Ta'iala mo le Gagana Sāmoa - Pasifika Education Community

A‘oa‘oina e Ala i le Poto MāsaniLearning ExperiencesA learner-centred curriculum takes an interactive, experience-based, and communicative approach toteaching and learning language. This approach aims to develop learners’ communicative competence. 3Language learners need opportunities to engage in a wide range of learning activities appropriate tothe developmental stage they are at in their learning. They need opportunities to participate incommunity situations in which gagana Sāmoa is spoken.Within learning activities, the focus should be on contextualised, appropriate, and meaningfulcommunication in gagana Sāmoa. While rote learning based on surface features can help toreinforce particular patterns of language, learners need to encounter and use language withinmeaningful contexts. They learn to communicate best when they are engaged in meaningful andpurposeful interactions in the language they are learning.The examples of learning experiences that are given with the goals in the early childhood section(on pages 28–35) and under the heading Suggested Learning and Assessment Activities at each levelin the schools section (from page 53 to page 100) suggest a range of communicative, developmentallyappropriate activities that teachers may wish to use or adapt in their teaching and learning programmes.The main focus of these activities is communication.As a general guide, teachers need to choose resources and activities that reflect the interests and needsof the learners and the achievement objectives they need to meet. By selecting a good range of themost effective teaching and learning strategies, including whole-class activities, group work, pair work,role plays, and independent work, teachers can enable learners to:• draw on the language and the cultural skills they already have;• develop linguistic and intercultural competence (with growing levels of precision and accuracy)as the foundation for fluency;• experience a wide range of texts and media in gagana Sāmoa;• experience gagana ma le aganu‘u fa‘asāmoa in a range of contexts;• use language (verbal and non-verbal) and cultural knowledge for different purposes;• experience positive expectations from their teachers and families;• respond to feedback on their progress;• have opportunities to manage their own learning.21The Samoan cultural values of fa‘aaloalo, alofa, and tautua have implications for teaching andlearning programmes. It is important for teachers and learners to recognise the relationshipbetween certain traditional roles and the underlying value system that has defined them.In planning inclusive programmes, teachers need to practise soālaupule (the sharing of power).The concept of soālaupule conveys the importance of collective decision making and reciprocityof roles. It implies not only inclusiveness but also sensitivity to traditional roles and relationshipswithin aganu‘u fa‘asāmoa.When integrated into teaching and learning programmes, Samoan cultural values (see pages17–18) will help teachers to provide authentic contexts for developing learners’ understanding ofboth the language and the culture of Sāmoa.3 Communicative competence refers to a language user’s ability to use linguistic, contextual, and cultural knowledge effectively toachieve a communicative purpose.