Te reo whakaputa ā-waha - spoken production
What this domain tests
Te reo whakaputa ā-waha is assessed live. The assessor listens for three things at once: whakahua (vowel length, ng/wh, stress), te rere o te reo (rhythm, pausing, fluency) and hanganga (whether the kōrero has a shape a listener can follow). A memorised script delivered flatly loses marks even when every particle is correct, because the task is to speak, not to recite.
Whakahua and rhythm
- Hold vowel length: whānau, kōrero, Māori, tāne. A dropped macron is a meaning error, not an accent.
- Keep ng and wh distinct from n and w: ngā, whenua, whare.
- Stress the first long vowel in a word, not the English pattern (KĀ-i-ko-a, not ka-RĀ-koa).
- Pause at the end of a thought, never mid-phrase; vary pace so a whakataukī lands slower than a list of names.
The shape of a mihi
- Tauparapara or whakataukī opening.
- Mihi ki te whenua, ki ngā tūpuna, ki te hunga mate.
- Mihi ki te hunga ora - tangata whenua first, then manuhiri.
- Whakaatu i a koe: whakapapa, kaupapa.
- Kupu whakakapi.
Worked example
"E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou. Tēnei te mihi atu ki te whenua e tū nei mātou." Reasoning: the address moves from abstract qualities (mana, reo) to the gathered people before any personal introduction, and tēnei ... atu positions the speaker as the one giving the mihi. Only after that ground is laid does the kaupapa appear. A speaker who opens with their own name and purpose reverses the order and signals inexperience.
Traps that cost marks
Reading a full script with eyes down; English-style fillers (um, like) breaking the rhythm; a mihi so long the kaupapa never arrives; no whakamutunga, so the kōrero simply stops; using formal whaikōrero register for a casual kōrero ā-whānau.