COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING
This method advises teachers to consider students as "whole persons”. It means that it considers the
students intellect, feelings, physical reactions and their desire to learn.
It takes its principles from the General Learning Approach, its proponent was Curran, he believed that
adults felt threatened by the change in Learning and that they would look foolish. Curran believed that to
change these teachers had to become "language counselors" Someone who could understand the struggle
of students.
How it works in the classroom.
● Stage 1- Reflection.
Start with students sitting in a circle around a tape recorder to create a community atmosphere.
The students think in silence about what they'd like to talk about, while I remain outside the circle.
● Stage 2- Record conversation.
When they feel ready to speak, the students take the microphone and record their sentences.
It's best if you can use a microphone as the sound quality is better and it's easier to pick up and put down.
Here they're working on pace and fluency. They immediately stop recording and then wait until another
student wants to respond. This continues until a whole conversation has been recorded.
● Stage 3- Discusión.
students discuss how they think the conversation went. They can discuss how they felt about talking to a
microphone and whether they felt more comfortable speaking aloud than they might do normally.
● Stage 4- Transcription.
They listen to the tape and transcribe their conversation. I only intervene when they ask for help
● Stage 5- Language analisis.
This involves looking at the form of tenses and vocabulary used and why certain ones were chosen.
Reviewing the Principles:
What are the goals of teachers while using this method?
They want their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively, learn about their
own learning, take increasing responsibility for it and learn how to learn from one another. These
objectives can be accomplished in a non-defensive manner if a teacher and learner treat each other
as whole persons, valuing both thoughts and feelings.
What is the role of the teachers? And the students?
The teacher’s initial role is a counselor. He 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 learners initially depend a lot on the teacher. As they continue to study, they start becoming
more and more independent. There are five stages from when the learners start studying and
depend on the teacher to them being more independent. In stages I, II and III, the focus is on the
language and being supportive of learners in their learning process. In stage IV, the students feel
more confident and ready to participate, and benefit from corrections, so the teacher can focus
more on accuracy. In stage V the learners are a lor more independent and we try to encourage
them to be completely autonomous.
What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
Typically, students have a conversation using their native language. The teacher helps them
express what they want in the target language by giving them the translation in chunks so they can
easily repeat it. These chunks are recorded, and when they are replayed, they sound fairly fluid.
Then a transcription of the conversation is made and the translation as well, which becomes a “text”
that students work with. After many activities are done/conducted that allow students to further
explore the language they have generated. During the course of the lesson, students are invited to
say how they feel, and in return the teacher understands them. The 6 elements necessary for non-
defensive learning: The first is security. Next is aggression, they should be given an opportunity to
assert themselves, to be actively involved and be invested in the learning experience. One way to
allow this in the class is for students to conduct their own conversations. The third is attention. The
teacher helps to narrow the scope of attention by telling them not to copy what he was writing on the
black board. Instead, he wanted them to attend to what he was writing and to add what translation
they may have recalled in order to complete the transcript. The fourth element, reflection, like when
the students reflected on the language as the teacher read the transcript three times. The second
was when they were invited to stop and consider the active experience they were having. Retention
is the fifth element the integration of the new material that takes place within the whole self. The last
element is discrimination, sorting out the differences among target language forms. Like when they
were asked to listen to the Human Computer and attempt to match their pronunciation to the
computer’s.
What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student
interaction?
Student-teacher: the teacher will try to facilitate the target language. He physically removes himself
from the circle, thereby encouraging students to interact with one another. But can also be in charge
and providing direction at some times. At all-time initially, the teacher structures the class; at later
stages, the students may assume more responsibility for this. Building relationship with and among
students is very important. In a trusting relationship, any debilitating anxiety that students feel can
be reduced, thereby helping students to stay open to the learning process. Students can learn from
their interaction with each other as well as their interaction with the teacher.
How are the feelings of the students deal with?
Making the learners know that the teacher understands how they feel and giving them personal
feedback. Also providing security to them, but the way in which that security is provided by the
teacher will change depending upon the stage of the learner.
How is language and culture viewed?
Language is viewed as a means of communication. And culture is viewed as part of language
learning
What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
In early stages students choose what they want to say in the target language, later on when
students feel more secure in the target language, the teacher might prepare specific material or
work found in textbooks. The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at
the beginning, with reinforcement through reading and writing.
What is the role of the students’ native language?
The purpose of using the native language is to provide a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
Literal native language equivalents are given to the target language words that have been
transcribed. As the students progress their conversation will have few native language words and
phrases. If the class has a variety of different languages conversation take place right from the start
in the target language.
How is evaluation accomplished?
No particular mode of evaluation is prescribed in the Community Language Learning Method, but
whatever evaluation is conducted should be in keeping with the principles of the method. Students
might be asked to write a paragraph or an oral interview. It is likely that teachers would encourage
their students to self-evaluate.
How does the teacher respond to students’ errors?
Teachers should work with what the learner has produced in a non-threatening way, sustaining a
respectful, non-defensive relationship between student and teacher. For example, repeating
correctly what the student said incorrectly without calling further attention.
Reviewing the techniques:
Tape recording student conversation:
This technique used to record student-generated language as well as give the opportunity for
community learning to come about. Students can choose what they want to say and when to say it,
taking responsibility for their own learning. The conversations recorded can be replayed. This
method works best with twelve or fewer students.
Transcription:
The teacher transcribes the tape-recorded target language, each student is given the opportunity to
translate their utterances and the teacher writes the equivalent in the native language, then they
copy the transcript on a poster-sized paper or a regular paper. It helps for future activities.
Reflection on experience:
The teacher takes time during and/or after the various activities to give students the opportunity to
reflect on how they feel about the language learning experience, themselves as learners and their
relationship with one another. They are carefully listened by the teacher to encourage them to think
about their own engagement with the target language, the activities, other students, etc.
Reflective listening:
The students relax and listen to their own voices speaking the target language on the tape. Is also
possible to read the transcript or repeat the words as the teacher reads the transcript.
Human Computer:
The students choose some part of the transcript to practice pronouncing. The teacher follows the
lead of the student and repeats the word or phrase as often as the students wants to practice it.
This helps them self-correct their own pronunciation.
Small group tasks:
There’s a lot of activities that could occur with students working in small groups. This way of
learning helps them learn from one another and more practice can be done using the target
language. Small groups allow students to get to know each other better.
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