Learning te reo Māori online with Te Kura
Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura) offers online te reo Māori courses to all New Zealanders, living in New Zealand and enrolled under government funded gateways, free of charge.
Te Kura Chief Executive Mike Hollings says it’s been rewarding to adapt te reo Māori resources for the school’s online learning environment. “We are pleased to contribute to the Te Wiki o te Reo Māori theme of ‘Kia Kaha te Reo Māori’ – make Māori Language strong’.” He says, “Schools can enrol students and individuals can also enrol in our te reo Māori courses".
Linda Compton says the decision to enrol in Te Kura to improve her knowledge and use of te reo Māori, came about as a desire to be a better and more effective classroom teacher.
The teacher at Waihopai School in Invercargill has taught for 25 years, and says she felt it was time to develop a better command and confidence with te reo.
“I wanted to have a deeper understanding of Māori culture and connect better with the Māori students in my class. I also wanted to help all my students to value and appreciate our indigenous culture and language.”
“It was scary to start with and I felt clumsy in my pronunciations. But over time, and with the feedback from the Te Kura tutors, my confidence grew and my listening, speaking, reading and writing of Māori language improved greatly. I have just completed the introductory course and feel incredibly satisfied and proud of my improvements.”
Linda says she loves sharing her lessons with her class of Year 6 students. “I still have to remind myself to use te reo in as many parts of my class as possible, but it gets easier and more natural all of the time. I write new words I plan to use each week on the board to remind myself, and my class will even remind me when I use the English word when I could have used the Māori word.”
Linda says overcoming the initial apprehension of learning a new language was easier than expected.
“Rather than not speak the language for fear of saying something wrong, I decided to just do it, and the more I use it, the more confident I become and the more I am enjoying it.”
Te Kura is New Zealand’s state distance education provider, offering personalised learning programmes to students from early childhood to NCEA Level 3.
Courses in Te Reo Māori available at Te Kura:
Beginners’ Māori - Curriculum Levels 1–5
Te Reo Māori - NCEA Level 1 (course endorsement available)
Te Reo Māori - NCEA Level 2 (course endorsement available)
Te Reo Māori - NCEA Level 3 (course endorsement available)
Ka Mau Te Wehi
For enrolment criteria, please visit www.tekura.school.nz/learn-with-us/enrol/who-can-enrol/