Community Language Learning (CLL)

INTRODUCTION
Community Language Learning (CLL) was primarily designed for monolingual
conversation classes where the teacher-counselor would be able to speak the learners
L1. This methodology is not based on the usual methods by which languages are taught.
Rather the approach is patterned upon counseling techniques and adapted to the
peculiar anxiety and threat as well as the personal and language problems a person
encounters in the learning of foreign languages. Consequently, the learner is not thought
of as a student but as a client. The native instructors of the language are not considered
teachers but, rather are trained in counseling skills adapted to their roles as language
counselors.
The language-counseling relationship begins with the clients linguistic confusion and
conflict. The aim of the language counselors skill is first to communicate an empathy for
the clients threatened inadequate state and to aid him linguistically. Then slowly the
teacher-counselor strives to enable him to arrive at his own increasingly independent
language adequacy. This process is furthered by the language counselors ability to
establish a warm, understanding, and accepting relationship, thus becoming an otherlanguage self for client.
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
dynamics and principles of counseling.
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 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 the 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
languageand 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 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 variety of ways.
A Brief History
The age of audiolingualism, with its emphasis on surface forms and on the rote practice
of patterns, began to wane when the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics turned
linguists and language teachers towards the deep structure of language. Psychologists
began to recognize the fundamentally affective and interpersonal nature of language
learning. The decade of the 1970s was a chaotic but exceedingly fruitful era during
which L2 learning and teaching increasingly recognized the importance of the affective
domain, hence the birth of an affectively based teaching methodthe community
language learning method(CLL).
Community Language Learning (CLL) is the name of a method developed by Charles
Curran and his associates. Curran was a specialist in counseling and a professor of
psychology at Loyola University, Chicago. His application of psychological counseling
techniques to learning is known as Counseling-Learning. Community Language
Learning represents the use of Counseling-Learning theory to teach languages. As the
name indicates, CLL derives its primary insights and organizing rationale from Rogerian
counseling. Counseling is one person giving advice, assistance and support to another
person who has a problem or is in some way in need. Community Language Learning
draws on the counseling metaphor to redefine the roles of the teacher as counselor and
the learners as clients in the language classroom. CLL is cited as an example of a
humanistic approach. Another language teaching tradition with which CLL is linked is
a set of practices used in certain kinds of bilingual education programs and referred to
by Mackey as language alteration. In language alteration, a message/lesson/class is
presented first in the native tongue and then again in the second language. Students
know the meaning and flow of a L2 message from their recall of the parallel meaning
and flow of a L1 message. They begin to holistically piece together a view of the language

out of these message sets. In CLL, a learner presents a message in L1 to the knower. The
message is translated into L2 by the knower. The learner then repeats the message in
L2, addressing it to another learner with whom he or she wishes to communicate. CLL
learners are encouraged to attend to the overhears they experience between other
learners and their knowers.

Comparing Client-Counselor Relationships in Psychological

Counseling and CLL
Psychological counseling
(client-counselor)

Community language learning

(learner-teacher)

1. Client and counselor agree to counseling 1. Learner and knower agree to L2 learning
2. Client articulates problem in language of 2. Learner presents to the knower in L1 a
affect
3. Counselor listens carefully
4. Counselor restates client message

message he wishes to deliver to another

3. Knower listens and other learners hear
4. Knower restates learners message in L2

in language of recognition
5. Client evaluates the accuracy of

5. Learner repeats the L2 message form

counselors message restatement

to its addressee

6. Client reflects on the interaction

6. Learner replays and reflects on the

of the counseling session

messages exchanged during the class

The concept
The Main Principles
The Community Language Learning Method takes its principles from the more general
Counseling-Learning approach. There are some main principles of Community
Language Learning Method:
1)
Building a relationship with and among students is very important.
2)
Any new learning experience can be threatening. Students feel more secure when
they have an idea of what will happen in each activity. People learn non-defensively
when they feel secure.
3)
The superior knowledge and power of the teacher can be threatening. If the
teacher does not remain in the front of the classroom, the threat is reduced and the
students learning is facilitated.
4)
The teacher should be sensitive to students level of confidence and give them just
what they need to be successful.
5)
Teacher and students are whole persons. Sharing about their learning experience
allows learners to get to know one another and to build community.
6)
The teacher counsels the students. He does not offer advice, but rather shows
them that he is really listening to them and understands what they are saying.
7)
Learning at the beginning stages is facilitated if students attend to one task at a
time.
8)
The teacher encourages student initiative and independence, but does not let
students flounder in uncomfortable silences.
9)
Students need quiet reflection time in order to learn.
10) Students learn best when they have a choice in what they practice. If students feel
in control, they can take more responsibility for their own learning.
11) Students need to learn to discriminate in perceiving the similarities and differences
among the target language forms.
12) In groups, students can begin to feel a sense of community and can learn from each
other as well as the teacher. Cooperation, not competition, is encouraged.
13) Learning tends not to take place when the material is too new or, conversely, too
familiar.
14) Students reflect on what they have experienced.
15) In the beginning stages, the syllabus is generated primarily by the students.

Approach, Procedure and Objectives

Richards and Rogers (1986) explain five stages involved in using this method. They are
as follows:
STAGE 1
The client is completely dependent on the language counselor.
1.

First, he expresses only to the counselor and in L1 what he wishes to say to the
group. Each group member overhears this English exchange but no other members
of the group are involved in the interaction.
2.
The counselor then reflects these ideas back to the client in the foreign
language in a warm, accepting tone, in simple language in phrases of five or six
words.
3.
The client turns to the group and presents his idea in foreign language. He has
the counselors aid if he mispronounces or hesitates on a word or phrase. This is the
clients maximum security stage.
STAGE 2
1.
Same as above.
2.
The client turns and begins to speak the foreign language directly to the group.
3.
The counselor aids only as the client hesitates or turns for help. These small
independent steps are signs of positive confidence and hope.
STAGE 3
1.
The client speaks directly to the group in the foreign language. This presumes
that the group has now acquired the ability to understand his simple phrases.
2.
Same as 3 above. This presumes the clients greater confidence, independence,
and proportionate insight into the relationship of phrases, grammar, and ideas.
Translation is given only when a group member desires it.
STAGE 4
1.
The client is now speaking freely and complexly in the foreign language. He/she
presumes groups understanding.
2.
The counselor directly intervenes in grammatical error, mispronunciation, or
where aid in complex expression is needed. The client is sufficiently secure to take
correction.
STAGE 5
1.
Same as stage 4.

2.

The counselor intervenes not only to offer correction but to add idioms and more
elegant constructions.
3.
At this stage the client can become counselor to the group in stages 1, 2, and 3.
Language Skills Focused
1.
In the early stages, typically the students generate the material since they decide
what they want to be able to say in the target language.
2.
Later on, after students feel more secure, the teacher might prepare specific
materials or work with published textbooks.
3.
Particular grammar points, pronunciation patterns, and vocabulary are worked
with, based on the language the students have generated.
4.
The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at the
beginning, with reinforcement through reading and writing.
Advantages and Drawbacks
Advantages:
1.
Creating a supportive community to lower student anxiety
2.
Help them overcome threathening affective factors, such as making errors or
competing with peers.

In the beggining of the course, the learners ate totally dependent on the teachers
translation, but over time they are able to engage in more direct communication as they
move toward independence. In addition, learners are not limited in their topics of
conversation, regardless of their language proficiency. Learners are free to talk about the
affairs of daily life. This approach to language learning encourages the meaningfull use
of language which the learners can store, synthesize and use in new situations. CLL
allows learners to practice the structure or characteristics patterning of sentences and
conversations. Morever, it is believed from the teachers translation, learners will be able
to induce a grammar far more complex than they are able to use their own. One key
reason this method seemed to work, was that it allowed the learners to continue using
their L1, while promoting the L2. It is important to be aware of its existence, so that
when the need arises, the strengths of CLL can be utilized.

Drawbacks
1.
The procedure does not ensure that a variety of contexts necessary for copying in
the target culture is included since the content is determined by the participants.
2.
Students may feel uncomportable with the apparent lack of structure or sequence
in the introductuon of grammatical and lexical items; that is too much reliance on an
inductive strategy of learning. Besides, there is no syllabus for CLL, a posteriori
approach to syllabus specification. The teacher is too nondirective. Finally, the
success of CLL depended largely on the translation expertise of the counselor.

The Role of the Teacher and the Student

The teacher: The teachers initial role is primarily that of a counselor. This means that
the teacher recognizes how threatening a new learning situation, can be for adult
learners, so he skillfully understands and supports his students in their struggle to
master the target language.
The goals of teachers who use the Community Language Learning Method
1.
Teachers want their students to learn how to use the target language
communicatively.
2.
They want their students to learn about their own learning.
3.
They want their students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning.
4.
They want their students to learn how to learn from one another.
The students: Initially the learners are very dependent upon the teacher. As the
learners continue to study, they become increasingly independent.

Conclusion
Community Language learning is a good method for practicing communication. It is also
good method for begginers who just first study their second language. Using this
method caan help begginers to reduce their anxiety in the classroom. Most of the time
the students were anxious and never enjoyed learning English. The teacher believes that
punishment and pressure could help students learn more. There are a lot of reasons
related to language achievement such as students personality characters, learning

styles, education system, textbook appropriateness, or educators method. Eventhough

anxiety is not the most important reason for failure or success in learning language, we
cannot ignore its affection. This method consides the student to be whole person. It is
not only to think about students intellect but also their feeling in learning language.
References:
http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/community-language-learning4282256.html
http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/alhumaidi/Publications/Community%20Language
%20Learning.pdf
http://www.nadasisland.com/communitylearn.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_language_learning
http://members.fortunecity.com/nadabs/communitylearn.html
http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/ask-the-experts/methodologyquestions/methodology-community-language-learning/146410.article
http://www.ihes.com/bcn/tt/articles/cll.html
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/community-language-learning