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4A - Developing a Task-Based Approach

A Case Study of a Teacher Working with Australian Aboriginal Students in Vocational Education and Training

from Part II - Tasks and Needs Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Mohammad Javad Ahmadian
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Michael H. Long
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
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Summary

This research occurred in a unique context, namely an independent Vocational Education and Training (VET) school for older adolescent Australian Aboriginal students. Many of the students at this school, past and present, come from remote communities and speak Standard Australian English (SAE) as their second language or dialect. A previously conducted needs analysis that involved collecting data from various sources and stakeholders established that the students’ needs are wide-ranging and, although mostly concerned with vocational and behavioural requirements, they involved the students developing associated communicative skills. The case study presented below provides a description of one teacher’s efforts to address his students’ needs by developing and using authentic tasks. The ‘meaning focussed’ tasks he selected and/or developed required the students to use their own linguistic resources to negotiate to achieve understanding. The examples provided show how through a task-based approach the teacher has been able to provide pedagogical opportunities that served both his students’ communicative and real-life needs.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] (2016a). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey. Retrieved from www.abs.gov.auGoogle Scholar
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Oliver, R. (2020). Developing authentic tasks for the workplace using needs analysis: A case study of Australian Aboriginal vocational students. In Lambert, C. and Oliver, R., eds. Using tasks in diverse contexts. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Oliver, R., Grote, E., Rochecouste, J., and Exell, M. (2012). Addressing the language and literacy needs of Aboriginal high School VET students who speak SAE as an additional language. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 41(2), 111.Google Scholar
Oliver, R., Grote, E., Rochecouste, J., and Exell, M. (2013a). Needs analysis for task-based language teaching: A case study of Indigenous vocational education and training students who speak EAL/EAD. TESOL in Context, 22(2), 3650.Google Scholar
Oliver, R., Grote, E., Rochecouste, J., and Exell, M. (2013b). A task-based needs analysis for Australian Aboriginal students: Going beyond the target situation to address cultural issues. International Journal of Training Research, 11(3), 246–59.Google Scholar

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