Purpose Statement
This learning area equips students with the linguistic, cultural, and sociolinguistic knowledge needed to communicate in an additional language.
Learning Languages provides students with the knowledge and practices to interpret meaning, adapt communication for different audiences and situations, and communicate purposefully in increasingly complex contexts. It also supports literacy development by strengthening students’ understanding of how language works, how meaning is communicated, and how spoken, written, and signed language are used in different contexts.
Through learning additional languages, students develop understanding of the cultural and social contexts in which languages are used and recognise that language reflects and upholds the values, stories, and practices of different communities andmcultures. This enables them to contribute meaningfully to New Zealand’s diverse society and increasingly interconnected world.
Learning Languages exposes students to new ways of thinking about themselves and their world. It can deepen understanding of their first language, strengthen cultural connections, contribute to the vitality of languages, and build confidence in communicating with others in a range of contexts.
Learning Languages prepares students to further develop their language proficiency in Years 11–13 in the language they have studied, including Te Reo Māori, New Zealand Sign Language, Gagana Sāmoa, Gagana Tokelau, Lea Faka-Tonga, Te Reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani, Vagahau Niue, French, German, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, and Korean.
Learning Languages - German Years 0-10 curriculum
The Learning Languages - German Phase 1-4 (Years 0-10) curriculum is now available and can be downloaded from the File Downloads section below
Our priority is to get this information to you as soon as possible, and the PDF is the fastest way to do this. However, we understand that an online format is easier for you to work with, so we are working to make full html pages available later in the year.
Word or phrase | Description |
|---|---|
Accusative case | The direct object of a sentence. |
Additional language | Any language learnt in addition to a person’s first language (or home language). |
Alphabetic writing | System of writing where letters represent sounds in a language (as opposed to ‘script’). |
Case | The way a noun, pronoun, or adjective changes form to indicate a word’s function within a sentence, such as subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessive object. German has four grammatical cases – nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. |
Cognates | Words in different languages that share the same origin and have a similar meaning, pronunciation, and spelling. |
Communication | Process of sharing information, ideas, thoughts, or feelings. Refers to all modes of communication: signing, watching, and interacting in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); and listening, speaking, reading, writing, and interacting in all other languages. |
Community language | A language spoken and maintained by a particular cultural, ethnic, or linguistic community within a wider society. |
Compound noun | Noun made up of two or more words. |
Conjugation | The change in a verb’s ending to show who or what is doing the action, and when. |
Connective | Word or phrase that links words, sentences, or parts of a text together. |
Cultural exploration | The process of learning about, experiencing, and developing an understanding of the cultures associated with the target language. |
Cultural practices | The customary ways people in a cultural community behave, interact, communicate, and participate in social life. |
Cultural understanding | The capacity to understand, respect, and engage with the values, beliefs, practices, and perspectives of different cultures. |
Dative case | The indirect object of a sentence. |
Diphthong | [object Object] |
Formulaic expression or language | Chunks of language that follow a fixed pattern and are learnt as whole units. |
Genitive case | Shows possession, ownership, or the relationships between nouns. |
Grammatical gender | A system in some languages where nouns are classified into categories, often called masculine, feminine, and sometimes neuter. Other words like adjectives or articles change form to match the gender of the noun. |
Intercultural communicative competence | The ability to communicate effectively, appropriately, and respectfully with people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. |
Linguistic knowledge | The understanding of how a language works, including formation of signs, vocabulary, articulation, pronunciation, spelling, and grammar. |
Neuter pronoun | A pronoun used to refer to things, situations, ideas, or conditions without indicating gender. |
Nominative case | The subject of a sentence. |
Phonetic | Words written or represented based on how they sound. |
Productive skills | The ability to sign, speak, write, interact, and present. |
Qualifier | A word or phrase that modifies or limits the meaning of another word (usually an adjective, adverb, or noun) by adding nuance, degree, or specificity, such as ‘very’, ‘almost’, ‘quite’. |
Receptive skills | The ability to understand signed, spoken, or written language. |
Social norms | The unwritten rules, expectations, and conventions of behaving within a particular cultural or social group. |
Sociolinguistic knowledge | Understanding of how social factors (e.g. age, gender, race, class, location) influence language use and how language shapes social identity and relationships. |
Target language | The language a student is learning. |
Tasks of a concrete type | Practical, everyday situations where someone needs to use a language for a specific purpose like asking for assistance, reading bus timetables, or filling out a form. |
Text | Signed, written, spoken, or visual materials that students use to understand and practise the target language (e.g. passages, dialogues, recordings, posters, menus). |
Time markers | Words or phrases that indicate whether something happens in the past, present, or future. |
Transactional communication | Using language to get things done (e.g. buying something or making plans with someone). |
Umlaut | A change in the sound of a vowel caused by the influence of another vowel. It is shown by two dots above the vowels ä, ö, and ü. |
Vitality of a language | How strong and actively used a language is within a community. |
About this resource
This page provides the Years 0-10 Learning Languages learning area of The New Zealand Curriculum. This content is proposed to be made by the Minister of Education as a National Curriculum Statement under section 90(1)(a) of the Education and Training Act 2020. Once made and published in the New Zealand Gazette, it will set the requirements for the teaching of Years 0-10 Learning Languages in state schools and schools will be required to start using it from 1 January 2027 for Years 9-10 and from 1 January 2029 for Years 0-8. This page will be replaced with the official version made under the Act and published in the New Zealand Gazette once that has occurred.
1 January 2027 used as the date to reflect that Years 9-10 must use this content from then.
File Downloads
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