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Activities
Effective pedagogy for language teaching
Effective pedagogy research is integrated into these teacher support materials.
The New Zealand Curriculum (pages 34–36) summarises evidence of the kinds of teaching approaches that consistently have an impact on student learning.
Research into second language acquisition pedagogy reviewed in Ellis (2005) establishes ten principles for teacher actions that promote student learning.
Research into intercultural communicative language teaching (Rivers, based on Newton et al., 2010 [1]) establishes six principles for a pedagogy that is effective in achieving the outcomes specified in The New Zealand Curriculum.
Language learning activities
Choose or adapt these learning activities to suit your students’ diverse needs and the particular objectives they are to achieve.
Listening comprehension – focus on actions
This activity helps the students to understand the story when it is read aloud. They focus on the actions performed by particular characters in the story.
| As you listen to the story, write in the name of the person who completed each action.
|
Hand our copies of this gap activity, one copy per student. Write the names of the characters in the story on the board.
Read the text aloud. As the students listen, they write the name of the person who completed each action in the gap. Repeat the reading so that your students manage to complete their entries. The students check their responses using copies of the storybook or the English translation.
Formulaic expressions
The students recognise particular phrases in context. They use these when they communicate in gagana Tokelau in other contexts.
The students work in pairs. They read the story and make a list of ten formulaic expressions that they can use when speaking gagana Tokelau. If needed, hand out copies of the English translation for them to refer to as they work on this task. Some examples of formulaic expressions are:
- Ē ā lā koe i ei? / How about that, eh?
- Heā kō? / What was that?
- Io, e hako. / Yes, it does. (An expression of agreement).
Compile a list of suitable expressions. Write these on charts for the classroom wall. One chart has the expressions in gagana Tokelau. Another chart has the same expressions in English. Challenge the students to use these expressions as they work on tasks in the classroom. In this way, they develop their skills in communicating in gagana Tokelau.
Reading aloud – focus on pronunciation
The students improve their pronunciation and reading fluency in gagana Tokelau.
The students work in groups to read the story aloud as a role-play. Give them time to rehearse their role-plays before they present them to the class, to enable them to build fluency in the delivery of their lines. You may wish to have a gagana Tokelau speaker involved with this activity so that your students can benefit from feedback, and work to improve the quality of their pronunciation.
Charades
This activity reinforces the students’ vocabulary knowledge, helping them to make direct links between the words and actions.
Make sets of cards with a phrase in gagana Tokelau on each card that describes an action, for example, puke ni ata (take some photos). The students work in small groups. Each group spreads out the cards, face up, in the centre of the group. One person mimes an action on one of the cards. The first person to pick up the card that matches the mimed action gets a point. The person with the most points wins.
Food for the table
The students recognise that the target language and target culture are organised in particular ways as they explore how people make decisions about access to and use of resources. They make connections with their own language(s) and culture(s).
Fishing is important to Tokelau people. The students research:
- fishing in Tokelau, for example, net fishing, reef fishing, open sea fishing, and the kinds of fish and shellfish that are commonly caught to provide food for the table. What practices are used for sustainable fishing? A useful open access online resource is Echoes at Fishermen’s Rock: Traditional Tokelau Fishing.
- fishing by Tokelau people in New Zealand, for example, shore fishing, open sea fishing, and the kinds of fish and shellfish that are commonly caught to provide food for the table. What practices are used for sustainable fishing?
The students contribute to wall charts, illustrating and naming the fish and shellfish commonly eaten in (a) Tokelau and (b) New Zealand. Discuss with them what they discovered about sustainable fishing practices in Tokelau and in New Zealand.
Technologies used in fishing
This activity helps the students to understand how society and environments impact on and are influenced by technology in historical and contemporary contexts.
Play the song “Te Galu kā Tū Nei”to set the scene. This song is about paddlers who steer their canoe through the reef. The song is in the print and CD resources Fātuga Faka-Tokelau: Tokelauan Songs [item 31047] and Songs to Celebrate Pasifika Languages and Cultures: Songs and Music to Support the Pasifika Learning Languages Series for Years 7 – 10 (Wellington: Ministry of Education, 2010).
The students work in pairs or groups to explore the differences between the technologies used for fishing in Tokelau and in New Zealand, for example, kinds of boats; how the boats are powered; what people wear when fishing; and the kind of equipment they use to catch the fish and store their catch. Divide up the topics. The students make a wall chart (with written and visual texts) for others to view. They present their information to others in the class. Display these wall charts in a suitable place in your school.
As your students present their research, ask them what comparisons and connections they can make with practices in their own cultures.
Writing
The students prepare written texts using macrons and correct spelling. They construct meaning through writing in order to communicate about people, places, and things.
The students work in groups of three or four. Each group composes a story in gagana Tokelau about fishing. They use the text in the storybook as a basis for their stories. When they complete their stories, they hand them to another group to read.
Each group reads the story they are given, and gives feedback to the writers about how well they understand the story. The feedback includes what helped them to understand the story and what hindered their understanding. This feedback will give you useful insights into the reading strategies the students are using.
Showing social awareness
The students use language, positioning, and movement to show respect. They show social awareness when interacting with others.
The students work in pairs or groups to find examples of fakaaloalo (respect) in the story. Each group compiles a list of examples. The groups take turns to share their examples with the other groups. As they give their examples, write these on the board as a checklist. Discuss the inati philosophy and have the students comment on the values it entails, and to what extent they are represented in the story.
The students work in groups to prepare a role-play based on the story. They use appropriate positioning and movement to show respect. Emphasise the difference in focus between learning activity 3 in these support materials and this task.
Use a video recording of their role-plays as a stimulus for discussion and to provide feedback on their performances. Use the criteria for “controlled production” on pages 239–240 in Unit 9 of Muakiga!
Responding to questions
The students produce information by responding to questions.
Set the scene. Each student has been out fishing and has caught a big fish. When they come to shore, they are interviewed about their catch. The interviewer asks them a set of questions and they give replies. The students use expressions from the storybook along with those they learned in Units 1–8 of Muakiga! to prepare their responses.
As you are the teacher, take the role of the interviewer, or select a competent gagana Tokelau speaker in your class to perform this role. Prepare the questions so that your students know what to expect. The questions include greetings, asking for name, age, address, who was with them on the boat, what other catch there was, who caught the biggest fish, what kind of fish it was, and their feelings about the catch.
Adapting text
The students adapt particular phrases and use them in different contexts to reinforce their learning.
The students make up a story about something big they have or have done. They find three sentences from the storybook and from Units 1–8 of Muakiga! to useto tell their story. They could use themes such as:
- I have the biggest family.
- I ate the biggest fish.
- I made the biggest sandwich.
When the students are ready, have a round robin, where the students take turns to tell their story round the class.
For an extra challenge, tell the students that the rule is now “no repetition”. When one student mentions an item, then no one else can use it. The students have to listen carefully to others and be ready to change their item if it has already been used.
Enjoying food
This activity reinforces the achievement objectives for Unit 8, enabling the students to:
- identify some food and drinks
- show social awareness when interacting with others
- communicate interest, enjoyment, and need.
The focus for this activity is pages 8 and 9 of the storybook, and the vocabulary and expressions the students have been learning in Unit 8. Working in groups, the students make up a scenario that is different in detail from the one described in the storybook. The scenario involves family members, a description of dinner on the table, the young people’s involvement, and comments about the food.
The students take time to develop their scenarios and rehearse them. They present their role-plays to the class and receive feedback on how well class members have been able to understand them.
Reflecting on their learning
You can help the students to reflect on their learning, and also on how they learn. Students could share these reflections with another student, with a small group of students, or with the whole class. As a prompt, ask the students questions such as:
- What strategies and activities helped you to understand the story?
- What strategies and activities helped you to remember the new language?
- How can you use the new language in other contexts?
- Can you identify aspects of new learning about Tokelau culture?
- How have you improved your use of gagana Tokelau?
For example, a student might say:
“I can now communicate something about fishing in gagana Tokelau. Writing about fishing, and answering questions about it, helped me to remember new language. I can also talk about differences between fishing in New Zealand and in Tokelau, the technologies used, and sustainable practices.”
[1] Newton, J., Yates, E., Shearn, S., and Nowitzki, W. (2009). Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching: Implications for Effective Teaching and Learning. Wellington: Ministry of Education.