From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Community language learning (CLL) is an approach in which students work together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. The teacher acts as a counsellor and a paraphraser, while the learner acts as a collaborator.

There are 5 stages of development in this method.

1. “Birth” stage: feeling of security and belonging are established.
2. As the learner’s ability improve, they achieve a measure of independence from the parent.
3. Learners can speak independently.
4. The learners are secure enough to take criticism and being corrected.
5. The child becomes an adult and becomes the knower.

Background

The CLL method was developed by Charles A. Curran, a professor of psychology at Loyola University. ^[1]. This method refers to two roles: that of the knower (teacher) and student(learner.) Also the method drawss on the counselling metaphor and refers to these respective roles as a counsellor and a client. According to Curran, a counsellor helps a client understand his or her own problems better by 'capturing the essence of the clients concern ...[and] relating [the clent's] affect to cognition...;' in effect, understanding the client and responding in a detached yet considerate manner. To restate, the counsellor blends what the client feels and what he is learning in order to make the experience a meaningingful one. Often, this supportive role requires greater energy expenditure than an 'average' teacher.^[2].

[edit] Approach

[edit] Theory of Language

The foreign language learner's tasks, according to CLL are (1) to apprehend the sound system of the language (2) assign fundamental meanings to individual lexical units and (3) construct a basic grammar. In these three steps, the CLL can be said to resemble the Natural Approach to language teaching; in the latter, a learner is not expected to speak until he has achieved some basic level of comprehension. ^[3].

[edit] References

• Richards, Jack C. (1986:113) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching
• Krashen, S.D., and Terrel, T.D. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language acquisition in the Classroom.</