Executive Summary

This Report is submitted by the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research (WMIER), School of Education, University of Waikato. The Project Director was Professor Stephen May and the Principal Researcher was Richard Hill. Sarah Jane Tiakiwai contributed to Part 1 of the Report as a project writer.

The Report provides an overview of the international and national research literature on bilingualism and bilingual/immersion education. The aim of the overview is to situate Māori-medium education in relation to attested research and practice on bilingual/immersion education worldwide and, from that, to highlight indicators of good practice for the further development of Māori-medium education. These indicators of good practice can also be applied more broadly to other bilingual education contexts in Aotearoa/New Zealand, such as Pasifika bilingual education.

The Report is divided into two principal sections. Part 1 discusses the research literature on bilingualism - focusing on the debates about the cognitive, social and educational effects of bilingualism. It concludes that existing research points unequivocally to the cognitive, social and educational advantages of bilingualism when an additive approach to bilingualism is taken. An additive approach to bilingualism presupposes that bilingualism is a benefit and resource, both for individuals and the wider society, which should be maintained and fostered. In contrast, when a subtractive view of bilingualism is taken - one that presupposes that bilingualism is a problem and/or an obstacle to be overcome - negative cognitive, social, and educational consequences invariably ensue. This latter context occurs most often when bilingual students are required to learn an additional language, such as English, at the specific expense of their first language. This is still the most common experience for bilingual students in the world today and helps to explain why bilingual students, particularly those from minority language communities, are disproportionately represented in the lowest levels of English literacy achievement and wider school success.

Part 2 examines the most effective approaches to bilingual education, in light of the conclusions reached in Part 1. In other words, it explores which educational approaches are most effective in promoting long-term bilingualism and biliteracy. For a full understanding, it should be read in conjunction with Part 1, but it can also be read independently of it.

Drawing on the international research and evaluation literature on educational programmes for bilingual students, Part 2 concludes that non-bilingual programmes are unequivocally less effective than bilingual programmes for bilingual students. This is because they not only atrophy students' bilingualism but also result in the most delimited educational outcomes for such students. English-only, or English submersion programmes, are the least effective programmes for bilingual students in this regard, followed by ESL withdrawal programmes. Integrated ESL programmes are more effective, but still less so than the majority of bilingual education programmes. These conclusions are of considerable concern, given the ongoing dominance of English-only and ESL withdrawal programmes as the dominant/default educational experience for bilingual students in Aotearoa/New Zealand schools.

In contrast, bilingual education programmes are consistently more effective, although the degree of effectiveness varies, depending on the particular programme. Transitional bilingual programmes, which aim to transfer students from their first language (L1) to a dominant language such as English, are the least effective of the bilingual programmes, given their subtractive bilingual approach. Maintenance and enrichment programmes, which are additive programmes that aim to foster bilingualism and biliteracy, are the most effective. Heritage language programmes, of which Māori-medium is one example, are clearly situated at the maintenance/enrichment end of the continuum.

Despite the attested effectiveness of maintenance/enrichment bilingual programmes, examination of the Aotearoa/New Zealand research highlights consistent concerns about bilingual/immersion programmes here. These concerns include:

• The long-standing and ongoing under-resourcing of Māori-medium education.
• The lack of sufficient specialist preservice and inservice teacher training in bilingual/immersion education.
• Ongoing concern about teacher fluency in te reo Māori.
• The lack of sufficient Māori language assessment resources.
• The lack of a coordinated national policy on bilingual/immersion education (including the continued absence of a Pasifika bilingual education plan).
• Ongoing, and widely held, public misunderstandings about bilingualism and bilingual/immersion education.

As a consequence, key issues that need to be urgently addressed include: