This article explores the motivation of non-Maori learners of te reo Maori as an L2. Inspired by calls for contextualised investigations of the L2 motivation of learners of LOTEs, our study utilises an "ethical self-formation framework" [Hennig, B. B. 2010a. "Language Learning and the Self: Exploring Hong Kong Students' Motivation…

New Zealand's Pacific communities face significant generational language loss and their media are increasingly produced in English, raising questions about the centrality of language for ethnic media and their audiences. By drawing on semi-structured interviews with 23 media producers, this study finds tensions within and between Pacific-language…

This study investigates variation in listeners' accuracy in accent identification of native and non-native speakers of English. Thirty native speakers of New Zealand (NZ) English completed a free identification task with stimuli extracted from naturalistic conversations of several speakers from three native and two non-native English language…

Naming places is theorised as an activity in heritage whereby a name will index a people's narrative and history. In postcolonial societies where the colonised and the colonisers share spaces, individual locations can host different sides of history and different cultural significance. To this end, the New Zealand government has pursued bilingual…

This article makes a case for the existence of a minority language hierarchy in New Zealand. Based on an analysis of language ideologies expressed in recent policy documents and interviews with policymakers and representatives of minority language communities, it presents the arguments forwarded in support of the promotion of different types of…

Although the majority of New Zealanders speak English, and only English, the 1987 Maori Language Act and immigration from both Asia and the Pacific have had a significant impact on New Zealand society. Because increasing numbers of children are entering school with limited English language ability, students are arguably the group with the most…

Political leaders, the media, business people, trade union leaders and academics continually refer to how globalisation is impacting on our lives. Governments may at times argue that globalisation benefits us, and at others attribute to globalisation many of the major problems we currently face. What do ordinary people make of all this? We do not…

This paper considers speakers' differing degrees of self-confidence in their bilingual abilities and their effects on reported language use and observed patterns of language choice. One hundred and twenty individuals from New Zealand's four largest Pasifika communities--Samoan, Cook Islands, Tongan and Niuean--reported on their self-confidence in…

Discusses ethnic speech styles in New Zealand, the extent to which they can be detected, and how they and English received pronunciation are evaluated by listeners. (EKN)

Evaluates methods used by New Zealand researchers on language maintenance and shift among ethnic minorities to collect data on community languages. Points out that there are many communities in that country whose patterns of language use are mostly unknown. Makes a case for the social, cultural, and educational benefits of research on community…

Because further promotion of the Maori language is needed to prevent it from remaining an endangered language, a national survey was conducted of 225 New Zealand adults' opinions about the language and fostering its instruction. Two-thirds of the respondents supported its place in New Zealand society, but 25 percent supported greater use. (23…