New Zealand Association of Language Teachers

Executive Meeting Sat 27- Sun 28 October, 2007

Goethe Institut and ILANZ , Cuba and Garrett Sts
Present: James Donaldson, Philippa Doig, David Hall, Anne Jacques, Jane Lee, Pam
Mabin, Eileen Mueller, Jenness Riethmaier, Jo Rittey, Adele Scott (President), Sue
Sutherland (Secretary)
Apologies: None
Saturday 27 October
Welcome
President Adele welcomed Susan Miller-Thevenard, Facilitator of the Strategic Plan
exercise and Eileen Mueller from Hutt Intermediate.
Minutes of previous meeting, 28-29 July, were confirmed.
Matters arising from the minutes
NCEA booklets. Time and financial constraints make it impracticable for NZALT to
resume the sale of these booklets. The originals are held at Wellington College of
Education. A suggestion was made that the SLA’s be given the originals for
distribution as required to members. Instead it was decided to give the originals to
James for scanning and retention.
Frances Salt (ERO) is to visit next meeting. Adele to make the arrangements.
Badges: Sales are closed. Remainders to be given as gifts. Philippa is to send a few of
the best badge designs. Thanks to Philippa for her efforts
A response to Alastair McLauchlan’s reference to NZALT in his book,The negative
L2 climate: understanding attrition among second language students, will be
made in a letter to be crafted by SS, AJ and AS
Curriculum Update (AS). Legislation of Second Language Learning area postponed
to allow for further development of resources and requirements.
Strategic Planning
10.00a.m – 5.45 p.m The committee took part in a strategic planning exercise ably
facilitated by Susan Miller-Thevenard.

Sunday, 28 October
Debriefing
There was positive feedback from the Saturday’s strategic planning meeting.
Speak-Up Scholarships. Low uptake, but award is new. Publicity in Polyglot and an
article in The New Zealand Language Teacher will further publicize the award.
An application from Vivienne Lee, Waiuku Primary School was considered. A $300
scholarship was approved. DH/PD
DH will contact Vivienne and outline the requirements for payment of the award ie.
proof of having completed the course. DH will contact the regional facilitators and
remind them of the existence of Speak Up Award and ask them to promote it.
It was agreed that recognition of the scholarship award to Vivienne be made at
Conference 2008 AJ/PM.
It was agreed that all NZALT PD awards be advertised in the Education Gazette
prior to the December closure date. JL/PM. Secretary to organize.
in December for the both Speak Up and PD awards.

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The Jingle Competition was judged. Disappointing response, in spite of strenuous
publicity and organizational effort by JD. Thanks to JD for his work.
Two first prizes – junior and senior – were awarded Rangi Ruru School Year 13 and
Iona College Year 9. The prizes are 2 x $50 CD vouchers, donated by the Sasakawa
Fellowship Fund. Letter of thanks to be written to Sasakawa mentioning that the
Fund’s support acknowledged on website. James will craft letters to principals of
schools and student groups and forward to secretary for formatting
Principals: Julie Moor Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, 59 Hewitts Road, Merivale ChCh
Mrs Gillian Melville Iona College, 42 Lucknow Rd, Havelock North.

Membership and subscriptions. There was discussion around membership and

subscriptions - in primary and intermediate schools
Suggestions made: Replace present categories with varying subscriptions
according to the number of language teachers in a school.
Offer services to SLA’s – common data base, subscription
collection – to increase the cohesiveness of the associations

Membership numbers
NZALT membership
2005 2006 2007
Auckland 219 168 151
Waikato 67 66 59
Massey 47 45 56
Victoria 99 68 58
Canterbury 102 72 82
Otago 39 40 29
Total 573 459 435

Specific Language Association membership

Language 2007 Comments
Chinese Up to 300 Rotorua and Hamilton are
new branches. Numbers
reflect that membership
includes anyone interested
in the Chinese language –
not only teachers.
French 346 Up from 308 in March
German 65
Japanese 255 on data base – by
school not by teacher
Spanish 50 Membership down since
the departure of Agustin
Yague

Data base maintenance: Regional officers to respond to David by 16 Nov about

people on data base whose details/whereabouts have changed..
RO’s to remind members that it is their responsibility to change details on the
the website.

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Membership services: One full RO newsletter to go to members after the first Exec
meeting. Thereafter members, i.e those who have paid, receive a full newsletter and
others get a reduced version reminding them that they have not paid. PD/AJ
It was agreed that J D’s executive meeting notes be posted on the website in PDF
format. DH/ PD

Polyglot and NZLT

480 copies of Polyglot are to be printed. JR agreed to pick up extra copies from Taieri
Print and send copies to National Library, contributors( NZLT), and recent members.
JL raised the issue of cost - 50% of income is spent on publications.
$12000 expenditure on two publications is financially unviable.
It was proposed that NZALT trial the biannual publication of Polyglot on line in 2008
in consultation with the editor PD JR. Passed. Rationale : cost-saving and ecological
benefits. Jenness to write to editor to discuss implications of this motion.
NZLT is in final stages of editing.

Certificates of Excellence
NCEA awards now include an excellence annotation with the result that NZALT
awards may be less valuable.
A change in criteria for NZALT Certs of Excellence was agreed with the passage of
the motion that the number of excellences required at Level 1 be increased from 3 to
4. PM/DH
It was moved that NZALT reprint the certificates for Year 7 and 8 students to reward
effort and achievement. PD/JA When and where, who, how later.

Correspondence
Inwards from
J. Robertson -Thank you
MoE Evaluations of 2006 Secondary Numeracy Project
MoE: Early Childhood eduction and young adult competencies
MoE Evaluation of Promoting Early Childhood Education Participation Project
MoE Evaluation of MoE - funded Early Childhood Education Professional
Development Programme
AsiaNZ – acknowledgment of repayment of unspent money and receipt for $2800
Christchurch East School – invitation to A Jacques
Steve Maharey- acknowledgement of receipt of President’s letter
M. Cullen – acknowledgment of receipt of President’s letter
Subject Association Newsletter
Jeanne Gilbert – request for sponsorship
Outwards to
AsiaNZ/ Janine Chin
Steve Maharey re scholarship decision
Michael Cullen re New Learning Area
Thanks to Sue Chalmers NZQA , Tony Turnock MoE

Eligibility of Native Speakers for Scholarship Awards.

a. NZQA will not make the proposed change to language scholarship exams by
requiring English responses
b Adele tabled Steve Maharey’s response to the Association’s letter: there would be
no change to the recently made decision to allow native speakers to receive monetary
rewards until there was evidence that non-native speakers were disadvantaged.
c There was discussion around the collection of data.

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It was moved that NZALT ask Sarah Perkins and Jo Rittey to begin the collection of
data about subject choice in Year 12 and 13. AS/AJ This decision fulfils the
motion passed at AGM 2007 “that NZALT instigate and coordinate the gathering of
accurate data relating to languages students’ subject selection in Years 12 and 13 and
monitor issues related to first language speakers being eligible for monetary rewards
in 2007 and in the future.”
d Adele will prepare a statement for Regional Officers’ newsletters and the website
regarding NZALT’s discussions with the Minister and NZQA re scholarship
eligibility 2008 AS/AJ
e Adele to be the spokesperson re the New Curriculum – launch 6 Nov
And to organize a Press release /exec response to the new learning area.

Y7 and 8 representation on NZALT executive

It was agreed that Eileen Mueller be invited to represent the Year 7 and 8 Sector until
the next AGM. AS/PD

Katipo
JL and DH reported on the meeting with Rachel Hamilton and Rob Lyons of Katipo
Of the choices offered, DH and JL decided to continue with the Club Data
programme and solve the problems associated with it.
Those problems are: no receipts, RO’s can’t check who has paid; the invoice needs to
be reshaped; the timing out of data downloading
Katipo have been asked to give a price for solutions to the problems.
DL and DH sought approval to go ahead with the necessary changes to do with
invoicing and receipting and were authorized to access funds up to $5000 in order to
update the facilities for online membership at their discretion.
AS/AJ

Treasurer’s Report
Financial Balance $12,500; Two term deposits of $15000.
One of the fixed term deposits is to be broken to allow payment of expenses JL/PD
Accounts until end of Sept were approved. JL/PD

It was also agreed that the issue of branches reporting on their financial situation be
addressed at the March exec meeting SS/PD

Conference Report. PD reported on conference. Two keynote speakers have been

secured: Dr Ema Ushioda of Warwick University and Ian Lillico of Western
Australia. The early bird fee: $330 incl GST. Venue: Wellington Girls’ College.
Thanks to PD and SS for continuing work with conference.
Proposed dates of Future conferences
2009 Sydney
2010 Nelson/Queenstown
2011
2012 Conf in Brisbane FIPLV
Portfolios
Eileen was given the job description for the Yr 7 and 8 portfolio. Eileen will be sent
an official letter of invitation.
New portfolio, research and marketing, was created on the motion that NZALT
create a new portfolio entitled Research and Marketing, the parameters of which will
be defined by strategic planning later /ASAJ/
Jo Rittey accepted this portfolio.

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Representation at the PPTA Professional Conference and Subject Association
Forum.
It was agreed that NZALT should be represented at PPTA Professional Conference
17-19 April and the Subject Association Forum 20-21 April 2008 Auckland

Next meeting March 29 and 30 , 2008

Meeting closed at 3.25 p.m.

Confirmed as a true and correct record of the meeting of 27-28 October 2007
Signed by the president Adele Scott on 29 March, 2008

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