COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE
LEARNING
 Community
Language Learning (CLL)
was developed by Charles A. Curran. His
application of psychological counselling
techniques to learning is known as
Counselling-Learning.
 In lay terms, counseling is one person
giving advice and support to another who
has a problem or is in some way in need.
CLL draws on the counseling metaphor to
redefine the roles of the teacher (the
counselor) and learners (the clients) in the
language classroom.
 According
to Charles Curran (1972),
“learners in the classroom are regarded not
as a “class” but a “group” that need certain
therapy and counseling.” So, there is no big
gap between a teacher and students which
usually build a comfortable atmosphere.

Within the language teaching tradition
Community Language Learning is sometimes
cited as an example of a "humanistic approach."

It can be concluded that CLL is a method which is
very appropriate in teaching English for improving
speaking ability. In working the method, the teacher
will ask the students to arrange their seats into a
circle because CLL itself is a method that concerns a
group work. Learning is not viewed as an
individual accomplishment but as something that
is achieved collaboratively.

Principles of CLL
It is important to establish a mutual relationship
between the learner and the teacher in order to
create a safe learning environment.
 Language is for communication. Therefore,
students should be encouraged to communicate as
frequently as possible during the lesson.
 The teacher stands behind the students in
order to facilitate the learning process.
 The teacher should respect the learners’ level of
confidence and transmit to them what needs to be
done to be successful.
Objectives
 As the teacher and the learners are whole
persons, they can share learning
experiences, thus getting to know one
another and building a sense of
community.
 Considering that each learner is unique, the
teacher, as a counsellor, values the learners
and their ideas; s/he and always listens to
them without giving any advice in order to
understand how they feel about the learning
process.

A learner as a client uses his native language
to make the meaning clear and to build a
bridge from the known to the unknown
 Students work in groups to feel a sense of
community; thus, they can learn from each
other as well as the teacher. Cooperation,
rather than competition, is encouraged.
 The teacher should correct the errors that
learners have produced in a nonthreatening
way.
Theory of language learning
 CLL is based on the humanism
approach to learning which engage the
whole person, including his emotions and
feelings as well as his linguistic
knowledge and behavioral skills
Whole-person learning:
 Through Whole Person Learning, we
enable people to bring more of
themselves to their lives, work and
communities.
 Activities

First, a group of learners make their seats
become a circle with the teacher standing
outside the circle.

A student expresses a message in the native
language and the teacher translates it into the
foreign language in a warm, accepting tone, in
a simple language in phrases of five or six
words.
 The
student turns to the group and
presents his ideas in the foreign language.
He has the counselor's aid if he
mispronounces or hesitates on a word or
phrase.
 Record the students‟ talk into a cassette
after they are more fluent in
expressing their idea in the foreign
language.
CLL combines new learning tasks with
traditional ones. These include
 Translation
 Group work
 Recording
 Transcription
 Analysis
 Reflection
 Listening
 Free conversation
Teachers’ roles
 The teacher is responsible for providing
“his clients “ with a safe environment in
which they can learn and grow
 The teachers should respond calmly and
nonjudgmentally
 Help his client to understand his or her
problems
Students’ roles
 Members of the community
 Learn through interacting with the members
of the community
 Communication is achieved collaboratively
 Learners are expected to listen attentively to
the teacher, freely provide meaning to what
they express, to repeat target utterances
without hesitation, to report their inner
feelings
Criticism
 the method does not put enough emphasis on
the teaching of grammar and instead allows
students to produce utterances, despite being
grammatically incorrect.
 Giving students so much freedom may not
help them be efficient speakers
 The procedure does not ensure that a variety of
contexts necessary for learning the target
culture is included since the content is
determined by the participants
The End