TEFL 510

Community Language Learning(CLL)

CLL Background

CLL, along with the Silent Way, TPR, and Suggestopoedia, is one of the “designer” methods formed in the early to mid 1970s.

CLL is also one of the most prototypical methods belonging to the humanistic approach to language learning. Why is this?

The founder and “guru” of CLL was Charles Curran, a Jesuit priest. He came from the counseling world, and very much saw the role of the teacher as that of counselor.

CLL Principles

As with other designer methods, the learner rather than the teacher, was the center of learning.

CLL stressed that the learner should take responsibility for her learning.

This idea was in fact so central, that the learner, not the teacher, determined what was to be learned.

CLL considers the learner as a whole person, especially the affective side of the person. Thus, as little pressure to perform as possible is put on the learner.

L1 is used as well as the target language.

The role of the teacher, called the knower, was that of facilitator and provider of support. Teachers were also referred to as human computers.

How CLL Works

• Each class should be relatively small (8-12 people)

1. Students sit in a circle with a tape recorder in the middle; the teacher stands outside the circle

2. When a student decides what she wants to say, she calls the teacher over and whispers the phrase in the teacher’s ear. The student talks to the teacher in her L1 and the teacher translates the phrase.

3. The student then practices the phrase, and when she is satisfied that it is correct, she then records it on the tape recorder.

4. Other students then do the same thing until an entire dialog is recorded.

How CLL Works, cont.

5. The teacher replays the recording and transcribes it on the board.

6. Students then analyze the transcript and ask questions of the teacher.

7. In following session, the teacher suggests activities based on the dialog.

References

This power point presentation is taken from Alan Maley’s article on Community Language Learning found on the One Stop English (Macmillan – textbook publishers) web page:

http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/

You can also find information on other methods on this site. When you g et to the site, just click on site search in the left-hand panel. Once you get to the site search page, just type in the name of the method you’re interested in.