Papers by Winifred Crombie
He Puna Korero: Journal of Maori and Pacific Development, Jun 1, 2010
He Puna Korero: Journal of Maori and Pacific Development, Feb 1, 2008
and entered the consultation round. In producing the draft Framework, we had to address a range o... more and entered the consultation round. In producing the draft Framework, we had to address a range of issues. Some these related to user expectations. Others concerned the relationship between the draft Framework and documents such as English in the New Zealand Curriculum, existing curriculum documents relating to other languages, and ESOL frameworks available in other countries. These issues proved to be critical. This paper explores some of these issues and introduces the draft Framework.
This paper introduces the draft Learning Progression Framework for Māori in mainstream schools wh... more This paper introduces the draft Learning Progression Framework for Māori in mainstream schools which we prepared in the first half of 2003 for the New Zealand Ministry of Education. Readers are invited to contact the authors if they wish to make any suggestions in relation to the final content of the document.
Language Teaching, 2011
Editorial noteThis new strand in the journal provides a space for contributors to present a perso... more Editorial noteThis new strand in the journal provides a space for contributors to present a personal stance either on future research needs or on the perceived current applications of research in the classroom. Like much of our current content, it echoes the historical uniqueness of this journal in terms of its rich and expert overview of recent research in the field of L2 teaching and learning. However, this new strand takes such research as its starting point and attempts to look forward, using these findings both to debate their application in the language learning classroom and also to suggest where research would be best directed in the future. Thus, the objective of both papers is eminently practical: contributors to the research agenda will present suggestions for what research might usefully be undertaken, given what is currently known or what is perceived to be necessary. In the research into practice papers there will be critical appraisal both of what research is, and is ...
We argue here that being negative can, in certain contexts, make strategic sense. Making extensiv... more We argue here that being negative can, in certain contexts, make strategic sense. Making extensive reference to context, we analyze a single annual executive letter written by the director of a small New Zealand business. The letter appears to focus on problems. These problems are, however, relatively minor ones that had either already been solved or were in the process of resolution when the letter was written. These problems appear to serve three functions: to distract attention from more serious issues, to undermine the credibility of potential challengers, and to provide a context in which the writer can present himself and the other company directors positively as problem solvers. The writer’s immediate objective appears to have been achieved: The business of the annual general meeting was conducted in eleven minutes, and each resolution was carried without amendment. The status quo was maintained. Focusing on negatives may, however, have proved to be a high-risk strategy in th...
This paper presents, within the context of ongoing debates on syllabus design, a critical analysi... more This paper presents, within the context of ongoing debates on syllabus design, a critical analysis of Tih Mauri Ora, a syllabus document produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education to support the teaching and learning of the M ori language in schools in New Zealand. It includes a number of suggestions in relation to any future documents prepared with similar intent.
He Puna Korero: Journal of Maori and Pacific Development, 2001
We propose here one approach to unravelling some aspects of authentic discourse construction in a... more We propose here one approach to unravelling some aspects of authentic discourse construction in a way that may prove useful to teachers and learners of Maori. The approach is illustrated in relation to one text which realises the argument genre in M ori. In terms of text-type, the example provided is an open letter of advice/warning. The approach illustrated here, and the hypotheses emerging from it, are currently being further tested by one of the authors with reference to a corpus of written texts.
He Puna Korero: Journal of Maori and Pacific Development, 2002
We report here on a small-scale research project in which a number of articles and editorials dea... more We report here on a small-scale research project in which a number of articles and editorials dealing with governance and resource management problems were analysed.1 All of these articles and editorials appeared in the same national New Zealand newspaper. Half of them were concerned with a Maori organisation, the other half were not. Our conclusion is that there are fundamental differences between the two groups of articles/editorials, differences that are attributable to attempts to reinforce a normative/paternalistic agenda that stigmatises cultural difference.
He Puna Korero: Journal of Maori and Pacific Development, 2003
This paper examines the origins of what has come to be known as'communicative language teachi... more This paper examines the origins of what has come to be known as'communicative language teaching', arguing that the way in which this phrase is typically interpreted in language teaching circles has changed over time and that there is now, and has been for many years, considerable disagreement about what it does, or should, actually entail in practice. Some of the problems associated with different ways of interpreting, and attempting to implement, communicative language teaching are examined and a way forward is suggested.
This article reports the preliminary findings of a research project involving the analysis of a l... more This article reports the preliminary findings of a research project involving the analysis of a large number of academic articles. It is proposed here that genres (such as explaining and reporting) can be related to particular types and interactions of cognitive process. They typically exhibit patterns of relationship that can be associated with these cognitive processes. Thus a primary difference between the explanation genre and the argument genre appears to relate to the preponderance of grounds-conclusion relationships in the latter. It is also proposed here that text-types (such as academic articles) can be related to particular types of macropattern. A primary difference between academic articles which report on information and emphasise explanation and academic articles which report on information and emphasise problem resolution is that the former tend to have an overall structure of General-Particular (Topic-Restriction-Illustration), whereas the latter tend to have an over...
We report here on the responses of a sample of ten teachers in primary/ elementary schools in Tai... more We report here on the responses of a sample of ten teachers in primary/ elementary schools in Taiwan to that part of a survey (based on a written questionnaire and semi-structured interview) that related to their experiences of in-service training provision in the teaching of English. Most of the in-service training that this sample of teachers had been exposed to was in the form of one-off workshops (offered by textbook publishers, local government and cram schools). Responses to these workshops were mixed. The most negative responses related to workshops provided by publishers and those provided by local government that focused on policy issues. The most positive responses related to workshops taught by practicing teachers, workshops that sometimes covered areas that appear to have been neglected in pre-service training.
British Journal of Language Teaching, 1982
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Papers by Winifred Crombie