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YOU ARE HERE: Home > News > First-language criteria

Top Subject Scholar Award

New Proposed Criteria to determine
who is a first-language speaker

 
In 2004 NZALT and NZQA began the task of developing a new set of criteria to determine which students competing for the Top Subject Scholar award in Languages would have an unfair "first-language" advantage.

The new criteria (see below) are now available for public consultation.

Top Scholar Award : Criteria for first-language speaker


A first-language speaker is a student who has spent three years or more of his/her formal education in a school system in which the language studied was the medium of instruction and that these three years fall within the six years up to and including the year of exam entry.

For Chinese, a first-language speaker is someone who has two or more years of formal education in a school system in which Chinese was the language of instruction. In this context, 'Chinese' includes all dialects of Chinese.

 Timeframe for the process in 2005

AprilConsultation process starts through SLA and NZALT networks
May - SeptemberLangSems and forum discussions held
OctoberNZALT Executive makes final proposal to NZQA

To read further background details click here

If you wish to submit feedback on the new criteria, please contact your Regional Officer or your Specific Language Association