Academic Achievement in Bilingual and Immersion Education

This book is about two innovative methods for teachers of bilingual students to use in improving their academic achievement. Transacquisition Pedagogy or TAP developed by Tauwehe Sophie Tamati is the method described in the book’s first part. It uses principles of flexible bilingualism and a task sequenced approach. The success of TAP in an intervention study in two of New Zealand’s Māori schools illustrates how cognitive and linguistic processes can be used to increase student conceptual understanding and to improve their academic biliteracy.

Part two is about the Curriculum Design Coherence Model (CDC Model) created by Elizabeth Rata. It shows teachers how to design concepts, content and competencies to connect academic knowledge and thinking processes. The CDC Model has proved its success in the Knowledge-Rich School Project in New Zealand and England.

TransAcquistion Pedagogy and the CDC Model are aligned. TAP works by putting the CDC design method into practice. The separate usefulness of TAP and the CDC Model and the added value of their alignment provides an innovative approach to education. Used together or separately they provide invaluable teaching methods for bilingual, immersion and mainstream education.

Elizabeth Rata is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland and Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU). She specialises in curriculum knowledge and design. This research led to the development of the Curriculum Design Coherence Model. She also undertakes research into issues of ethno-nationalism and democratic nationalism.

Tauwehe Sophie Tamati is a senior lecturer in Maori-medium education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. She is a member of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU). Her research includes the development of translingual digital environments in Virtual Reality Apps for Second Language Acquisition. She is the developer of TransAcquisition Pedagogy.