Maori Language

Maori language
Cath Rau with Stuart McNaughton, Margie Höhepa and Lyn Doherty

page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Historical Overview
During 1992, Marie Clay received two versions in Mäori of her observation survey which had been developed independently over a period of about 10 years by groups in the Gisborne and Waikato/Bay of Plenty areas. She encouraged those involved to meet with the aim of producing a single, mutually acceptable version. A series of meetings was thus held where the Mäori versions were carefully analysed, discussed, adjusted and then retrialled in classrooms with children. A crucial aspect of arriving at a single version was the use of back translators. These people were asked to translate back into English, the work that had been 'reconstructed' into Mäori. The requirements therefore were that they be fluent in both the Mäori and English languages and have no prior experience with the observation survey. This was Marie's and the group's assurance that the Mãori rendition reflected as accurately as possible the original purposes, intent and nature of the tasks in English. Several rewrites occurred as a result of these back translations. At the time there were no references to which the back translators could turn for identification or confirmation of the meaning of some of the terminology used. The Mäori equivalents for some of the 'technical' words did not appear in any dictionaries - part of our work had actually involved developing such terms. Most words in Mäori have multiple meanings depending on the context in which they are used. As the back translators as such did not have the benefit of prior knowledge about the tasks, they sometimes had to rely on their own personal interpretations of the material. Arriving at precise meaning therefore was a difficult task which eventually was partly overcome as Te Taura Whiri i te Reo, the (Mäori) Language Commission which came into existence as a national body in 1987, began creating such vocabulary and publishing these in the form of newsletters and later dictionaries.
It is intended that the format of He Mätai Mätätupu, that is two complementary books in the two languages, further remove ambiguity and opportunity for misinterpretation.

Issues arising from the development of the draft
The combined group from Gisborne, Waikato and Bay of Plenty comprised people working within different tribal areas and who represented many different dialects of the Mäori language. The question of which dialect should be used in the text had the potential to become a very sensitive issue. The participants understood however that some compromise was necessary in order to ensure that the work continued without causing offence by showing a preference for one dialect over another. Work was therefore completed under the spirit of co-operation and a determination that it would not take another ten years. The text was written as 'pan Mäori' as possible. A member of Te Taura Whirl i Te Reo eventually edited the work and made some changes so that the script did not become merely a 'jumble' of different dialects. The presence of National Reading Recovery staff and a reading adviser at these meetings also provided access to expert knowledge to ensure that the Mäori script did indeed elicit the types of responses required from children.

The training of teachers
Once a version emerged that was acceptable to all the parties concerned, the next stage involved training teachers in the administration of the tasks. Teacher' from eight schools working in the medium of the Mäori language were approached to undertake the necessary training. With the permission of the National Reading Recovery Centre, the only two Mäori Reading Recovery trained tutors (trained in the programme in English) at the time, agreed to lead the training. Subsequently full-day training sessions were held between March and June of 1995. With this extended network of teacher and expert involvement, and as a result of teacher feedback after practising the tasks with children back in their respective classrooms, further refinements were made.
At the end of the training period teachers were asked to administer the Mäori version on children not previously tested and aged from six to seven years during the remaining months of that year - June to December 1995. To ensure the tasks were being administered in a standard way, two members of the development team, after undergoing checks themselves, were responsible for sitting alongside teachers while they tested children. The scoring of tasks took place simultaneously and where necessary, further on-the-spot training took place. The accuracy and reliability of the data collected was also calculated from these joint testings.

Collecting the data
After the 'checkers' were satisfied that the tasks were being administered correctly, the results from ensuing testing were submitted for inclusion in the data collation phase of the project. The following information was collected:

All teachers in junior classes within these schools, at the time numbering 23, were also asked to complete questionnaires which covered a range of topics such as availability of resources, descriptions of classroom programmes and so on. The literacy programmes of those teachers from whom the sample of children was taken for the data collecting were also observed by one of the checkers as a cross-reference for reliability of the information provided. A fuller discussion of the findings of the questionnaire follows.
The collation of data and information was carried out by staff from or connected to the Education Department of the University of Auckland. It was led by Stuart McNaughton who had been nominated by Marie Clay with members of the Research Unit for Mäori Education to guide this phase of the research. It was from this that an appropriate means of representing children's raw scores in such a way that they could be compared across tasks or across children was developed, that is quartile scores.
The research group was drawn from six schools from Auckland to Gisborne that were seen to be representative of a particular range of programmes operating nationwide. There was a mix of rural and urban schools both long and newly established, examples of Mäori medium classes operating alongside mainstream English, full 'immersion' schools with small, medium and larger rolls, those with and without official Kura Kaupapa status as so on. All schools were government funded - none of the participants was drawn from the 'privately run' Kura Kaupapa sector (that is non-government funded). The other common denominator was that the curriculum in these classes delivered 100% of the time in Mäori. This involved nine teachers administering the survey in Mäori to just over 100 children aged from six to seven years of age.

	Cath Rau with Stuart McNaughton, Margie Höhepa and Lyn Doherty page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Historical Overview During 1992, Marie Clay received two versions in Mäori of her observation survey which had been developed independently over a period of about 10 years by groups in the Gisborne and Waikato/Bay of Plenty areas. She encouraged those involved to meet with the aim of producing a single, mutually acceptable version. A series of meetings was thus held where the Mäori versions were carefully analysed, discussed, adjusted and then retrialled in classrooms with children. A crucial aspect of arriving at a single version was the use of back translators. These people were asked to translate back into English, the work that had been 'reconstructed' into Mäori. The requirements therefore were that they be fluent in both the Mäori and English languages and have no prior experience with the observation survey. This was Marie's and the group's assurance that the Mãori rendition reflected as accurately as possible the original purposes, intent and nature of the tasks in English. Several rewrites occurred as a result of these back translations. At the time there were no references to which the back translators could turn for identification or confirmation of the meaning of some of the terminology used. The Mäori equivalents for some of the 'technical' words did not appear in any dictionaries - part of our work had actually involved developing such terms. Most words in Mäori have multiple meanings depending on the context in which they are used. As the back translators as such did not have the benefit of prior knowledge about the tasks, they sometimes had to rely on their own personal interpretations of the material. Arriving at precise meaning therefore was a difficult task which eventually was partly overcome as Te Taura Whiri i te Reo, the (Mäori) Language Commission which came into existence as a national body in 1987, began creating such vocabulary and publishing these in the form of newsletters and later dictionaries. It is intended that the format of He Mätai Mätätupu, that is two complementary books in the two languages, further remove ambiguity and opportunity for misinterpretation. Issues arising from the development of the draft The combined group from Gisborne, Waikato and Bay of Plenty comprised people working within different tribal areas and who represented many different dialects of the Mäori language. The question of which dialect should be used in the text had the potential to become a very sensitive issue. The participants understood however that some compromise was necessary in order to ensure that the work continued without causing offence by showing a preference for one dialect over another. Work was therefore completed under the spirit of co-operation and a determination that it would not take another ten years. The text was written as 'pan Mäori' as possible. A member of Te Taura Whirl i Te Reo eventually edited the work and made some changes so that the script did not become merely a 'jumble' of different dialects. The presence of National Reading Recovery staff and a reading adviser at these meetings also provided access to expert knowledge to ensure that the Mäori script did indeed elicit the types of responses required from children. The training of teachers Once a version emerged that was acceptable to all the parties concerned, the next stage involved training teachers in the administration of the tasks. Teacher' from eight schools working in the medium of the Mäori language were approached to undertake the necessary training. With the permission of the National Reading Recovery Centre, the only two Mäori Reading Recovery trained tutors (trained in the programme in English) at the time, agreed to lead the training. Subsequently full-day training sessions were held between March and June of 1995. With this extended network of teacher and expert involvement, and as a result of teacher feedback after practising the tasks with children back in their respective classrooms, further refinements were made. At the end of the training period teachers were asked to administer the Mäori version on children not previously tested and aged from six to seven years during the remaining months of that year - June to December 1995. To ensure the tasks were being administered in a standard way, two members of the development team, after undergoing checks themselves, were responsible for sitting alongside teachers while they tested children. The scoring of tasks took place simultaneously and where necessary, further on-the-spot training took place. The accuracy and reliability of the data collected was also calculated from these joint testings. Collecting the data After the 'checkers' were satisfied that the tasks were being administered correctly, the results from ensuing testing were submitted for inclusion in the data collation phase of the project. The following information was collected: the sex and age in years and months of the child an indication of the Mäori language background of the child the raw scores attained for each of the tasks a summary of the running records as well as copies of the actual running record sheets. All teachers in junior classes within these schools, at the time numbering 23, were also asked to complete questionnaires which covered a range of topics such as availability of resources, descriptions of classroom programmes and so on. The literacy programmes of those teachers from whom the sample of children was taken for the data collecting were also observed by one of the checkers as a cross-reference for reliability of the information provided. A fuller discussion of the findings of the questionnaire follows. The collation of data and information was carried out by staff from or connected to the Education Department of the University of Auckland. It was led by Stuart McNaughton who had been nominated by Marie Clay with members of the Research Unit for Mäori Education to guide this phase of the research. It was from this that an appropriate means of representing children's raw scores in such a way that they could be compared across tasks or across children was developed, that is quartile scores. The research group was drawn from six schools from Auckland to Gisborne that were seen to be representative of a particular range of programmes operating nationwide. There was a mix of rural and urban schools both long and newly established, examples of Mäori medium classes operating alongside mainstream English, full 'immersion' schools with small, medium and larger rolls, those with and without official Kura Kaupapa status as so on. All schools were government funded - none of the participants was drawn from the 'privately run' Kura Kaupapa sector (that is non-government funded). The other common denominator was that the curriculum in these classes delivered 100% of the time in Mäori. This involved nine teachers administering the survey in Mäori to just over 100 children aged from six to seven years of age.
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