Children learning Mongolian as an additional language through the implementation of a task-based approach

This study was undertaken at a Mongolian community language school which aims to support Mongolian heritage children to learn their home language and culture. The learners were aged 4-15 years with diverse abilities in the Mongolian language. Informed by both purpose-developed Needs and Interest Analyses, a task-based language teaching (TBLT) program was developed and implemented over a six-month period. To evaluate the usefulness of this, two methods were utilised. Firstly, learners' task-based interactions were recorded regularly, transcribed and qualitatively analysed. Secondly, stakeholder feedback was elicited via interviews. The findings showed that the learners interacted in ways facilitative of second language acquisition (i.e., they received abundant input, used a variety of interactive strategies, provided peer scaffolding, and modified their output according to the feedback). They also engaged in translanguaging to support their understanding and meaning making. Stakeholder feedback pointed to some challenges, but also many positive outcomes.