A better start to literacy for bilingual children in New Zealand: findings from an exploratory case study in te reo Māori and English

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic information for participants.

	Level 1	Level 3
Age
M (SD)	5.86 (0.60)	6.09 (0.80)
Range	5: 5–7: 2	5: 6–7: 1
Gender
Female	60.0% (n = 9)	45.5% (n = 5)
Male	40.0% (n = 6)	54.5% (n = 6)
Total	100% (n = 15)	100% (n = 11)

Table 2. Pearson product-moment correlations within measures of te reo Māori and English pre-programme (n = 26).

	Phoneme ID ENG	Phoneme BL ENG	Sound SG ENG	Sound–letter ENG	Phoneme ID TRM	Phoneme BL TRM	Sound SG TRM	Sound–letter TRM
Phoneme ID ENG	–	.701**	.699**	.717**
Phoneme BL ENG	.701**	–	.694**	.772**
Sound SG ENG	.699**	.694**	–	.653**
Sound letter ENG	.717**	.772**	.653**	–
Phoneme ID TRM					–	.642**	.625**	.457*
Phoneme BL TRM					.642**	–	.483*	.600**
Sound SG TRM					.625**	.483*	–	.476*
Sound–letter TRM					.457*	.600**	.476*	–

*p < .05, ** p < .001. Note. Phoneme ID = Initial Phoneme Identification, Phoneme BL = Phoneme Blending, Sound SG = Sound Segmentation, ENG = English, TRM = te reo Māori.

Table 3. Summary of the vocabulary and phonological awareness programme.

Programme component	Summary	Example
Vocabulary	Included a reading, or summarising of the storybook, elaborating targeted vocabulary, retell or discussion by children	Target words for elaboration: puiaki, kaitiaki (te reo Māori) emerge survive (English)
Phonological identity	Identifying initial sounds in words. Generating words that began with targeted initial sound	Targeted p sound: pahi (bus), pango (black), puku (stomach) Targeted t sound: tahi (sweep), tama (boy), and tāne (man)
Phonological segmentation	Segmenting four phoneme words, via the use of physical movements (tapping out each sound) or counters on phoneme segmentation boards	As above
Phonological blending	Blending phonemes together to form the target word	p-a-h-i, p-a-ng-o, p-u-k-u t-a-h-i, t-a-m-a, t-ā-n-e
Phonological manipulation	Reading or writing a chain of words that differed by one phoneme	‘This word says tama. I want the word rama. What sound changes?’ (te reo Māori)
Transfer to reading and writing	Spelling a word to complete the phrase, e.g. oma (run), peke (jump), mahi (work). Reading sentence as a class.	Targeted carrier phrase: He pai ki au ki te ________ ki tōku hoa (I like to _________ with my friend).

Table 4. Group performance over time for Level 1 and Level 3.

	Level 1			Level 3
	Pre	Post	t-test (df = 14)	Pre	Post	t-test (df = 10)
	M (SD)	M (SD)		M (SD)	M (SD)
Phoneme identity–te reo Māori	5.00 (3.14)	5.87 (3.07)	t = −1.682 η^2= .17	5.91 (2.51)	7.91** (1.97)	t = −4.114 η^2= .63
Sound segmentation–te reo Māori	4.53 (2.53)	5.53 (2.70)	t = −1.334 η^2= .11	5.00 (2.61)	5.55 (2.46)	t = −.576 η^2= .03
Phoneme blending–te reo Māori	5.47 (2.17)	7.07** (2.15)	t = −1.863 η^2= .52	5.73 (2.10)	7.27** (1.85)	t = −2.675 η^2= .42
Sound-letter recognition–te reo Māori	4.00 (2.56)	5.47** (2.32)	t = −3.290 η^2= .44	3.82 (2.48)	5.36** (1.5)	t = −2.371 η^2= .36
Phoneme identity–English	5.53 (3.14)	7.13** (3.09)	t = −2.599 η^2= .33	7.18 (3.22)	9.55** (.93)	t = −2.833 η^2= .45
Sound segmentation–English	1.67 (1.99)	2.93** (2.69)	t = −1.683 η^2= .17	6.18 (4.00)	5.91 (4.68)	t = .251 η^2= .006
Phoneme blending–English	6.80 (3.36)	9.20 (4.26)	t = −3.595 η^2= .48	9.64 (5.71)	12.45 (4.48)	t = −1.886 η^2= .26
Sound-letter recognition–English	8.07 (6.01)	11.40** (4.49)	t = −3.371 η^2= .45	11.00 (6.31)	16.18** (2.60)	t = −3.468 η^2= .55
Non-word reading–graphemes–English	5.00 (7.14)	5.80 (8.16)	t = −.727 η^2= .04	11.27 (12.31)	15.45** (10.05)	t = −2.560 η^2= .39
Non-word reading–words–English	.33 (.90)	.53 (1.58)	t = −1.382 η^2= .12	2.55 (3.88)	2.73 (3.93)	t = .276 η^2= .007
Elaborated vocabulary–te reo Māori/English	1.40 (.91)	4.87** (3.04)	t = −5.030 η^2=  .64	2.00 (1.34)	3.55** (1.51)	t = −4.224 η^2= .64
Unelaborated vocabulary–English	2.27 (1.44)	4.27** (2.22)	t = −3.022 η^2=  .39	3.36 (2.46)	4.73** (1.95)	t = =2.776 η^2=  .44

* p < .05. ** p < .01. Note. Cohen’s eta squared effect size guidelines: small (0.01), moderate (0.06), and large (.14).

Table 5. Correlations for Level 1 (lower-left diagonal) and Level 3 (upper-right diagonal) – shaded cells indicate cross-language correlations.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1. Phoneme ID–ENG	–	.684	.161	.381	.374	.458	.819	.599	.491	−.095	.233	.167
2. Phoneme BL–ENG	−.042	–	−.037	.225	.464	.437	.531	.169	.396	−.071	.184	.343
3. Sound SEG–ENG	−.086	.459	–	−.103	−.135	.482	−.137	.059	−.175	.159	−.328	−.492
4. Phoneme ID–TRM	.273	.316	.412	–	.259	−.039	.225	.172	.644	.085	.000	.160
5. Phoneme BL–TRM	.180	.267	.071	.374	–	.361	.083	−.007	.358	.146	.160	.218
6. Sound SEG–TRM	.495	.304	−.068	.530	.077	–	.314	.408	−.009.	−.235	−.165	−.394
7. SL REC–ENG	.000	.245	.407	−.003	.374	−.135	–	.821	.392	−.096	.115	.325
8. SL REC–TRM	.170	.419	.414	−.022	.280	−.014	.666	–	.243	−.108	−.315	.108
9. NWR(G)–ENG	.153	.176	.321	.299	.408	−.063	.324	.101	–	.586	.315	.570
10. NWR–ENG (W)	−.256	.059	−.122	−.166	.016	−.263	−.433	−.251	.078	–	.223	.514
11. ELAB	.110	.385	−.026	.053	.064	.101	.012	.383	.354	−.019	–	.244
12. UNELAB	.047	.216	−.210	.015	.105	.240	−.189	−.097	-.065	.050	.397	–

Figures in bold are significant (p < .05). Figures in italics are non-significant but show medium correlation sizes (r > .3). Phoneme ID = Initial Phoneme Identification, Phoneme BL = Phoneme Blending, Sound SG = Sound Segmentation, SL Rec = Sound-letter recognition, NWR(G) = Non word reading grapheme, NWR(W) = non word reading word, ELAB = elaborated vocabulary, UNELAB = Unelaborated vocabulary, ENG = English, TRM = te reo Māori.