Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning

Definition of Community Language Learning

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 counselor while the learner acts as a collaborator (client), although sometimes this role can be changed.

  Principles of Community Language Learning

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 no 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.

 Characteristic of Community Language Learning

1.      Students typically have a conversation using their native language.

2.      The teacher helps them express what they want to say by giving them the target language translation.

3.      These words are recorded, and when they are replayed, it sounds like a fairly fluid conversation.

4.      Later, a transcript is made of the conversation, and native language equivalents are written beneath the target language words.

5.      The transcription of the conversation becomes a ‘text’ with which students work.

6.      Various activities are conducted (for example, examination of a grammar point, working on pronunciation of a particular phrase, or creating new sentences with words from the transcript) that allow students to further explore the language they have generated.

7.      During the course of the lesson, students are invited to say how they feel, and in return the teacher understands them.