Abstract

Studies show that children’s literature can and does affect the language (Cunningham, 2002) and cultural awareness (Cullinan and Galda, 2002) of the children who have these books read to them. However, there have been no studies of the potential for written New Zealand English, in particular the use of Māori loanwords in children’s picture books, to influence the language use of adults, nor the potential for children’s picture books to affect the adults’ knowledge of tikanga Māori. This paper will examine these questions by reporting on themes from semi-structured interviews with four parents after reading a set of 13 picture books which use a high frequency of Māori loanwords (Daly, 2007) to their children for a period of a month. Adult readers reported changes in both receptive and productive use of Māori loanwords used in the books, and increased knowledge of tikanga Māori.

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