East Coast Bays: Shared Reading in an Additional Language

Here, Kate gives us a insight into how Shared Reading is helping to bring together communities and connect different cultures with one another in Auckland.

‘Not forward, not backward, some sideward'

It is said Learning is part of life, and it is truly ongoing all of my life. Since I am living here, learning English just like doing exercise to keep oneself fit. But no matter how much one makes the effort, the ageing clock still keeps ticking. Same as learning new tricks for an old dog, I have learned a lot of words, idioms, etc, but I can’t retain all of what I have learned. There might be a little hole somewhere on the brain tank!

I’m not expecting much English improvement at my age. I just hope my English level is not like a ball, rolling and dropping downhill toward the horizon too soon. However, yes, Reading Revolution does help in many regards, especially for helping me look into the variety of life and opening my vision by understanding the people who are not in my narrow span of life experience.

I love reading. Joining the group doesn’t mean replacing any other activity, or altering daily life; I just squeeze it in – easily, no doubt as natural as breathing.” – Shared Reading participant since 2018.

In Auckland City 28% of the population are Asian with Chinese people as the highest percentage. Many new migrants or people learning English may feel isolated or shy in social situations. The Kiwi accent is also hard for many people to understand as it’s pretty kooky!

Since 2018 our wonderful volunteers Jody, Dawn and Gaylene have been running a Shared Reading group at East Coast Bays library with a predominantly Chinese and Korean community of mixed ages and genders. There are also Russian, Taiwanese and other cultures within the group. The fabulous Jane and Cameron have also started a similar group at Albany Village library. English is an additional language for these group members and we were curious to know if they felt like Shared Reading helped them with aspects of their English language. In these groups the story is emailed a week before the session so that participants can do any translation work ahead of time. Some participants study English outside the group, some don’t but all have formally studied in the past. Some group members have been in NZ only a couple of years, some older people for 25 years!

When we asked for feedback the group universally agreed that they found Shared Reading really useful and motivating because the activity is so enjoyable! People were motivated to read the story beforehand and figure out any tricky bits so that they could really enjoy the rich discussion on the day. All reported that their vocabulary and fluency had improved.