Mixed level languages classes at Year 8 What are your students saying? Presentation by Anne Jacques at AFMLTA conference in Sydney 2009

1. Language learning in transition
What are our students saying?
Anne Jacques 2009

2. Overview
Background to the study; the current
position of languages in NZ
Outline of the case-study
Data from the survey
Summary of themes from the interviews
Introducing the best educated man of his time

3. Sir Thomas Tom of Appledore

4. http://www.wordle.net/.

5. Impetus for research
 New Zealand’s new curriculum 2010 establishes
Learning Languages as a new learning area.
 Contestable Government funding to support
initiatives in languages at Primary school.
 Hill, K. & Ward, S. (2003). "Passing the baton:
the transition from primary to secondary
language programs." New Zealand Studies in
Applied Linguistics 9(2): 19 - 36.

6. Riccarton High School
Christchurch, New Zealand
Co-educational, 950 students
32 nationalities
Decile 7
Languages: French, Japanese, Māori
All Year 9s (Year 8s) must choose a
language for the year.

7. Pūtaringamotu – taku turangawaewae

8. Survey of whole cohort
Languages previously studied
French
Chinese Other French
Japanese
Māori
German
Spanish
Māori
Spanish Japanese Chinese
German Other

9. A typical class

10. Themes
Experiences and motivation
An environment of diversity
Collaboration
Mixed-level classes

11. Experiences and motivation
The importance of relationships:
“so I wouldn’t be a nif”
“to connect with family”
“’cos Māori words are similar to Samoan”
“I have relatives and stuff that speak
Japanese”
Teachers, travel
Activities – songs, “real stuff”

12. An environment of diversity
Diversity
Multi-level
Risk-taking
scary, less confident, embarrassed, shy,
gets on everyone’s nerves, jealous

13. Tensions
The “expert” role: “but I don’t so much like
showing off as such, ‘cos then people just – they
get jealous or they just get sick of you showing
off and – sometimes you can get away with it if
you know when to stop showing off, but … a lot
of people don’t know when to stop.”
Frustrations at slower/faster students
An academic hierarchy

14. Collaboration - ako
Working together
Comprehensible input; input + 1
In the mixed class, if you haven’t done it before, you can
pick up things from people that have.
I think it’s a better idea to, like, just leave it as it is with the
mixed thing, so…because then the people that know
things can…help the people that don’t, yeah, that know…
that don’t know as much and don’t understand.
I think I’ve gotten better. I think it’s a lot…Not better as in
learning more words, or more things to do, but better in,
like, pronunciation, understanding.

15. …it only takes a couple more minutes, and
they’ll get it, and it’s like, yeaaahh, yeah, ok. It
doesn’t feel as if it’s holding the learning back, or
anything else.
It’s just taking a little bit longer, and you get the
result for everybody knowing it instead of just
half the people.

16. Mixed-level classes
Mixed groups
Occasionally separated
Choice of activities
“like there were three different levels, like, three piles of
sheets, and some of them were, like, hard, medium and
easy, for you to, like, choose one…”

17. “ It’s just…it’s good…helping people is
kinda cool, ‘cos you know that…you’re
not just helping yourself, like, not like…
you know what I mean?...Like, doing
something else so that other people can
have a good chance and that…that makes
it better”

18. You learn stuff easier,
easier, when you’re like,
enjoying it more.

19. See you in
QUEENSTOWN
NZ Association of Language Teachers:
Biennial International Conference
Scaling remarkable linguistic heights
CULTURE CURRICULUM CREATIVITY
Sunday 4th July – Wednesday 7th July 2010