Community Language Learning

Community language learning (CLL) emphasizes the sense of community in the learning group, encourages interaction as a vehicle for learning, and 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.

It is one of the ‘designer’ methods of language acquisition that arose in the 1970’s (along with The Silent Way, Suggestopoedia and TPR) and forms part of the Humanistic Approach to language learning. The key features of these methodologies is that they go against orthodox language teaching, they have a guru, and they all developed from outside language teaching. Additionally they are all rigidly-prescriptive and emphasise the learners’ responsibility for their own learning.

The founder figure of CLL was Charles Curran, an American Jesuit priest, whose work in Counselling Learning, a general learning approach based on Rogerian counselling ideas and practices.

The key idea is that the students determine what is to be learned, so the teacher is a facilitator and provides support.

In the basic form of CLL, a maximum of 12 students sit in a circle.
There is a small portable tape recorder inside the circle.
The teacher (who is termed the ‘Knower’ ) stands outside the circle.
When a student has decided they want to say something in the foreign language, they call the Knower over and whisper what they want to say, in their mother tongue.
The teacher, also in a whisper, then offers the equivalent utterance in English.
The student attempts to repeat the utterance, with encouragement from the Knower, with the rest of the group eavesdropping.
When the Knower is satisfied, the utterance is recorded by the student.
Another student then repeats the process until there is a kind of dialogue recorded.
The Knower then replays the recording, and transcribes it on the board.
This is followed by analysis, and questions from students.

In a subsequent session, the Knower may suggest activities springing from the dialogue. Gradually, the students spin a web of language.

The learner is supposed to move from a stage of total dependence on the Knower at the beginning to a stage of independent autonomy at the end, passing through 5 developmental stages along the way.

It is the Knower’s job to provide the supportive and secure environment for learners, and to encourage a whole-person approach to the learning.

The pros of CLL

Learners appreciate the autonomy CLL offers them and thrive on analysing their own conversations.
CLL works especially well with lower levels who are struggling to produce spoken English.
The class often becomes a real community, not just when using CLL but all of the time. Students become much more aware of their peers, their strengths and weaknesses and want to work as a team.

The problems with CLL.

It can only be done with small numbers of students.
The students have to share a single mother tongue.
The teacher (Knower) has to be highly proficient in the target language and in the language of the students.
The teacher also has to have enormous reserves of energy – both physical and psychic.
It is unwise to undertake CLL as a teacher without some counselling training.
In the beginning some learners find it difficult to speak on tape while others might find that the conversation lacks spontaneity.
We as teachers can find it strange to give our students so much freedom and tend to intervene too much.
In your efforts to let your students become independent learners you can neglect their need for guidance.

It has also been pointed out that this is a methodology exclusively suitable for adult learners, not for children.

Most descriptions of it in action focus on the early stages of learning the new language.

Perhaps the enduring value of CLL has been its emphasis on whole-person learning; the role of a supportive, non-judgmental teacher; the passing of responsibility for learning to the learners (where it belongs); and the abolition of a pre-planned syllabus.

Despite the fact that CLL is primarily meant as a ‘complete’ approach to teaching it is useful for an sporadic lecture, especially with
adolescents.

It enables the teacher to refocus on the learner while the students immediately react positively to working in a community.

The students take exceptionally well to peer-correction and by working together they overcome their fear of speaking. It has also been found that quieter students are able to offer corrections to their peers and gladly contribute to the recording stage of the lesson.

It’s a teaching method which encompasses all four skills while simultaneously revealing learners’ styles which are more or less analytical in their approach to language learning. All of which raises our awareness as a teacher and that of our students.

A more complete video follows: