Reading-related language abilities: Māori children “at promise”

The skills of oral narrative and phonological awareness are seen as precursors and predictors of reading development. In this study of bilingual Māori primary school students, Fleur Harris found that current methods of assessing these skills are based on the English language and Western modes of storytelling, and cast these students as “deficit”, instead of uncovering the complex, sophisticated and promising language skills they bring to reading.