The Te Reo Māori Online Assessment assesses students’ knowledge and understanding of te reo Māori. The assessment has been developed around levels 1-3 of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) with a particular focus on the te reo Māori curriculum guidelines - Te Aho Arataki Marau mō Te Ako i Te Reo Māori (TAAM). It also draws on the Learning Languages area of the NZC. Contexts, topics, achievement objectives, and language modes from TAAM have been brought together with the three strands of Learning Languages. Because the assessment involves reading and listening, it assesses receptive knowledge.
Questions are categorised under one of four aspects: vocabulary, social interaction, cultural knowledge, and language knowledge.
Vocabulary
Items under the vocabulary aspect include te reo Māori vocabulary that is frequently used in New Zealand English and in the classroom.
It also includes vocabulary that ties specifically to achievement objectives within the curriculum guidelines. For example, Māori numbers and days of the week come under achievement objective 1.3—communicate about number, using days of the week, months, and dates.
Social interaction
Items developed to assess social interaction include words, phrases, and sentences that relate to interaction between at least two people. They can include questions, answers, commands, and responses. Most social interaction items are also linked to achievement objectives. For example, greetings and farewells come under objective 1.1—greet, farewell, and acknowledge people and respond to greetings and acknowledgments.
Cultural knowledge
Items related to cultural knowledge focus on Māori culture. They can include items involving time (seasons, days, and weeks that are uniquely Māori), days of the week that are based on atua (Māori gods) rather than the transliterated days, and traditional months. For example, Kohitātea rather than the transliterated month Hanuere. Other topics include pepeha (introduction about personal identity), mihi (greeting), and pōwhiri (formal welcome).
Language knowledge
Items categorised as 'assessing language knowledge' test knowledge of phrases and sentences with a focus on grammatical aspects. The simplest questions relate to phrases through to sentences. More difficult questions test knowledge of tenses.