Talk:Community Language Learning

Thes notes are a little fuller than the current article. I'll try to incorporate them soon. If anybody else wants to do so, go ahead, --gramorak 21:28, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

The overall goal of Community Language Learning is for the learner to learn the language communicatively, taking responsibility for their own learning. It has more in common with counselling than teaching; the teachers are considered to be language counsellors, and the learners clients.

In a CLL classroom a group of clientsmay sit facing each other, while the ‘knower’ (the language counsellor) stands outside the group. One client tells the knower, in L1, what s/he wishes to communicate. The knower translate this into L2 at an appropriate level for the client, who then passes it on to the rest of the group. Other members of the group respond, with the knower’s help, and a conversation evolves. At the end of this, clients reflect upon their feelings

Through a series of stages, the client passes from complete dependence on the knower to complete independence. One of the knower’s important roles at all stages is to ensure that the leaner feels completely secure.

As it is the learners who decide what they wish to communicate. Textbooks are rarely used in CLL –they would be considered to be imposing language on the learners.

CLL is demanding for the teachers, who must not only be skilled in the counselling-style required, but must also be proficient in both L1 and L2. They also need to be non-directive, work without the usual course book materials and be ready to deal with whatever the learners wish to discuss.

Advocates of the system stress the humanistic approach and the benefits of a system focusing on the learner. Critics question, among other things, the lack of syllabus, leading to possibly inadequate cover of the grammatical system of L2 Above all many question the validity of a language-teaching system based on a counselling approach.
 * It looks good to me. We might want to beef up the criticisms though. --Bob M 19:23, 1 April 2011 (UTC)