up of combinations of words and images, films that involve spoken language, moving images and visual language, or performances that incorporate gesture and body positioning. (See also 'Presenting'.)