Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning

Overview | Objectives | Key Features | Typical Techniques | Comments




In the early seventies, Charles Curran developed a new education model he called "Counceling-Learning". This was essentially an example of an innovative model that primarily considered affective factors as paramount in the learning process. Drawing on Carl Rogers' view that learners were to be considered not as a class, but as a group, Curran's philosophy dictated that students were to be thought of as "clients" - their needs being addressed by a "councelor" in the form of the teacher. Brown (1994:59), in commenting on this approach also notes that "In order for any learning to take place ... what is first needed is for the members to interact in an interpersonal relationship in which students and teacher join together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing and prizing each indiviual in the group." Curran was best known for his extensive studies on adult learning, and some of the issues he tried to address were the threatening nature of a new learning situation to many adult learners and the anxiety created when students feared making "fools" of themselves. Curran believed that the counceling-learning model would help lower the instinctive defenses adult learners throw up, that the anxiety caused by the educational context could be decreased through the support of an interactive community of fellow learners. Another important goal was for the teacher to be perceived as an empathetic helping agent in the learning process, not a threat.

The Counceling-Learning educational model was also applied to language learning, and in this form it became known as Community Language Learning. Based on most of the principles above, Community Language Learning seeks to encourage teachers to see their students as "whole" persons, where their feelings, intellect, interpersonal relationships, protective reactions, and desire to learn are addressed and balanced. Students typically sit in a circle, with the teacher (as councelor) outside the ring. They use their first language to develop an interpersonal relationship based on trust with the other students. When a student wants to say something, they first say it in their native language, which the teacher then translates back to them using the target language. The student then attempts to repeat the English used by the teacher, and then a student can respond using the same process. This technique is used over a considerable period of time, until students are able to apply words in the new language without translation, gradually moving from a situtation of dependence on the teacher-councelor to a state of independence.


Objectives

The Community Language Learning method does not just attempt to teach students how to use another language communicatively, it also tries to encourage the students to take increasingly more responsibility for their own learning, and to "learn about their learning", so to speak. Learning in a nondefensive manner is considered to be very important, with teacher and student regarding each other as a "whole person" where intellect and ability are not separated from feelings. The initial struggles with learning the new language are addressed by creating an environment of mutual support, trust and understanding between both learner-clients and the teacher-councelor.



Top | Objectives | Key Features | Typical Techniques | Comments
Key Features

The Community Language Learning method involves some of the following features:

(1) Students are to be considered as "learner-clients" and the teacher as a "teacher-councelor".

(2) A relationship of mutual trust and support is considered essential to the learning process.

(3) Students are permitted to use their native language, and are provided with translations from the
teacher which they then attempt to apply.

(4) Grammar and vocabulary are taught inductively.

(5) "Chunks" of target language produced by the students are recorded and later listened to - they
are also transcribed with native language equivalents to become texts the students work with.

(6) Students apply the target language independently and without translation when they feel inclined/
confident enough to do so.

(7) Students are encouraged to express not only how they feel about the language, but how they feel
about the learning process, to which the teacher expresses empathy and understanding.

(8) A variety of activities can be included (for example, focusing on a particular grammar or
pronunciation point, or creating new sentences based on the recordings/transcripts).





Top | Objectives | Key Features | Typical Techniques | Comments
Typical Techniques

Larsen-Freeman, in her book Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (1986:45-47) provides expanded descriptions of some common/typical techniques closely associated with Community Language Learning. The listing here is in summary form only.

(1) Tape Recording Student Conversation
(Students choose what they want to say, and their target language production is recorded for later
listening/dissemination)

(2) Transcription
(Teacher produces a transcription of the tape-recorded conversation with translations in the mother
language - this is then used for follow up activities or analysis)

(3) Reflection on Experience
(Teacher takes time during or after various activities to allow students to express how they feel about
the language and the learning experience, and the teacher indicates empathy/understanding)

(4) Reflective Listening
(Students listen to their own voices on the tape in a relaxed and reflective environment)

(5) Human Computer
(Teacher is a "human computer" for the students to control - the teacher stating anything in the
target language the student wants to practice, giving them the opportunity to self correct)

(6) Small Group Tasks
(Students work in small groups to create new sentences using the transcript, afterwards sharing
them with the rest of the class)




Top | Objectives | Key Features | Typical Techniques | Comments
Comments

Community Language Learning is an innovative approach that Brown (1994:58) lists as one of the "'Designer' Methods of the Spirited Seventies". It is certainly unique in that it is one of the first methods to be developed that really focused on the feelings of the students and tried to address affective factors in learning (particularly for adult learners). It was also the first method to combine the field of language learning with the dynamics and principles of counceling.

Important and beneficial as that may be, it could be said that the method goes too far in the direction of affective factors at the expense of other considerations. It has been criticized for being too non-directive, and it certainly is not a method which could be recommended for students who are learning English as part of a standard, compulsory education curriculum. The method assumes that students intrinsically want to learn the new language, and that is not always the case. In a class where only half (or less) of the students actually want to be there, the principles of the group support/ dynamic are very likely to fall down.

The method has other limitations. The teacher must be fluent in both the target language and the students' mother language. It cannot be used for large or very large classrooms, and would be quite limited in terms of how it could be applied to classes of young learners, who tend to instinctively expect a certain amount of active direction from the teacher.

Still, the basic affective principle is a good one, and various Community Language Learning techniques can be used very effectively in combination with other methods. The tape recording and transcription elements are very useful, and any method which stresses the feelings and independent development of the learners themselves is one worth looking at and trying out in a variety of ways.