About this resource
This page provides the Years 0-10 part of the English learning area of the New Zealand Curriculum, the official document that sets the direction for teaching, learning, and assessment in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. In English, students study, use, and enjoy language and literature communicated orally, visually, or in writing. It comes into effect on 1 January 2026. The Years 11 to 13 content is provided on a companion page.
We have also provided the English Years 0-10 curriculum in PDF format. You can access these from the File Downloads menu below.
Whaowhia te kete mātauranga. Fill the basket of knowledge. This whakataukī acknowledges the lifelong and collective journey of learning. The English Learning Area supports the development of a kete of knowledge in language and literature, enriched by diverse texts, voices, and perspectives. |
Y0-10 English explainer
Purpose statement
The English Learning Area equips students with knowledge of the codes and conventions of language and texts. Students are taught to create their own texts with purpose and confidence, as they develop an appreciation of the beauty and richness of classic and contemporary literature.
Through the study of English, students master foundational literacy knowledge and practices. They engage with and independently compose increasingly complex texts in a variety of forms, learning to explore ideas that are evolving, contested, or open to interpretation.
The English Learning Area provides students with the concepts and skills to understand global literary traditions and the bicultural and multicultural literary heritage of New Zealand. As readers, they become thoughtful and discerning textual critics and gain insights into the diversity and complexity of human experience. As authors, they learn how to craft texts that express their ideas with clarity, creativity, and control.
As students progress through English, they deepen their understanding of how language and texts provide a space for expression and experimentation. Creating and responding to texts deepens students’ understanding of themselves and others, and enables them to participate actively in local, national, and global conversations.
Learning Area structure
The year-by-year teaching sequence lays out the knowledge and practices to be taught each year. In the English Learning Area, the teaching sequence is organised into strands.
In English Years 0–8, the teaching sequence is organised into three strands:
- Oral Language focuses on teaching students to communicate, express themselves, and interact effectively. It develops students’ understanding of spoken and signed languages, including New Zealand Sign Language, and for non-verbal students, any first language communication methods such as alternative and augmentative communication (AAC).
- Reading focuses on teaching students to decode, make meaning from, and think critically about texts. It develops students’ understanding of how to read fluently, comprehend a range of texts with attention to audience, purpose, and form, and engage with ideas and perspectives.
- Writing focuses on teaching students to write for a variety of purposes, using the codes, conventions, and structures that enable others to understand what they have written. It develops students’ proficiency in transcription skills, composition, and writing processes.
In Years 9–10, the teaching sequence is organised into two strands:
- Text Studies focuses on teaching students to expand their knowledge of a broader range of literary and non-fiction text forms. It develops students’ understanding of textual features, literary techniques, and the impact of historical, cultural, and social contexts on texts.
- Language Studies focuses on teaching students how to craft written, visual, and oral texts for a variety of purposes and audiences.
The year-by-year teaching sequence, organised through strands, elements, and sub-elements, sets out what is to be taught. Its enactment is shaped by teachers, who design learning in response to their learners, adjusting the order and emphasis and adding appropriate contexts and content.
Introduction
Across Years 0–10, English takes students on an increasingly rich journey through language and texts that grow in depth and complexity over time. Teaching builds foundational skills in oral language, reading, and writing through structured literacy approaches, and deepens students’ understanding of how texts are crafted, how language shapes meaning, and how stories reflect diverse perspectives from New Zealand and the wider world.
In Years 0–3, teaching builds on early childhood learning by developing foundational oral language, reading, and writing skills through structured literacy approaches. Oral language is a key focus, supporting students to express ideas and understand others. Teachers introduce shared language codes and conventions such as phonics, grammar, punctuation, and text structure, which underpin reading comprehension and written expression. Explicit instruction in letter formation supports fluency and confidence in writing. Through reading, creating, and sharing texts, teachers foster connection, understanding, and a love of language. Students are supported to make connections between texts and their own experiences and begin to explore how texts can be interpreted in different ways. This lays the groundwork for critical analysis and literacy across the curriculum.
In Years 4–6, teaching strengthens students’ literacy as a foundation for learning across all areas. Structured literacy approaches continue, with a shift in emphasis to components that take longer to develop, such as vocabulary and comprehension. Teachers create regular opportunities for oral language use to support knowledge-building through discussion. Reading instruction consolidates word recognition, deepens comprehension, and introduces critical analysis of context and purpose. Students explore written, oral, visual, and, from Year 6, digital and media texts. Writing instruction supports increasing accuracy, creativity, and purpose, with attention to how language conventions shift depending on context, audience, and purpose. Through purposeful text selection and discussion, teachers help students explore how stories shape understanding of people, places, and ideas.
In Years 7–8, teaching provides explicit instruction in oral language, reading, and writing, guiding students toward subject-English disciplinary knowledge. Literacy teaching prioritises components that take longer to develop, such as comprehension, vocabulary, and oral language, while continuing to consolidate fluency and spelling. Teachers support engagement with increasingly complex texts, including those by authors representative of New Zealand’s bicultural and multicultural heritage. Students are taught to analyse how texts are structured, how language shapes meaning, and how style adapts to purpose and audience. Teaching also introduces how texts, including digital and media texts, represent people, places, and ideas, and how context influences interpretation. This establishes a strong foundation for disciplinary English in Year 9.
In Years 9–10, teaching advances students’ subject-English disciplinary knowledge through integrated study of texts and language. Drawing on the strands of Text Studies and Language Studies, teachers support students to engage with complex ideas across a wide range of literary and non-fiction texts. Text Studies enables students to examine how texts reflect and respond to historical, cultural, and social contexts, and how meaning shifts with perspective and interpretation. Language Studies strengthens fluency and control in creating texts across written, oral, visual, and digital modes. Teachers introduce literary tradition, showing how authors use recurring features to shape meaning and guide audience expectations. Texts from New Zealand’s literary tradition, including bicultural and multicultural voices, are used to explore national and global conversations. Students also learn to critically evaluate how digital and media texts are constructed and position audiences. This prepares them for deeper literary analysis, more complex text creation, and the broader demands of senior secondary English.
The English Learning Area prepares students with the knowledge and practices to access related curriculum subjects for Years 11–13, such as English, and Media Studies, Journalism, and Communications.
Assessment requirements
High-quality assessment information should be used to inform the development and implementation of teaching and learning programmes, communicate student progress and achievement to parents, and monitoring and evaluation of how well the school is supporting every student to progress and achieve across the curriculum.
Using assessment to understand student progress and achievement
Assessment is an essential component of quality teaching and learning. Timely, high-quality, assessment information enables informed decision-making by teachers, whānau, and school leaders to improve student outcomes and progress. Its ultimate purpose is to empower students to reach their full potential by making learning visible, measurable, and actionable.
Using robust assessment data allows teachers to tailor their teaching to what works best for their students, including identifying areas where additional support is required. It also enables schools to provide parents, whānau, and caregivers with clear, meaningful information about their child’s progress at school.
School leaders are responsible for ensuring systems and strategies are in place to closely monitor student progress and achievement and to prioritise actions that support classroom teaching. This includes the use of specified assessment tools as outlined below.
Teachers actively assess student progress in relation to the year-by-year teaching sequences, using effective assessment practices. As teachers are monitoring progress and achievement, they pay particular attention to whether students are making sufficient progress to engage in the next year of learning.
Effective assessment practices involve consistently monitoring, responding to, and reporting on student progress and achievement. This includes synthesising information from observations, conversations with students, periodic tasks and data from assessment tools (including those specified below) to build a well-rounded understanding of each student's knowledge and capabilities.
Using formative assessment to inform explicit teaching
Formative assessment is essential to explicit teaching because it helps teachers check what students understand at each step of the learning process. It allows them to adjust their instruction in real time by clarifying, modelling, or reteaching, so that every student can confidently move forward with new learning.
Assessment enables teachers to notice and recognise students’ development, consolidation, and proficient use of learning area knowledge within daily lessons, and to provide timely, targeted feedback. Teachers respond to assessment insights by adapting their practice, for example, by adjusting the level of scaffolding or support provided.
In addition to ongoing observations, teachers use purposefully designed formative assessment tasks at key points throughout a unit or topic. These tasks highlight the concepts and reasoning students understand and apply, helping teachers identify learning barriers and ensure every student can demonstrate what they know and can do.
When planning next steps in teaching and learning, teachers consider students’ strengths and responses along with opportunities for consolidation. These next steps may include:
designing scaffolds to support and enrich students learning
providing opportunities for students to apply new learning
planning lessons that revise, reteach, or consolidate learning.
Timely feedback and immediate attention to misconceptions helps students grasp new ideas efficiently and accurately, while also promoting deeper learning. Teachers use this feedback to prompt recall of prior knowledge, encourage connection between concepts and ideas, and expand students’ understanding.
Specific assessment requirements — assessment tools
The assessment tools outlined here must be used in conjunction with other assessment approaches, such as observation, conversations, self-assessment, and learning activities. The results from these tools are shared with parents and whānau to keep them well informed about their child’s progress.
Phonics Checks
Phonics Checks are used as part of a range of assessment tasks to help students become strong, confident readers and writers. The checks identify those who need additional help with their phonics learning, to ensure that when needed, early intensive literacy support is provided within the student’s first year of school.
School boards and principals must make sure their staff administer the Ministry of Education’s Phonics Check with each student at the following two timepoints in the first 12 months at school (i.e. starting in Year 0–1):
at 20 weeks at school (after approximately two terms of schooling)
at 40 weeks at school (after approximately four terms of schooling).
The first check at 20 weeks provides teachers with an early indication of how students are progressing with their literacy learning. It helps teachers to identify where students need support to accelerate learning to achieve as expected.
The second check at 40 weeks enables teachers to gauge the progress students have made in the second half of their first year at school, assessing more complex grapheme–phoneme correspondences and helps teachers to identify where additional support is needed.
Students’ phonics knowledge after a year at school is a reliable predictor of later reading and spelling success. For school leaders, the 40-week check provides useful information for monitoring how well the school’s programme and systems of support are successfully enabling early literacy progress. This information should be used to monitor patterns over time to inform the ongoing review and refinement of the school’s strategic planning, ensuring that early literacy remains a key focus for improvement.
Most students should be able to do Phonics Checks. For some students, teachers need to address barriers associated with the environment, equipment, and engagement to make these checks more accessible.
Teachers should provide appropriate flexibility for children who may require additional support to successfully demonstrate their phonics knowledge during the check. This can be done by making sure adjustments are made available for learners with additional learning needs.
For a small number of students who are not yet making grapheme–phoneme connections, it may not be appropriate to administer Phonics Checks at the designated timepoints. This may also apply to some deaf or hard of hearing students who communicate primarily through NZSL. In such cases, this information should be clearly recorded in the Phonics Checks, and alternative, more appropriate methods of assessing literacy and communication progress should be used aligned to their support plan (e.g. an Individual Education Plan (IEP), Collaborative Action Plan (CAP), etc.).
Assessment tools for twice yearly assessment of reading and writing for Year 3–8 students
The use of reliable assessment tools alongside teacher’s day-to-day observations, helps teachers notice each student’s next learning steps, track their progress, and ensure timely support for those who need it.
School boards and principals must make sure that staff administer twice-yearly assessments for each student in Years 3–8 to monitor their progress in reading and writing using one of the following tools:
SMART (Student, Monitoring, Assessment and Report Tool), provided by the Ministry of Education
PATs (Progressive Achievement Tests), provided by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research
e-asTTle (during 2026 only), provided by the Ministry of Education.
For some students, teachers may need to address barriers associated with the environment, equipment, or engagement to enable them to successfully participate in and demonstrate their knowledge during assessments.
For a small number of students with additional learning needs it may not be appropriate to use the specified tools. In these cases, alternative assessment methods should be used to assess progress in literacy and communication learning progress for the twice-yearly assessments, as agreed in the student’s support plan.
Overall assessments of how students are progressing against curricula expectations
Monitoring each student’s progress and achievement across all learning areas is essential. This requires the use of high-quality information informed by effective assessment practices, including robust and reliable assessment tools. It is important to monitor how each student is progressing and achieving across each learning area, using good quality information that is informed by effective assessment practices, including the use of robust and reliable assessment tools. It is critical that teachers have confidence in the evidence they use to support their instructional decisions.
To ensure consistency in how teachers make and communicate informed decisions about students’ progress in English school boards and principals must ensure that staff use the common progress descriptors, Emerging, Developing, Consolidating, Proficient, and Exceeding — for each student, as outlined below.
Emerging
Students require support to meet curriculum expectation for their year level and/or goals as described in their personalised learning plan.
Developing
Students are making some progress towards curriculum expectations for their year level.
Consolidating
- Students are meeting many curriculum expectations for their year level and are steadily strengthening their understanding across learning areas.
Proficient
Students are meeting curriculum expectations for their year level.
Exceeding
Students are exceeding curriculum expectations for their year level.
When making an informed decision, teachers need to consider progress and achievement across each knowledge strand of the learning area and select the progress descriptor that best describes how the student’s progress is tracking towards the end of year expectation. Teachers should then use these strand level informed decisions to make an overall assessment of progress across the learning area. To do this, teachers should refer to the learning area sequence for each year level.
If assessments conducted during the school year show that a student is at the Consolidating, Proficient, or Exceeding level, then their progress is considered to be on track. For students identified at Proficient and Exceeding, teachers should provide extended learning opportunities and enrichment activities that reflect the breadth and depth of the curriculum.
If a student is at the Emerging or Developing level, their progress is considered to not be on track to meet curriculum expectations for their year level. For these students, teachers will need to adjust classroom practice, develop individualised responses, or trigger additional learning support. When appropriate, teachers should report against the goals outlined in the student’s support plan.
If end-of-year assessments indicate that a student is at the Proficient or Exceeding level, their progress is considered to have met curriculum expectations. Students assess at the Emerging, Developing, or Consolidating levels, are considered to have not yet met curriculum expectations for their year level.
For students with additional learning needs, who have individualised progress goals and assessments outlined in their support plans, the common descriptors should generally still be used. However, in these cases, the descriptors reflect the student’s overall progress against their individual goals rather than the year level curriculum expectations. School leaders must ensure that monitoring systems clearly indicate when descriptors are being applied to individualised goals, while also maintaining visibility of progress toward year-level curriculum expectations.
Reading, writing, and maths teaching time requirements
The teaching and learning of reading, writing10, and maths11 is a priority for all schools. So that all students are getting sufficient teaching and learning time for reading, writing, and maths, each school board with students in Years 0–8 must, through its principal and staff, structure their teaching and learning programmes and/or timetables to provide:
10 hours per week of teaching and learning focused on supporting students’ progress and achievement in reading and writing, and recognising the important contribution oral language development makes, particularly in the early phases of learning
5 hours per week of teaching and learning focused on supporting students’ progress and achievement in maths.
Where reading, writing, and/or maths teaching and learning time is occurring within the context of national curriculum statements other than English or Mathematics & Statistics, the progression of students’ reading, writing, and/or maths dispositions, knowledge, and skills at the appropriate level must be explicitly and intentionally planned for and attended to.
Boards must also continue to give effect to the existing structuring teaching time for reading, writing and maths foundation curriculum policy statement for The New Zealand Curriculum.
10 While the terms reading and writing are used, these expectations are inclusive of alternative methods of communication, including New Zealand Sign Language, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and Braille.
11 For simplicity, 'maths' is used as an all-encompassing term to refer to the grouping of subject matter, dispositions, skills, competencies, and understandings that encompasses all aspects of numeracy, mathematics, and statistics.
Regulatory context and implementation requirements
The National Curriculum for schooling consists of two pathways that together provide the statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning, and assessment in state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand:
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, which is designed for delivery in te reo Māori immersion and bilingual settings
the New Zealand Curriculum, which is designed for delivery in all other state and state-integrated settings.
This document is the English Years 0–10 Learning Area (2025) for the New Zealand Curriculum. The Te Reo Rangatira Years 0–10 wāhanga ako (2025) for settings using Te Marautanga o Aotearoa is published separately.
The English Years 0–10 Learning Area is published by the Minister of Education under section 90(1) of the Education and Training Act 2020 (the Act) as a foundation curriculum policy statement and a national curriculum statement. These are the statements of official policy in relation to the teaching of English that give direction to each school’s curriculum and assessment responsibilities (section 127 of the Act), teaching and learning programmes (section 164 of the Act), and monitoring and reporting of student performance (section 165 of the Act and associated Regulations). School boards must ensure that they and their principal and staff give effect to these statements.
The sections of the English Years 0–10 Learning Area that are published as a foundation curriculum policy statement are the teaching sequence guidance (that sits ahead of the year-by-year teaching sequences) and assessment requirements. These set out expectations for teaching, learning, and assessment that underpin the English national curriculum statement and give direction for effective English teaching and learning programmes. The rest is published as a national curriculum statement. This sets out what students are expected to learn over their time at school, including the desirable levels of knowledge, understanding, and skill to be achieved in English.
The foundation curriculum policy statement and national curriculum statement for the English Years 0–10 Learning Area come into effect on 1 January 2026, replacing the existing English Learning Area statements through to Year 10 (curriculum level 5). The remainder of the existing (2009) national curriculum statement for the English Learning Area remains in force for Years 11–13 (curriculum levels 6–8). Schools should choose the appropriate English Learning Area statements for their students’ needs. For example, schools may choose to make use of the Years 0–10 teaching sequence for some senior secondary students if they are working below curriculum level 6.
Word or phrase |
Description |
Abstract noun |
A noun that represents an idea, quality, or state, rather than a concrete object (e.g. love, freedom, happiness). |
Adverbial clause |
An adverbial clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a verb, and functions as an adverb. It modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb by answering questions such as how, when, where, why, or under what conditions. For example, ‘because she was tired’ in ‘She went to bed early because she was tired’. |
Adverbial phrase |
An adverbial phrase is a group of words that functions as an adverb in a sentence. It does not contain a subject and verb (unlike a clause). It modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by providing more information about how, when, where, why, or to what extent something happens. For example, ‘in a hurry’ in ‘She left in a hurry’. |
Audience |
The group of people who engage with a text (e.g. for written texts, the audience is readers who interact with and interpret the content presented by the author). |
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) |
Supports communication and language development for students who, due to speech difficulties, cannot rely on speech alone to be heard and understood. AAC includes both augmentative communication, which supplements existing speech, and alternative communication, which replaces speech when it is not possible. |
Automaticity |
The automatic processing of information (e.g. when a reader or writer does not need to pause to work out words as they read or write). The outcome is being a fluent reader, writer, and communicator. |
Chameleon prefix |
Can be pronounced or spelt differently depending on the first letter of the root word, while retaining the same meaning (e.g. the prefix ‘ad–’, meaning to/towards, changes to ‘ac–’ when used in the word ‘accept’ and ‘at–’ in the word ‘attract’). |
Clause |
A group of words that includes a subject and a verb (e.g. in the sentence ‘The baby cries when it is hungry’, ‘The baby cries’ and ‘when it is hungry’ are both clauses. The first one could stand alone as a sentence, so it is an independent clause. The second one could not stand alone, so it is a dependent clause). |
Code |
An agreed-upon system of signs or symbols used to create meaning within a mode (e.g. the code of letters, words, and punctuation in the written mode, the code of facial expressions and body language in the gestural mode). |
Complex sentence |
Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. Dependent clauses often begin with subordinating conjunctions like ‘because’, ‘since’, ‘if’, ‘when’, or ‘although’. For example, in ‘If it is raining, I will stay home’:
|
Compound sentence |
Created when two or more independent clauses are joined using a conjunction (such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘nor’, ‘for’, ‘so’, or ‘yet’) or a semi-colon, colon, or dash (but not a comma) to show a connection between two more ideas. Each independent clause in a compound sentence can stand alone as a complete sentence. For example, in ‘I wanted to go for a walk, but it started to rain’:
|
Compound-complex sentence |
The most complicated type of sentence. It consists of:
These sentences enable us to articulate more elaborate and detailed thoughts, making them excellent tools for explaining complex ideas or describing extended sequences of events. For example, in ‘Although she had left home on time, she was still late for school, and the teacher marked her absent’:
|
Connective |
Word or phrase that joins sentences, clauses, or words together. Connectives can be conjunctions, prepositions, or adverbs. They show the relationship between different parts of a sentence or between different sentences, helping to make text and spoken language more coherent. There are many different categories of connective. For example:
|
Consonant digraph |
A grapheme written with two or more consonant letters that, together, represent one phoneme (e.g. ‘ch’ in ‘chair’, ‘ph’ in ‘phone’). |
Consonant phoneme |
A speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed (e.g. /s/, /p/, /ch/, /m/). Consonants are produced by blocking or restricting airflow, using the vocal cords and the tongue, lips, and teeth. Aotearoa New Zealand English has 24 consonant phonemes, and te reo Māori has 10 consonant phonemes. Consonant phonemes may be voiced or voiceless. |
Convention |
An established guideline for a particular type or mode of language (e.g. using a volume or tone appropriate to the context) or a particular type of text (e.g. play scripts contain stage directions). |
Decodable text |
Specially designed reading material used in early literacy instruction. These texts are composed of words that align with the phonics skills students have been taught, allowing them to practise decoding words in connected text, using their knowledge of letter–sound relationships. |
Digraph |
Two letters representing one phoneme. This sound is different from the individual sounds of the letters when they are pronounced separately. Digraphs can be composed of either consonants or vowels (e.g. ‘ch’ in ‘chips’ and ‘ai’ in ‘rain’). |
Diphthong |
A sound made by combining two vowels, when it starts as one vowel sound and goes to another (e.g. ‘oy’ in ‘oil’). Diphthongs are sometimes called ‘gliding vowels’. |
Emergent bilingual/multilingual |
Students who are developing proficiency in English while continuing to develop their home language(s). |
Fluency |
The ability to express oneself easily and articulately. The ability to speak, read, or write rapidly and accurately, focusing on meaning and phrasing and without having to give attention to individual words or common forms and sequences of language. Fluency is essential in communication as it allows for clear and effective expression. |
Fragment |
A collection of words that doesn’t form a grammatically complete sentence. Typically, it is missing a subject, a verb, or both, or it is a dependent clause that is not linked to an independent clause. |
Gerund |
Verb form ending in ‘–ing’ that functions as a noun (e.g. ‘Swimming is fun’). |
Genre |
Category of texts which have particular structures, styles, features, and content (e.g. science fiction, fantasy, autobiography). |
Grapheme |
The smallest unit of a written language. In English, graphemes have one, two, three, or four letters and usually represent one phoneme (e.g. ‘f’, ‘th’, ‘o’, ‘ee’). ‘X’ is an exception, as it represents two phonemes, /k/ /s/. |
Grapheme–phoneme correspondence |
The relationship between spoken sound units and the written symbols that represent them. This concept (the alphabetic principle) is fundamental in phonics, developing students’ ability to identify and manipulate phonemes and link them to their corresponding graphemes to read and spell words. |
High-frequency word |
A word that appears frequently in written and spoken language and includes at least one grapheme–phoneme correspondence that students haven’t been explicitly taught yet or that is so unusual that it is considered irregular. |
Identity |
A set of characteristics that define, and make recognisable and distinct, an individual person or group of people. An identity, and its characteristics, can be personal, local, or national, and can be shaped by politics, gender, race, sexuality, culture, and the events and narratives that surround these factors. |
Indirect object |
The recipient of the direct object (e.g. ‘He gave her a gift’).
|
Inference |
The process of drawing conclusions or making educated guesses about a whole text (global inferences) or part of a text (local inferences) based on the information provided in a text, combined with the reader’s own knowledge and experiences. This process, often described as ‘reading between the lines’, helps readers understand implied meanings, predict outcomes, and grasp deeper insights that are not explicitly stated. |
Insight |
This can be demonstrated by students in a number of ways, such as showing empathy and sophistication, looking beyond the text, exploring multiple possible interpretations, and showing awareness of the author’s intentions. |
Language feature |
A specific language technique that creates or supports meaning, including figurative language (e.g. metaphor, simile, personification) and sound devices (e.g. onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance). |
Literacy |
The ability to communicate meaning through a text and to understand meaning in texts others have created. Literacy knowledge and skills underpin and contribute to developing the complex language needed for advanced interpretation and expression of meaning across an increasingly diverse range of oral, visual, written, and digital texts. There are literacy skills and knowledge necessary for each curriculum learning area. This includes the technical and specialist language of those areas, as well as the different approaches and ways of using language across learning areas. Literacy skills include the ability to critically interpret, manage and create meaning through a range of digital communication channels. |
Literary feature |
Techniques or elements used by authors to convey meaning, evoke emotions, or enhance their storytelling. These features can include the use of language, structure, and style to enrich the text and engage the audience. |
Literary tradition |
The collective body of works, styles, and conventions that are characteristic of a particular culture, language, or historical period. This encompasses the ways in which literature is created, shared, and interpreted within a specific context. For example, Aotearoa New Zealand has a distinctive national literary tradition. |
Meaning making |
Using personal and cultural knowledge, experiences, strategies, and awareness to derive or convey meaning when listening, speaking, reading, writing or viewing; this requires language comprehension, background knowledge, an understanding of the forms and purposes of different text types and an awareness that texts are intended for an audience. |
Metacognition |
Involves being aware of and understanding their own thought processes, which helps them plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning strategies. Linked to the science of learning, this self-awareness enhances their ability to retain information and solve problems. |
Mode |
A system of signs and symbols with agreed-upon meanings. Refers to the various forms and methods through which literacy is expressed and communicated. They are essential for developing comprehensive literacy skills, enabling individuals to effectively communicate and understand information in various contexts. Modes of meaning include:
|
Morpheme |
The smallest units of meaning in a language, which can be prefixes, suffixes, or root words. Knowledge of morphemes is crucial for reading, spelling, and vocabulary development. |
Multimodal text |
Multimodal texts combine two or more modes of communication to convey a message. These modes can include oral language, written language, audio, gestural, spatial, and visual modes. Examples of multimodal texts include picture books, websites, performance poetry, films, news reports, infographics, videos, and digital presentations. |
Narrative text |
A type of writing that tells a story or describes a sequence of events (e.g. diary, biography, autobiography, personal narrative, fable, myth, legend, fairytale, poem, play). The primary purpose of narrative texts is to entertain or inform the reader by presenting a coherent and engaging story, organised around events and literary elements such as setting, characters, and a problem and solution. |
Orthographic mapping |
The cognitive process through which a word is permanently stored in memory for instant and effortless recall. Orthographic mapping is crucial for developing fluent reading skills. It enables readers to recognise words automatically without needing to sound them out each time, which frees up cognitive resources for comprehension and higher-order thinking. Key aspects of orthographic mapping include:
|
Participle |
Verb form used as an adjective or to talk about actions in particular tenses.
|
Phoneme |
The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. When combined with other sounds, they form a meaningful unit. For example, the sounds represented by the letters ‘p’, ‘b’, ‘d’, and ‘t’ are phonemes because they differentiate words like ‘pad,’ ‘bad’, and ‘bat’. |
Phonemic awareness |
The ability to hear, differentiate, and attend to the individual sounds within words. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a spoken word. For example, ‘frog’ and ‘box’ both have four sounds. |
Phonics |
An approach to teaching reading that focuses on the sounds represented by letters in words, rather than the names of the letters themselves. |
Phrase |
A small group of words within a sentence that does not make sense on its own, because it does not contain a complete verb or a subject. |
Position (verb) |
To place or present an idea, character, or argument in a particular way to influence how it is perceived by the audience. |
Predicate |
The part of a sentence (or clause) that states what the subject does or is. For example, in the sentence ‘Native short-tailed pekapeka hunt insects on the forest floor’, the predicate is ‘hunt insects on the forest floor’. |
Predicate adjective |
An adjective that follows a linking verb and describes the subject (e.g. ‘blue’ in ‘The sky looks blue’). |
Predicate noun |
A noun that follows a linking verb and describes the subject (e.g. ‘teacher’ in ‘She is a teacher’). |
R-controlled vowel pattern |
Graphemes which represent the phonemes /ar/, /er/, /or/, /eer/, /air/, and /ure/. Note: In the general Aotearoa New Zealand English accent, /eer/ and /air/ have started being pronounced as the same phoneme by many speakers over recent decades (e.g. ‘hear’ and ‘hair’ are pronounced the same). |
Schwa |
The vowel sound in an unstressed syllable. It can be represented by many different letters and often sounds like the short ‘u’ sound ‘uh’, the short ‘i’ sound ‘ih’, the ‘er’ in letter, or the ‘o’ in police. |
Scope and sequence |
‘Scope’ refers to the concepts or skills that need to be taught. ‘Sequence’ refers to the order in which the concepts and skills are introduced. This ensures that foundational knowledge is built before introducing more complex concepts. This structured approach helps students make connections, facilitating deeper understanding and retention of information. |
Seminal text |
Seminal texts are influential works that introduce new ideas, frameworks, critiques, or stylistic approaches that significantly shape how others engage with a particular topic. Their importance lies in the way they initiate new directions, challenge existing norms, and become enduring reference points for future work. Their influence may be constructive or controversial — what matters is the depth and reach of their impact, as such texts are continually revisited, debated, and built upon. |
Simple sentence |
A simple sentence must:
Simple sentences are the building blocks of more complex sentence structures and are essential for clear and concise communication. Sentences not containing a subject or verb are ‘incomplete sentences’ or ‘fragments’. |
Split digraph |
A vowel digraph which has been split up by a consonant letter between the two vowel letters. For example:
|
Statistical learning |
In the context of reading, statistical learning is the ability to recognise patterns and regularities in written language. It is a form of implicit learning and includes becoming aware of the probability that a particular grapheme will correspond to a particular phoneme. |
Structural feature |
The way that a text is shaped or organised (e.g. paragraphing, film transitions, flashbacks, a clear opening, middle, and end). |
Stylistic feature |
The way in which language choices are arranged to create clarity and variety in a text (e.g. vocabulary selection, syntax). |
Subject |
The person or thing (noun, pronoun, or noun phrase) that a sentence or clause is about. For example, ‘rain’ in ‘The rain beat down on the roof’. Sometimes sentences are phrased in the passive voice, changing the subject, as a way to emphasise a different part of the action (e.g. in ‘The roof was beaten by the rain’, ‘roof’ becomes the subject, performing the verb phrase ‘be beaten by’). |
Summarising |
Condensing the main ideas and key points of a longer text into a shorter version, using your own words. |
Syllable |
A single, unbroken vowel sound within a spoken word. They typically contain a vowel sound and perhaps one or more accompanying consonants. All words contain at least one syllable. Syllables are sometimes referred to as the ‘beats’ of a word that form its rhythm, and breaking a word into syllables can help learners with phonetic spelling. |
Syntax |
The rules followed to arrange words and phrases to create logical and grammatically correct clauses and sentences. It involves the rules that govern the structure of sentences, including word order, sentence structure, and the relationship between words. |
Systematic synthetic phonics |
A method of teaching reading that emphasises the relationship between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) in a structured and sequential manner. The term ‘synthetic’ comes from the synthesising or blending of sounds to make a word and enable children to read. |
Text |
An identified stretch of language, used as a means for communication or the focus of learning and investigation. Texts are constructed from one or more of the modes of meaning (oral language, written language, audio, gestural, spatial, and visual modes). They are a language event that we require language skills to understand. Creators construct texts to convey meaning to an audience. For example, a speech, poem, poster, video clip, advertisement, novel, film. |
Text form |
The essential structure of a text type with characteristic features (e.g. short story, poem, magazine article, speech, film, novel, letter to the editor). |
Text type |
The purpose associated with, and conventions of, that particular text (e.g. narrative, informational, persuasive). |
Transcription |
The set of skills and processes involved in converting spoken language into written form on the page or screen, including handwriting, spelling and keyboarding. |
Trigraph |
A cluster of three letters that collectively produce a specific single sound. It can be composed entirely of consonants or vowels, or it can be a mix of both (e.g. –igh, –tch). |
Unstressed syllable |
The part of the word that doesn’t receive emphasis or stress. |
Links to English supports and resources:
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