Children of Pacific island communities here in New Zealand sometimes struggle with English because their families still speak their native tongue at home.

Now teachers are working with the language they know best to help them improve their English.

Clement Paligaru: These children are attending an after-school class where the Samoan language is used to assist students accelerate English language learning. The classes are held at a Samoan community centre in South Auckland, which has more Pacific islanders then anywhere else in New Zealand. It's a program endorsed by the Education Department.

Faimai Tuimauga, Samoan Literacy Co-ordinator: They had been looking for strategies to help Pasifika students raise their achievement levels at school. This is the very first community based program.

Clement Paligaru: In Samoa, many of these children would have grown up in a culture of storytelling and debating, giving them a sophisticated understanding of language that's crucial to academic achievement.

They're not exposed to that rich oral tradition growing up in New Zealand. But because they do speak Samoan at home, English is their second language, which makes it harder for them to do well at school.

These classes teach English using Samoan because the teachers believe if students speak their first language well, they'll do even better in their second language.

Faimai Tuimauga: We use the Samoan language. We talk in Samoan, in the Samoan language. We build up their vocabulary in Samoan with songs, using poems.

Clement Paligaru: Students are introduced to Samoan storytelling techniques to help them understand and decode English literary concepts.

Faimai Tuimauga: We have children from Samoa and we talk about the sea. And that's something they're really rich in because they have contact with the sea nearly every day. So those are the sort of concepts that we use to build their vocabulary so that when they go to school, they're familiar with this.

Clement Paligaru: Practicing debating in Samoan and then in English also helps students improve their conversational skills - and their confidence.

Grace Namuali'i, student: When we grow up, we can become a lawyer or anything. So when they ask us questions, we know what to say.

Colin Palmer, student: We have the courage and the confidence to do stuff. And we get to have teamwork.

Clement Paligaru: In the Pareira household, mum's from Samoa. All her children were born in New Zealand. On weekday afternoons, Ane Pareira holds her own lessons, to make sure her children learn Samoan.

Ane Periera, Mum: She can tell stories in English and Samoan as well. So she likes praying in Samoan. She pick it from us big people, when we talk and she repeat it.

Clement Paligaru: Ane wants Trinity to continue her Samoan traditions, but not at the expense of learning to speak English well - the language of success in her new country.

Ane Periera: When they look for a job, they expect them to speak English.

Clement Paligaru: For others, it's not just about speaking English better. At the Manukau Institute of Technology, new migrants are being taught how to use computers in Samoan.

Seugagogo Fololi Lologa-Iosua, Manukau Institute of Technology: So they not only learning how to use the computer, or computing skills but also improving on their English skills.

Leapai Robert Tuiletufuga Hunkin, Student: When there are some big words, English words, I suppose that's why they sussed out this Samoan version of it - it helps.

Clement Paligaru: For many, the classes have also opened a window to a world they once feared, but now they feel they've mastered.

Solia Tautai Lologa-Iosua, Manukau Institute of Technology: When they look at a computer they thought this is like flying a 747. But now they say wow we can actually do it

Clement Paligaru: While the classes focus on improving English, these children are also learning the value of their Samoan heritage.

Grace Namuali'i: We learn more of our culture and the Samoan language

Colin Palmer: We will know how to speak Samoan because we are Samoans and we should be proud of ourselves.