Tali uma mai le vasega is a classroom practice that reflects the Samoan communal culture
where ‘safety in numbers’ seems to be a phrase that best describes the phenomenon of choral
response that is prevalent in Samoan schools. It is a practice common in primary instruction in
Samoa (Pereira 2005). Pupils seem to open up verbally when they are all expected to say an
answer chorally but very few of them open up when they are singled out to say an answer on
their own. As the following teacher succinctly points out, the choral response reflects the
cultural practice of living in extended families and socializing communally: