Bilingual High School Growing at grassroots pace

Tu Tangata, Issue 6, 1 June 1982, Page 12

Bilingual High School Growing at grassroots pace

Lindsay Hayes

MATAURANGA/Education

“Cast your eye around the room and almost everything you see tripod, bunsen burner has no Maori word to describe it,” says Gerry McMahon.

A good enough reason, one would think, for not attempting what he is now.

Why then would a non-Maori speaker try to teach a subject like science, with its own specialist language, to pupils when the pupils themselves do not speak Maori?

“I elected to,” is his answer. Gerry, along with a handful of other enthusiasts who are tackling similar transation problems to a lesser degree, believes in Wellington High School’s bid to arm its pupils with an extra skill in his case, bilingualism.

Minor handicap

The absence of an English/Maori dictionary of words encountered in the secondary school junior science syllabus is viewed only as a minor handicap.

Worse perhaps are the interpretation horrors associated with the new maths terminology.

A year’s careful planning has gone into the programme, the first of its type in a New Zealand secondary school.

Mixed ability

It caters for one mixed-ability third form class of 29 pupils, who take all core subjects apart from English (mathematics, science, social studies and physical education) in both English and Maori.

Three pupils from the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Titahi Bay bypassed their local schools specifically to enrol in the bilingual class.

“3DT” is a multi-cultural mixture, comprising four “full pakehas,” 19 Maori, and children with Samoan, Pitcairn Island and Czechoslovakian backgrounds.

They are there because they want to be and with their parents' consent. The requirement to take the Maori language option to reinforce their classroom Maori is the only other condition of their enrolment.

The principal, Mr Turoa Royal, an outspoken critic of the “mono-cultural bias” in state education, says the experiment has no grand design. Neither are there set academic targets to meet.

apart from ensuring that the class keeps pace with the third form curriculum. Based on the premise that the Maori language is viable for today’s pupils growing up in New Zealand, Mr Royal bilingual himself says the programme is intended to increase the social and cultural awareness of children to our multicultural society. He views it as a confidence-booster for pupils as well as being an extra skill, opening up new job opportunities at a time when some employers, such as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand, are seeking bicultural people.

Our heritage High’s effort is to recognise the importance of the Maori language and its contribution to our national heritage. The only other New Zealand secondary school attempting bilingual education is Trident High School, the difference is that 3DT pupils are beginners, whereas at Trident they are already bilingual, coming from the bilingual Ruatoki primary school.

Wellington High is starting from scratch with the programme which, according to Mr Royal, allows a certain flexibility the chance to “grow at our own pace in a grassroots way.” Besides, he says that it is not necessary to be bilingual to take a bilingual class. It is more a matter of “where there’s a will ...” a belief best borne out by the intention of the music teacher, Miss Sally Earle, to enrol in a night school Maori language class. There are several teachers on the staff who took Maori at university and are keen to put their qualifications to use. It is thought they will be needed next year when 3DT moves up a rung and the bilingual programme receives a new third form intake. Mr Royal refers to research undertaken in Wales which identified two key areas for bilingual education: “classroom management language” and “subject content”. For starters, 3DT is progressing with classroom conversation, with the more daunting subject content introduced where translations and teachers’ ability permit. A recent example was a study of Maori food sources in both languages in science.

The strength of the bilingual experiment is 3DT form teacher, Mrs Dovey Taiaroa, who prepares subject units for each teacher to follow. Mrs Hine Taitoki, the 3DT physical education/health teacher, who is also Maori, fills in the Maori language gaps where necessary.

Greatest test

Mrs Taiaroa hopes that in two years’ time the pupils will be bilingual. That will put them in the fifth form, where the bilingual experiment will meet its greatest test, whether or not with 17 subjects offered by the school for School Certificate it can be maintained in the senior forms. Mr Royal does not like to tie himself down to the numbers justification game, but it is quite clear that if pupils go their separate ways with too many different options, then it will not be feasible to continue to teach a handful of pupils certain subjects in both languages. In preparation for this, pupils, teachers and parents will come together well in advance to discuss fifth form options and their likely effects on the bilingual programme. Mr Royal is the first to admit that all languages require a home base to flourish properly. To try to achieve this the parents of the bilingual class pupils were invited to accompany their children and the 3DT teachers to Ngatokoaru Marae, Levin, for a weekend early in April. Here the school was able to put bilingualism into more immediate perspective. The visitors lived on the marae, learnt some elementary Maori protocol and discussed their expectations of the bilingual programme. For many, although Maori, the weekend represented their first time on a marae.

On the wall

Mr Royal says the visit was intended to support the parents and pupils in such a way that the language might be developed at home. Subject units will be sent home with pupils to “pin on the wall” so that the families can keep abreast of the progress and offer any suggestions which might further enhance the programme. There is another good reason for hoping the experiment works. At present, Wellington High, which represents 24 ethnic groups including a large percentage of Maori pupils, has no Maoris in the seventh form. If bilingualism becomes the confidence booster that it is hoped, it may also serve as an added incentive to Maori pupils to see school through. But anyone imagining that the programme is designed to benefit Maoris alone has only to look at the make-up of 3DT to see otherwise.