Lots of students enjoy learning Maori in New Zealand. It is an inspiring subject in which you can discover a new completely different language, find out more about New Zealand's history, traditions and art and have a good time making dialogues and having conversations with your classmates.
However, from year 11 on, it becomes not enough to simply learn Maori anymore. To pass each level of the NCEA, students need to complete standards and gain credits in their courses. In the case of Maori, that requires a whole set of language skills and good cultural knowledge.
In year 12, students are supposed to have reached level 7 of Maori skills established by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. That means that they should normally be able to understand most conversations in te reo, read all types of texts and express themselves in different contexts.
It is those abilities that are meant to be tested through the NCEA level 2 assessment standards. Some of them will be completed by students throughout the year in their course, others will be taken as exams and submitted to external assessment.
You may think that all you need to meet every standard and get credits at Merit or Excellence is a good command of te reo. That is partly true. It is, of course, your writing, understanding and speaking skills that you will need to demonstrate for each standard but that's not all.
The NCEA Level 2 standards are based on certain kinds of tasks that students will need to do. If they are not at all ready for a particular assignment, they may not be able to do it well even if they have a very good level of Maori.
By contrast, a student who knows what is awaiting them in the exam can prepare for that exact kind of standard and achieve Merit or Excellence without having such advanced language abilities.
That means that before a student starts their revision, it can be useful to look at the NCEA level 2 standards in more detail. That way, they can get their literacy credits without major difficulty and get closer to finally obtaining university entrance.
Internal and external assessment standards
Independently of the NCEA course that the student may take, there are two main types of assessment standards: internal and external.
The first can generally be completed by the student during the year and are evaluated by their immediate school teacher. An internal standard may be somewhat less stressful than an external standard because students prepare for them in their course and the assessment takes place in a familiar environment.
The second type of standards is, on the other hand, marked outside the student's school by NZQA. As a result, an external standard is likely to consist in a written exam. Students' papers are sent for evaluation to the corresponding organisation and the students receive their marks later on.
Do you want to know more about how to pass NCEA level 2 Maori? Have a look at our article.
When revising their NCEA subjects, students should pay attention to both types of standards, though it's important to keep in mind that external subjects are more stressful and that may also influence the student's performance.
We will now have a look at the most common tasks that students may be required to do to meet the NCEA level 2 Maori standards and get their literacy credits that will be so important for University Entrance later on.
Listening and speaking at school
Listening and speaking are two very important language skills because we use them in our daily lives to communicate with people, listen to the radio, watch TV and for many other activities.
At the same time, to assess these skills in a student, the teacher needs to have direct contact with them, so they are more compatible with internal evaluation.
If you want to complete these standards successfully and obtain Merit or Excellence credits, you will need to be attentive in your Maori course during the year and use every opportunity to practice the language.
As it happens, listening and speaking skills aren't only difficult to assess but also take time to get developed. It is not enough to simply learn vocabulary and grammar to understand spoken Maori but they need to become natural to you, so you don't spend hours remembering the meaning of each word.
As a consequence, listening is the activity on which students should spend the most time when learning Maori both in school and at home.
Luckily, there are plenty of opportunities to listen to Maori in New Zealand regularly. The country has two Maori-language TV channels as well as numerous radio stations broadcasting news or releasing podcasts in te reo.
Additionally, there are quite a few Maori musical performers who sing songs in their language. You can listen to some of them online and then look at the lyrics of their songs. Music will help you accustom your ear to the new phonetics and you will start better understanding spoken language as well.
If you want to understand why NCEA level 2 Maori is so important, our article can certainly help you.
Speaking is another skill in which excellence is very hard to achieve. Unlike listening, we can hardly practise speaking alone and that makes things only more complex.
If you have Maori friends or know other students who look for practice, you can organise conversation sessions to have an opportunity to progress outside your school course. Additionally, enrolling in te reo classes can provide further guidance and structured practice.
It can also be a good idea to look for Maori learners online. A lot of students enjoy practising the language in voice chats and that allows them to constantly improve their level.
Finally, your last option is to contact a private Maori tutor who can help you prepare for the NCEA standards and gain as many credits at excellence as possible.
Reading and writing in te reo
Reading and writing are the two mandatary literacy standards that should be completed either in English or Maori to validate the NCEA. These standards are perfectly compatible with both internal and external assessment, so students should do their best to reach a good level of these skills.
In your course, you will be given numerous written assignments, so you can train yourself to produce texts and use vocabulary from different areas. That ability will, by the way, be crucial for your university entrance because most degrees involve a lot of work with written documents.
For the achievement of the NCEA level 2 reading standard, students should be able to find relevant information in texts, analyse the information they are reading and pick up on the author's hints.
In that test, you will be allowed to write your answers either in English or Maori and will be provided with a list of difficult words that you are not supposed to know from the NCEA level 2 course.
Learn how to use past exam papers efficiently in our article.
As for the writing literacy standard, its main aim is to test your ability to create a relatively long text on a given topic. You will be expected to present information in a coherent way and use relevant grammatical constructions and vocabulary.
You will probably not be penalised if you make a small number of mistakes, however, they shouldn't hinder the reader's understanding of information nor lead to misinterpretation.
In the end, your achievement of the literacy credits in Maori will depend a lot on the number of texts you have read during the year and the vocabulary you learnt.
Learn to think in Maori
An important consideration that should be taken into account by Maori students is that they are learning a language that is completely different from English and has its own way to build sentences and communicate information.
It may be difficult to start thinking in Maori when your level is still not that high but you may try to accustom yourself to the logic of te reo when your read and listen to it.
That can be useful for a number of reasons. If you don't translate Maori sentences into English when you read them, you will gradually start assimilating the language and develop the right reflexes.
Some concepts that exist in Maori cannot be translated into English at all. Immersion in the language will allow you to gradually come to grips with their meaning and gain a deeper understanding of Maori culture.
Finally, you will develop the ability to adapt yourself to different ways of thinking which will be of great help at university and throughout your life.
You can find additional information about the NCEA level 2 Maori syllabus in our article on the topic.
If you become able to produce texts that follow the logic of Maori and not English, you will demonstrate that you have attained true literacy in te reo and that will certainly help you get Merit and Excellence credits.
What's more, you will start feeling part of a community and that is a result that is really worth the efforts.
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