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: Introduction
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The purpose of language is communication. Communication is a process of sharing knowledge, experiences, information, ideas and feelings. Communication through language involves webs of interaction between messages that are given and received.

Sandwich

We produce messages by speaking, writing and presenting. We consume messages by listening, reading and viewing. This chapter focuses on two of these six components: reading and speaking.

Because communication is essentially an interactive process, the oral, written and visual components of language are highly interrelated. The ability to read and present a play, for example, combines skills of reading and speaking. For this reason, the tasks discussed here cannot neatly be divided into two categories. Some predominantly involve reading, some predominantly involve speaking, and others involve a more equal mix of reading and speaking.

This chapter reports the results of twelve reading and speaking tasks administered to individual Mäori students in both general education settings and Mäori immersion settings. Two tasks required all students to read Mäori words or text, although the task instructions were given in English for the Mäori students in general education settings. The other ten tasks were presented in English for the Mäori students in general education and in Mäori for the students in Mäori immersion education, but involved the same instructions and content in translation.

Nine tasks were administered in a videotaped, one-to-one interview format and three were attempted in a station format (where students worked independently, recording their responses on paper).

National monitoring results are reported task by task so that results can be understood in relation to what the students were asked to do. To allow comparisons of performance between the 2000 and 2004 assessments, however, six of the twelve tasks have been designated link tasks. Student performance data on these tasks are presented in this report, but the tasks are described only in general terms because they will be used again in 2004.

Mäori students in general education and Mäori students in Mäori immersion settings performed equally well on five tasks. Students in Mäori immersion programmes scored statistically significantly higher on three tasks (including the two tasks involving reading of Mäori words or text) and Mäori students in general education scored statistically significantly higher on four tasks. These comparisons must be interpreted with considerable caution, for the reasons discussed in Chapter 2.

 
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