Pasifika languages in New Zealand

Maintaining Pasifika languages

The 2001 census found that there were approximately 232,000 people who identified as Pasifika. (See the inquiry Pasifika communities in New Zealand .) It also found that there were more than 100,000 speakers of Pasifika languages. The 2006 census identified more than 140,000 speakers of Pasifika languages, of whom the vast majority were Sāmoan speakers. This makes speakers of Sāmoan the third largest language group in New Zealand, behind speakers of English and of Māori. (See the table below.)

Language spoken (2006 census)
English	3,673,623
Māori	157,110
Sāmoan	85,428
French	53,757
Hindi	44,589
Yue (Cantonese)	44,154
Northern Chinese	41,391
German	37,509
Tongan	29,496

(Adapted from Statistics New Zealand, 2007.)

Recent national surveys of te reo Māori (the Māori language) indicate that there are only 22,000 highly fluent speakers of Māori and a further 22,000 who speak the language with medium fluency. It is likely, therefore, that the number of Sāmoan speakers of high and medium fluency is greater than the number of Māori speakers of high and medium fluency.

The 2006 census also identified significant numbers of speakers of other Pasifika languages. As the table shows, 29,496 people spoke Tongan. In addition, 9702 spoke Cook Islands Māori, and 5481 spoke the Niue language.

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The language question asked in the census was: “In what language(s) could you have a conversation about a lot of everyday things?” The statistics show that more than 60 per cent of Sāmoans and Tongans living in New Zealand can hold an everyday conversation in their respective Pasifika languages. This is a significant percentage, especially given that migration has been taking place for 60 years. (See the inquiry Pasifika communities in New Zealand .) Most speakers of Pasifika languages speak just one Pasifika language (that of their own ethnic group), although Sāmoan and, to a lesser extent, Tongan are also spoken by some members of other ethnic groups.

Pasifika language shift and loss

English is the dominant language in New Zealand and 82.2 per cent of the population is monolingual (able to speak only one language – in this case, English). Internationally, this is a very high proportion. The dominance of English has contributed to changing patterns of language use in Pasifika communities and to a related decline in bilingualism. (See Starks et al., 2004.) This decline is particularly evident among New Zealand-born Pasifika, who are increasingly ‘switching to’ (or only speaking) English. As Statistics New Zealand concluded in its analysis of the language question in the census, “Pacific people born overseas were almost twice as likely as those born in New Zealand to [still] speak their [Pasifika] language” (Statistics New Zealand, 2002b, page 19). As at 2001, 40.6 per cent of the total Pasifika population in New Zealand could speak only English. The proportion was much higher for New Zealand-born Pasifika (Macpherson, 2004).

This process of changing language use is called language loss or language shift and is a feature of many long-settled migrant groups, particularly for second or third generation migrants. While the language shift to English is increasingly apparent in all Pasifika communities in New Zealand, the rate and extent of the shift varies. As discussed, Sāmoan and Tongan remain widely spoken in their communities, but only 28 per cent of the Niuean community still speak the Niue language and 18 per cent of the Cook Islands Māori community still speak Cook Islands Māori. Two factors that could be contributing to this level of language shift are:

• the Niuean and Cook Islands Māori communities have the highest percentage of New Zealand-born Pasifika
• the church – an important Pasifika language domain (see the inquiry What is bilingualism? ) – may play a less prominent role in these communities.

Education may also be a key contributor to Pasifika language shift because the majority of Pasifika students in New Zealand are to be found in English-medium classrooms, where there has often been limited opportunity for them to use a Pasifika language. This issue will be discussed further in the inquiry Pasifika languages in schools .

Negative attitudes towards Pasifika bilingualism

The language shift being experienced by Pasifika communities in New Zealand is similar to what is happening in other contexts worldwide. It results principally from ongoing pressure to learn the dominant language as quickly as possible. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with the view that all New Zealanders should learn English; everyone needs to know the language of the wider society in order to function effectively within it. The problem is that this view is often associated with the idea that continuing to speak another language, or continuing to be bilingual, is somehow problematic or bad; that people must learn English at the expense of their first language (L1). This view is still widely held by many monolingual speakers of English, particularly those unfamiliar with bilingualism. As a result, it is a view that may be internalised by bilingual speakers themselves – including Pasifika parents and students – if they find it reinforced by schools and the wider society.

This negative or subtractive view of bilingualism – a view that is contradicted by research – can have serious educational and social consequences for bilingual speakers. (See the inquiry Is bilingualism a problem? .) By contrast, adopting a positive or additive view of Pasifika bilingualism (see the inquiry Is bilingualism an advantage? ) is the first step to improving the educational and social fortunes of bilingual Pasifika speakers. The LEAP resource aims to provide New Zealand teachers working in mainstream educational contexts with knowledge about Pasifika bilingualism and effective language-teaching strategies so that they can build on the knowledge they already have and move forward with confidence.

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