A nest for a language

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (episode 50 of the mini-series New Zealand, two languages) is a short documentary about the kōhanga reo, a kind of preschool in New Zealand; in Māori, kōhanga reo means "language nest". A single narrator explains that in 1913 almost all Māori children could speak Māori, but many schools wanted English only, and teachers often punished children for speaking Māori. Later, many of these children did not teach Māori to their own children, because they wanted to protect them, and by 1975 fewer than five Māori schoolchildren in a hundred could speak the language. So in 1982 Māori families opened the first language nest, near Wellington, where grandparents and other older speakers talk only Māori to the babies and little children, all day. The children play, sing and eat, like in any preschool, but every word is in Māori; one year later there were about a hundred nests, and today there are hundreds. It is a comprehension episode: the narration uses the past simple and the present simple, with could and fewer than, and no grammar point is taught. Learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 8 on facts and 2 on vocabulary (what a kōhanga reo is, and what the name means). The study topic is Māori and English in New Zealand: a language at home and at school.

Materials & prerequisites

The folder holds the audio, the slideshow and the script. Each pack is a one-page PDF with the text, three photos, the key words and the 10 questions: a pupil pack, and a teacher pack with the answers highlighted. It also has a pupil sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. It has no lesson plan. Play the episode twice, hand out the pupil pack, then use the closing question (Why do you think the grandparents were so important?) for a short class discussion. Learners should know the words school, children, family and play, and be able to read years such as 1982. The pack's key words explain the new words (preschool, nest, punish, protect, speaker).

Curriculum alignment

Tagged languages-places-stories (5e, "Des langues, des lieux, des histoires", Cycle 4). The episode targets CEFR level A2-.