Seminar on "COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING"

A method more concerned about good human relationship than with techniques and strategies of teaching, was evolved by Charles A Curran, a professor of psychology. It was known as Community Language Learning and was based on counseling-Learning Methodology. Hence it is humanistic approach to language learning. Through good relationship between the teacher and the taught anxieties are removed and a cordial atmosphere is created. Learner- initiative is encouraged.



The CLL lays emphasis on hard task oriented activity, in which each one is keen to commit to others’ welfare. The five stages in the CLL are:

1. The Embryonic Stage – with total dependence on teacher

2. The Self Assertion Stage – when the student takes a little freedom in learning language

3. The Birth Stage – when the student speaks independently, though not perfectly

4. The Reversal Stage – when the student is secure enough to take correction

5. The Independent Stage – the student works on his own wit

h little encouragement from the teacher.

The Principles of CLL

1. Student should feel secure ie. free from anxieties for effective learning
2. The teacher/counselor stays out of the learning circle
3. The teacher neither agrees nor disagrees with learner’s performance
4. To make the more secure in understanding the teacher uses mother tongue when necessary
5. The fear of a new learning item is removed by fostering community feeling
6. Gradually the focus from grammar and phonetics should be shifted to actual sharing of ideas, beliefs, opinions, needs and desires
7. A sense of belonging to each other between the teacher and the student is developed.

Barriers 

When learning a different language while in a multilingual community, there are certain barriers that one definitely will encounter. The reason for these barriers is that in language learning while in a multicultural community, native and non native groups will think, act, and write in different ways based on each of their own cultural norms. Research shows that students in multicultural environments communicate less with those not familiar with their culture. Long term problems include that the foreign speakers will have their own terms of expression combined into the language native to the area, which often makes for awkward sentences to a native speaker. Native students tend to develop an exclusive attitude toward the non native speaker because they feel threatened when they do not understand the foreign language. Short term problems include the fact that native students will usually lack in depth knowledge of the non native cultures, which makes them more likely to be unwilling to communicate with the foreign speakers. Because these foreign students grew up and were educated in a totally different cultural environment , their ideologies, identities and logic that form in the early age cause different ways of expressing ideas both in written and spoken form. They will have to modify and redefine their original identities when they enter a multicultural environment. This is not an easy task. Consequentially, a low level of social involvement and enculturation will occur for both native and non native speakers in the community.