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Community Language Learning

The Counseling-Learning Model (CLL) developed by Charles A. Curran emphasizes a humanistic approach to language learning, where teachers act as counselors and students as clients, fostering a supportive and non-defensive learning environment. It focuses on six key elements necessary for effective learning: security, aggression, attention, reflection, retention, and discrimination, while promoting student autonomy and community interaction. However, the model faces drawbacks such as a lack of structured content and reliance on the teacher's translation skills, making it less suitable for institutional language programs.

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6 views16 pages

Community Language Learning

The Counseling-Learning Model (CLL) developed by Charles A. Curran emphasizes a humanistic approach to language learning, where teachers act as counselors and students as clients, fostering a supportive and non-defensive learning environment. It focuses on six key elements necessary for effective learning: security, aggression, attention, reflection, retention, and discrimination, while promoting student autonomy and community interaction. However, the model faces drawbacks such as a lack of structured content and reliance on the teacher's translation skills, making it less suitable for institutional language programs.

Uploaded by

amir.m.soly
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Origin

 CLL was developed by Charles A. Curran and his

associates in Chicago, 1955. It is sometimes cited as an

example of a humanistic approach and derives its primary

insights from counseling.


 With that, the roles of the teacher are the counselor and

learners, the clients. The counselor does not automatically

assist the clients but passively offer his help to them. CLL

involves humanistic techniques which engage the whole

person, including the emotions and feelings as well as

linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills.


 Influenced by Carl Roger’s humanistic psychology, Curran found

that adults often feel threatened by a new learning situation or fear

that they will appear foolish.

 A way to deal with the fears of students is for teachers to become

language counselors, skillful understanders of the struggle students

face as they attempt to internalize another language. In this way,

teachers can help students overcome their negative feelings and

further turn them into positive energy in learning.


Principles
 Learning is persons: human individuals need to be

understood and aided in the process of fulfilling personal

values and goals; this is best done in community with

others striving to attain the same goals; whole-persons

learning in a relationship of trust, support, and cooperation

between teacher and students and among students


Principles
 Learning is dynamic and creative: learning is a living and developmental

process

Building a relationship with and among students is important as well as

lessening their fears to a new learning situation.

Teachers do not remain in the front of the classroom to reduce threat to them.

To let students feel secure facilitates their learning such as use of L1, more

cooperation in the community, understanding what will happen in each

activity and so on.


Characteristics
 a conversation in a beginning class in L1 with translation of the teacher and

later on transcription

 students sitting in a circle with a tape recorder: a dependent community to

cooperate with each other rather than compete with each other.

 teachers as counselors and students as clients: sensitive to students’ feelings

and fears

 six elements necessary for nondefensive learning: security, aggression,

attention, reflection, retention and discrimination


Influences
 the role of teachers as counselors who understand and assist
students to help them overcome the threatening affective
factors
 emphasis of classroom interaction in cooperation, not
competition
 respect for students’ choice of learning content with a learner-
generated conversation
 no translation but for Ss to induce rules
Drawbacks
 The procedure doesn’t ensure that a variety of contexts necessary
for coping in the target culture is included since the content is
determined by the participants.
 Students may feel uncomfortable with the apparent lack of
structure or sequence in the introduction of grammatical and
lexical items; that is too much reliance on an inductive strategy
of learning. Besides, there is no syllabus for CLL, a posteriori
approach to syllabus specification. The teacher is too
nondirective. Finally, the success of CLL depended largely on
the translation expertise of the counselor.
10 Questions to be answered
 What are the goals of teachers who use the CLL
method?
-- To learn how to use the target language
communicatively in a nondefensive manner
 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the
students?
T—a counselor; S—a client
The relationship between T and S from dependency to
independency through five stages (focus of fluency or
accuracy)
 What are some characteristics of the

teaching/learning process?

a conversation in L1-> translation in chunks

recording of the conversation a transcript with

L1 equivalents activities based on the

conversation
 Six elements necessary for nondefensive learning
Security—non-threatening learning environment
Aggression—actively involved in the learning experience
Attention—ability to attend to many factors simultaneously by
narrowing the scope of attention initially
Reflection—when Ss reflect on the language as the teacher reads the
transcript three times; when Ss are invited to stop and consider the
active experience they have
Retention—the integration of the new material that takes place within
the whole self
Discrimination—sorting out differences among target language forms
such as Human Computer
 What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the

nature of student-student interaction?

S-T first and S-S interaction afterwards; teacher-student-

centered with both being decision-makers in the class

 How are the feelings of the students dealt with?

Inviting Ss to comment on how they feel to keep their security


 How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?

Language for communication in a supportive learning process;

culture as an integral part of language learning

 What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills

are emphasized?

Grammar points, pronunciation patterns and vocabulary based

on the language Ss generate; the importance of understanding

and speaking the language at first, then reading and writing


 What is the role of the students’ native language?

L1 to enhance students’ security as a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar;

literal L1 equivalents but less L1 in later stages

 How is evaluation accomplished?

An integrative test rather than a discrete-point one such as writing a paragraph

or an oral interview or self-evaluation too

 How does the teacher respond to student errors?

T repeats correctly what Ss say incorrectly without calling further attention to

the error
Summary(Charles Curran, 1972)
 A counseling-learning model in which non-defensive learning is achieved
with six elements (security, aggression, attention, reflection, retention, and
discrimination) and learners are considered “whole persons.” It aims at
building a supportive community of Ss to interact in an interpersonal
relationship, to lower defenses, and to meet learner needs.
 The principles of discovery learning, student-centered participation and
development of student autonomy (independence) remain viable in the
application to lg classrooms. But it was too restrictive for institutional lg
programs. Teachers are too non-directive, and their translation expertise
determines success. Finally, there is too much reliance on an inductive
strategy of learning.
 http://www.cet-taiwan.com/Epaper/200506_40_3.htm

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