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In:Broadening the Horizon of TBLT: Plenary addresses from the second decade of the International Conference on Task-Based Language Teaching
Edited by Martin East
[Task-Based Language Teaching 17] 2025
► pp. 236–254

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Chapter 12
Tasks for diverse learners in diverse contexts

A case study of Australian Aboriginal vocational students

 | Curtin University
Published online: 24 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.17.12oli
Abstract
In this chapter, based on my plenary given at the 9th International Conference on Task-Based Language Teaching in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2022, I describe how authentic tasks can support vocational skill learning whilst promoting second language learning. I focus on Aboriginal, high school students who come from remote locations in Western Australia and who have English as their second, third, or even fourth language or dialect. The research setting for this study is a vocational boarding school that is located a considerable distance from the students’ homes. By 2025 I will have spent 15 years researching and working alongside the staff and students at this school. In this chapter I report on the Needs Analysis (NA) research I undertook there using an ethnographic approach and classroom observations supplemented with interviews and written resources (e.g., trade manuals). This NA provided the evidence necessary to develop and select suitable tasks — ones that are contextually relevant, culturally appropriate, and serve the learners’ long-term needs. I also describe how this was translated into the ongoing implementation of a TBLT approach at this school.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background
    • Australian Aboriginal people
    • The students at Kutja School
    • The staff at Kutja School
  • Needs analysis
    • What is a Needs Analysis?
    • Why a Needs Analysis at this school?
  • Data collection and analysis
    • The “trustworthiness” of the data
  • Findings
  • From NA to TBLT
    • Changing a spark plug
    • Giving fencing directions
  • TBLT implementation
    • Budgeting and managing money
    • Responsibilities of having a driver’s licence
  • Case study findings
  • Postscript
  • Notes
  • References
References (23)
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