COMMUNITY

LANGUAGE
LEARNING (CLL)
 Background

 developed by Charles Curran in the 1970s

 primary insights from Rogerian counseling theory

counselor client

(knower) teacher (learner) student

 Background

 developed by Charles Curran in the 1970s

 primary insights from Rogerian counseling theory

counselor client

(knower) teacher (learner) student

The term counseling means

one person giving advice,
assistance and support to
another who has a problem
Background

 CLL is also an example of Humanistics

Approach, since it deals with the emotions
and feelings as well as with linguistic
knowledge and behavioural skills

 Humanistic tewchniques are those that

blend what the student feels, thinks and
knows with what he is learning
Background

 Humanistic techniques engae the whole

person, including the emotions and feelings
as well as linguistic knowledge and
behavioral skill
 Whole person learning Teachers consider
not only their students’ intellect, but they
also have some understanding of
relationship among students’ feelings,
physical reactions and desire to learn
Language Alternation;
(another language teaching tradition which
CLL is linked )

- Mackey: A message, lesson or class is

presented first in the native language and
then, in the target language before overhears.
 Approach;

 Theory of Language and learning

the social-process view of language

Theory

 Curran himself wrote Little about his theory

of language
 His student, La Forge (1983), accepts that
language theory must start with criteria for
sound features, the sentence and abstract
models of language
 The foreign language learners tasks are to
understand the sound system, derive
meaning and develop a basic gramar of the
foreign language
 Language People
 Language People in contact
 Language People in response
 CLL interactions are of two kinds:
 Interactions between learners
 Interaction between learners and knowers
Interactions between learners

 Are unpredictable in content but typically

involve exchanges of emotion
 Learners are intimae asthey become a
community of learners and the desire to be
a part of this growing intimacy pushes
learners to keep pace with the learning of
their peers
Interactions between learners
and knowers
 Is initially dependent
 The learner tells the knower what je or she
wishes to say in target language and the
knower tells the learner how to say it
 Curran’s counseling experience led him to
conclude that the techniques of counseling
could be applied to learning in general and
to language teaching in particular
 The CLL view of learning is a holistic one
since true human learning is both cognitive
and affective
 Such learning takes place in a
communicative situation where teachers
and learners are involved in an interaction
 La Forge’s Alternative Theory;
beyond the structuralist view of language
which means Language as a Social Process.

Communication;
 Not just a message,
 Not just the uniderectional transfer,
 Speaker = listener = subject and object of
the message.
Verbal

Sender  Message Receiver

<the information-transmission model>

Verbal

Sender  Message Receiver

< the social-process model>

“Language is persons in contact”.

“Language is persons in response”.

La Forge
Theory of Language Learning

 Whole-person Learning ( cognitive and affective )

 The process is divided into five stages and
compared to the development of a child.
 Five stages are both psychological and
linguistic
 The first three are entry stages and the last
two are increasing maturity
 In the first, birth stage, feeling of security
and belonging are established
 In the second, the learner begins to achieve
a sense of Independence from the teacher
 By the third, learner speaks independently
 The fourth stage sees the learner as secure
enough to take criticism
 By the last, the learner merely Works upon
improving style and knowledge of linguistic
approapriateness
Stages;

 in stage 1; dependent

 in stage 2; self-assertive

 in stage 3; resentful & indignant

 in stage 4; tolerant

 in stage 5; independent
 According to Curran there are six factors
which are essential to non-defensive whole
person learning process
1 A sense of security
 2. Paying attention to language in all its forms
 3. Experience a feeling of self-assertion and aggression
when ready
 4. Reflection and participation in class activities
 5. Internalization by retention at a Deep level
 6. Discrimination among the various elements of
language and their functions
Convalidation or Consensual Validation

S stands for security

A stands for attention and aggression

R stands for retention and reflection

D denotes discrimination

SARD
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
Stage 1- Reflection
I start with students sitting in a circle around a tape
recorder to create a community atmosphere.
The students think in silence about what they'd like
to talk about, while I remain outside the circle.
To avoid a lack of ideas students can brainstorm
their ideas on the board before recording.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
 Stage 2 - Recorded conversation
Once they have chosen a subject the
students tell me in their L1 what they'd like
to say and I discreetly come up behind them
and translate the language chunks into
English.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
 With higher levels if the students feel
comfortable enough they can say some of it
directly in English and I give the full English
sentence. When they feel ready to speak
the students take the microphone and
record their sentence.
 It's best if you can use a microphone as the
sound quality is better and it's easier to pick
up and put down.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
 Here they're working on pace and fluency.
They immediately stop recording and then
wait until another student wants to respond.
This continues until a whole conversation
has been recorded.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
Stage 3 - Discussion
Next the students discuss how they think the
conversation went. They can discuss how
they felt about talking to a microphone and
whether they felt more comfortable speaking
aloud than they might do normally.

This part is not recorded.

How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
Stage 4 - Transcription
Next they listen to the tape and transcribe
their conversation. I only intervene when they
ask for help.
The first few times you try this with a class
they might try and rely on you a lot but aim to
distance yourself from the whole process in
terms of leading and push them to do it
themselves.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
Stage 5 - Language analysis
I sometimes get students to analyse the
language the same lesson or sometimes in
the next lesson. This involves looking at the
form of tenses and vocabulary used and why
certain ones were chosen, but it will depend
on the language produced by the students.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
In this way they are totally involved in the
analysis process. The language is completely
personalised and with higher levels they can
themselves decide what parts of their
conversation they would like to analyse,
whether it be tenses, lexis or discourse.
How it works in the classroom
In a typical CLL lesson
With lower levels you can guide the analysis
by choosing the most common problems you
noted in the recording stages or by using the
final transcription.
 Design

- Objectives
 Encouraging the students to take more
responsibility
 Attain near-native mastery of the target language
 Develop a whole person learning process and a
trusting relationship among the members of the
class
 Learning how to learn from one another
 using the target language communicatively
The Syllabus

 Doesn’t use a conventional language syllabus, which

determines in advance the grammar, vocabulary and
other items to be taught in specific order.
 The teaching of oral proficiency
 A topic based course progression with learners
choosing the message they wish to communicate to
other learners
 Emerging from the interaction between learners and
teachers
 Detailed and specific grammar and lexical points
isolated by the teacher
Learning Activities
 Translation Analysis

Reflection and
 Group work observation

 Tape-recording Listening

 Transcription Free conversation

Roles of Learners
 Being a member of the community
 Acommplishment in a colaborative way
 Learner= Client
 Learn through counseling with their teacher and
classmate
 Being counselor of other learners
 Listening carefully
 Telling messages independently
 Repeating messages without any hesitation
 Report inner feelings
 CLL compares language learning to stages
of human growth. Therefore, the learner
plays many different roles in the process of
maturation
 STAGE 1, like an infant, completely dependent.
Repeats utterances, overhears other interactions
 STAGE, a measure of Independence, produce
simple expressions
 STAGE 3, the separate-existence stage. Begins to
understand directly in the target language
 STAGE 4, a kind of adolescence. Functions
independently and ask for correction
 STAGE 5, independent stage. Improve their
understanding of register as well as gramar, andd
native like constructions to their language
Roles of Teachers
 Counselor
 Responds calmly and nonjudgmentally
 Encourager
 Supporter
 Helps the client to understand problems
better
 Monitoring relationship
 Politely criticiser
 Advicer
 Provide target language translations
 Monitor learner utterances
 Provide assistance when requested
 Intervene directly to correct the problema
 Advice on usage of grammar
Instructional Materials

 a textbook isn’t necessary

 developed by the teachers as the course develops

 projector, tape recorder (Conversation may also be

transcribed and distributed for study and analysis)

 scripts for conversations developed by the students.

Procedure
 informal greeting
 Six to twelve students sitting in a circle
 statement of the goals and guidelines
 sitting in a circle
 conversations and messages given by the
student in the L1
 Translation of it into the target language by
the teacher
 repetition for the tape recorder
 Replaying the tape recorder for refreshing
what have learned by repeating
 Reflection
 Elements of Spelling, Grammar,
Capitalization
 Asking questions about the lesson
 Copying sentences from the board with notes
on meaning/usage.
 What is the role of the native language in
CLL?

 Enhancing the security

 Providing a bridge from the familiar to the
unfamiliar
 Making the meaning clear
 Weaknesses

 a lack of grammatical syllabus

 unclear objectives
 focus on fluency rather than accuracy
 difficulty in evaluation
What areas of language skills are
emphasized?

- Culture is the integral part of language learning,

and language is for creative and critical thinking.

- The most important skills are understanding and

speaking the language and then, reading and
writing with reinforcement.
Conclusion
The CLL emphasizes the sense of community in the
learning group, it encourages interaction as a vehicle
of learning, and it considers as a priority the
students' feelings and the recognition of struggles in
language acquisition. There is no syllabus or
textbook to follow and it is the students themselves
who determine the content of the lesson by means of
meaningful conversations in which they discuss real
messages. Notably, it incorporates translation,
transcription, and recording techniques.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGezkS2pNyo