Community Language Learning (CLL)

A. Background

CLL, which was developed by Charles A. Curran, represents the us of counseling learning theory to teach languages. The firs experiments were in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. CLL derives its primacy insights from Rogerian counseling. In counseling, one person gives advice, assistance, and support to another who has a problem. The reference of the CLL is "Counseling-Learning in second Language" written by Curran.

Community Language Learning is linked with Language alternations where a message/lesson is presented first in the native tongue by the students and then in the target language by the councelor and the students.

B. Approach

1. Theory of Language

The recent writing of CLL proponents deals with an alternative theory of language , which is referred to as Language as Social Process.

The social-process view of language is elaborated in terms  of six qualities or processes (Curran, 1972).

• the whole-person process
• the educational process
• the interpersonal process
• the developmental process
•  the communicative process
• the cultural process

CLL interactions are of two distinct and fundamental kinds:

•  Learner-learner interaction: which is held to change in the direction of increasing intimacy and trust.
• Learner-knower interaction: which is held to change in its very nature from dependence to independence.

2. Theory of Learning-Basic Principle of CLL:

Curran (1972) concludes that the techniques of counseling can be applied in learning and teaching a language. The main task of the counselor is to reduce the learner’s insecurity, threat and anxiety. Curran discuss “consensual validation” in which mutual warmth, understanding and a positive evaluation of the other person’s worth develops between the councelor and the learner.

A group of ideas concerning the psychological requirements for successful learning is included under the acronym, SARD:

• S stands for Security.

Unless the students fell secure, they will not find it easy to enter a successful learning experience.

• A stands for Attention and Aggression

The variety in the choice of learner task will increase attention and promote learning. Aggression applies the way in which a child seeks an opportunity to show his strength by taking over and demonstrating what has been learned.

• R stands for Retention and Reflection.

If the whole person is involved in the learning process, retention is internalized and becomes a part of the learner’s new personal in the L2. Reflection is a consciously identified period of silence within the framework of the lesson for the students.

• D denotes Discrimination.

When the learners have retained a body of materials, they are ready to sort out the materials and see how one thing relates to another.

3. Stage of Mastery

Curran divides the mastery stage into five stages:

• Embryonic Stage

At the stage, the learners are dependent 100% on their counselor. The counselor has o reduce the student’s anxiety and give the opportunity to the learner to reflect himself in using the language.

• Self-Assertion Stage

At this stage, there is a beginning period of courage to make some attempt to speak in the L2. The students will give spirit or modification to each other.

• Birth Stage

At this stage, the learners reduce the use of L1. During this stage there can happen turning point negative or positive. The positive aspect can be seen if the learners have the sense of psychological belongings and sharing with the counselor and the other students. The negative aspect can also happen because the learner feels he is already able to use the language and avoids correction, though he does not master the language yet. The counselor should prevent this negative aspect.

• Reversal Stage

There is mutual understanding between the counselor and the clients and between one client with the other clients. At this stage the client is more active.

• Independent Stage

At this stage, the client has mastered all materials. He enlarges his language and learns the socio-cultural aspect of the native speaker.

C. Usual Classroom Techniques

• One class consists of 6-12 students who sit in a circle.
• The teacher stands outside the circle.
• A student pronounces a message in L1 loudly. 
• The teacher whispers the message in L2.
• The student repeats the L2 message to his friends loudly.
• This process is done repeatedly and recorded.
• At the end of the class, this record is played again and transcribed.

D. Designs

•  Objective

Explicit linguistic or communicative objectives are not defined in the literature on CLL. The assumption is that through the method, the teacher can successfully transfer the knowledge.

• Syllabus

CLL is most often used in the teaching of oral proficiency. It does not have a conventional language syllabus. The syllabus emerges from the interaction between the learner’s expressed communicative intentions and the councelor’s reformulation of these into suitable L2 utterances.

• Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

Community Language Learning combines innovative learning tasks and activities with conventional ones.

The activities include:

a.       Translation : ALearner’s message is trans ferred into L2 by the councelor and the student repeats the councelor’s translation.

b.      Group work: Group tasks vary such as having a discussion, a conversation and preparing a summary or a story.

c.       RecordingO: Students record conversation in the L2.

d.      Trancription: Studens transcribe utterances and conversations they have recorded.

e.       Analysis: Students analyze and study the transcription of the target language.

f.       Reflection and observation: Learners reflect and report their experiences.

g.      Listening: Students listen to a monologue by the councelor.

h.      Free conversation: Students engage in free conversations with the councelor or with other students.

•  Learner Roles

In CLL, Learners become members of a community. They are expected to listen attentively to the knower, to provide meanings, repeat target utterances, support fellow members of the community, and even become a counselor to the other learners.

• Teacher Roles

The teacher’s function derives from the function of the counselor. His role is to respond calmly and non-judgmentally and to help clients to understand their problems better. He is responsible for providing a save environment.

• Results

It was claimed that the client could master the 100% materials during 120 hours by using the CLL method.

E. Conclusion

CLL places unusual demands on language teachers. They must be familiar with and sympathetic to the role of counselors.

They must be highly proficient and sensitive to nuance in both L1 and L2. They must resist the pressure “to teach” in the traditional senses. They must be relatively non-directive and be prepared to accept the aggression of the learners. They must attempt to learn these new roles and skills with much specific guidance from CLL texts.

Critics of CLL question the appropriateness of the counseling metaphor upon which it is predicted, while the supporters of CLL emphasize the benefits of the method that centers on the learners and stresses the humanistic side of language learning.

Silent Way (SW)

A.    Background

Silent Way is a method of language teaching devised by Caleb Gattegno in 1954. The first book containing this method is Teaching Foreign Language in Schools: The Silent Way “which was revised into” The Common Sense of Teaching a Foreign language”, thirteen years later. Gateggno is famous for his Cuisenaire rods and his series of words in color.

The Silent Way represents Gattegno’s venture into the field of foreign language teaching. It uses color charts and colored Cuisenaire rods which were developed first by George Cuisenaire.

B.     Hypotheses

The learning hypotheses underlying Gattegno’s work are:

• Learning is facilitated if the learners discover or create.
• Learning is facilitated by accompanying physical objects.
• Learning is facilitated by problem solving.

There are two traditions of teaching:

• Expository mode. In expository mode, the  teacher is an expository and the learners are listeners.
• Hypothetical mode. In this mode, the teacher and the students are in a more cooperative position.

Silent Way belongs to the hypothetical mode which views learning as a problem solving, creative discovering activity. There are four benefits of discovery learning:

•  The increase in intellectual potency.
•  The shift from extrinsic to intrinsic rewards.
• The learning of heuristic by discovering.
• The aid to conserving memory.

The rods and the colored charts of pronunciation provide physical foci for student’s learning and create memorable images to facilitate his/her recall. Silent Way is also related to a set of premises calied “problem solving approaches to learning”. It is expected to become independent, autonomous and responsible. In other words, a good problem solver in the language.

C.     Principles

• The first language acquisition is different from the second language acquisition.
• The child’s mind equips itself more and more edequately by its own working, trial and error and deliberate experimentation by suspending judgments and revising conclusions.
•   The student must be given the opportunity to listen to the target language melody.
•  Language acquisition must be done by the student himself.
• The teacher should be silent more, except when he exposits the new materials.
• Method used is artificial and highly controlled.
• Materials are presented with verbal media, but instruction and correction are not done orally.
• Vocabulary items are limited.
• The teacher corrects the student’s mistakes if the other students cannot correct them.

The media used are rods, a Fidel Charts and a Wall chart. Each of them has several advantages. The benefits of rods are:

• The L1 use can be avoided.
• The simple linguistic from can be created.
• The student’s intellectual potency can be increased.
• The teacher pays much attention to the student’s utterances.

 The fiddle charts consists of vowels and consonants and the wall chart consists of functional words.

D.    Approach

• Theory of Language

Silent Way takes a structural approach to the organization of language to be taught. Language is seen as groups of sounds arbitrary associated with specific meanings and organized into sentence or strings of meaningful units by grammar rules. Vocabulary as a central dimension of language learning has several classes:

1. Semi luxury vocabulary consists of common expressions in daily life.
2. Luxury vocabulary communicates more specialized ideas.
3. Functional vocabulary provides a key to comprehending the “spirit” of the language.

• Theory of Learning

Successful learning involves commitments of the self to language acquisition through the use of silent awareness and active trials. Gattegno’s emphasis on the primacy of over teaching places on the self of the learner, on the learner’s priorities and commitments. The self consists of two systems:

1. The learning system which is activated by way of intelligent awareness.
2. The retaining system which allows the students to remember and recall the linguistic elements and their organizing principles which makes the linguistic communication possible.

Silence is a key to triggering awareness and the preferred path to retention. Silent Way learners acquire “inner criteria” which play a central role in one’s education. These inner criteria allow learners to monitor and selfcorrect their own production. Silent way learning claims to consolidate the human dimensions of being and to include variety and individuality as essential factors for an acceptance of other as contributors to one’s own life.

E.     Usual Classroom Techniques

On the first day the teacher takes a box of colored rods to the class. He picks a red rod which is short while saying “rod”. Then he picks a longer green rod and says “rod”. Later, he picks a longer blue rod and says “rod” is a piece of wood.

After some examples, the teacher signs the students to imitate, then the students are asked to say the word individually. Adjective can also be taught in the some way. During the first lesson, there are only there words taught: take, give and put.

F.      Designs

• Objective

The general objective of Silent Way is to give beginning level students oral and aural facilities in the basic elements of the target language. The general goal is near native fluency in the target language: correct pronunciation and mastery of the prosodic elements of the target language are emphasized. An intermediate objective is to provide learners with a basic knowledge of grammar rules.

• Syllabus

Silent Way adopts a basically structural syllabus with lessons planned around grammatical items and related vocabularies.There is no general Silent Way syllabus, but language items are introduced according to their grammatical complexity.Vocabulary is selected according to the degree to which it can be manipulated within a given structure and its productivity.

• Types of learning and teaching Activities

Learning tasks activities have the function of encouraging the students and shaping their oral responses without a direct oral instruction from the teacher. The teacher models a word, phrase, or sentence and then elicits the leaner’s responses. Then, the learners create their own utterances. The teacher’s modeling is minimal and much activity may be teacher directed.

• Learner Roles

Learners are expected to develop independence, autonomy and responsibility. Independent learners are those who are aware that they must depend on their own resources and realize that they can use the knowledge of their own language to open up something in a new language. The autonomous learner chooses proper expressions in a given set of circumstances.Responsible learners know that they have free will to choose among any sets of linguistic choices. It is said to be the evidence of responsibility.

Learners have to play various roles. At times one is an in dependent individual, at other times a group member. Also, a learner must be a teacher, a student, a part of a support system, a problem solver and self evaluator.

• Teacher Roles

The Silent Way teacher’s tasks are:

1. To teach. Teaching means the presentation of typically using nonverbal clues to get across meanings.
2. To test. Testing means the elicitation and shaping of the student’s production silently.
3. To get out of the way. The teacher silently monitors learner’s interaction with each other and may leave the room while learners struggle with their new linguistic tools.

Teachers are responsible for designing teaching sequences, creating individual lesson elements, and creating an environment that encourages the student risk taking and that facilitates learning.

• Roles of Instructional Materials

The materials consist mainly of asset of colored rods, color coded pronunciation and vocabulary charts designed for manipulation in promoting the language learning by direct associations.

G.    Result

Gattegno claimed that in a year the students could master the language which was able to be taught four years by using other methods.