Band 90-100: Academic Writing about Community Language Learning

     Community Language Learning: Introduction, Advantages and Disadvantages as well as it is potential application to Turkish context

      Perhaps one of the most compelling task is to teach something in an effective way since it obviously requires concerted effort for people to acquire knowledge. Likewise, with regard to language teaching, the procedure gets even more complex and challenging because of the fact that language calls for a great deal of practice in communication skills, a long process and a proficient instructor to supply all these. To efficiently achieve this, a wide range of approaches have been developed as initiatives enabling counselors (teachers) at schools to convey data to clients (learners). Content-based instruction (CBI), for instance, is a method proposing contextualized learning while Direct Method (DM) emphasizes the significance of demonstration in learning a foreign language. That is to say, methods are likely to vary depending on how they are implemented. In line with this, this paper primarily aims to review and evaluate Community Language Learning (CLL) by respectively presenting issues with a brief summary of method followed by advantageous and disadvantageous aspects of method and the potential application of method in Turkey. 

To start with an introduction, The CLL, an innovative approach developed by Charles A. Curran and his collaborators, derives from the humanism of modern counseling therapy as a reaction to Audio-Lingualism. The central principle of the approach is to build up strong interpersonal relationships between the teacher and learners to assist learning. Correspondingly, at the outset of constitution process, it was designed to reduce stress and eliminate negativity through a counselor as well as overcoming the fears learners may experience while learning something new in the target language so that a stress-free environment can be created for the purpose of an efficient language teaching. In a comprehensive manner, Curran's implementation of psychological counseling techniques to learning is commonly known as Counseling-Learning.  In "Counseling-approach", teacher, as a counselor, facilitates what learner intends to learn in the target language mostly through translation while learner, as a client, is encouraged to interact with another learner with whom he or she desires to communicate. In this respect, La Forge (1983) elaborates on interaction in language learning by stating that "language is people; language is persons in contact; language is persons in response" (1983: 9). There are two distinct fundamental kinds of interaction in CLL: first one is interaction between learners which develops in time with intimacy among learners as they try to keep up with one another's progress. Second one is interaction between learners and knowers that comprises of five stages of language learning accompanied by five stages of affective conflicts. Learners go throw a new affective crisis in each stage, and they gradually move to a higher stage of development as they work out a radical solution. This course proceeds until learners completely master the language.     

In this paragraph, the discussion centers on advantages and disadvantages of CLL approach. Three advantageous aspects run as follows: At the threshold of the course, learners are heavily reliant on counselor's translation, and counselor focuses mainly upon fluency rather than accuracy. It enables learners to use the target language communicatively as they steadily gain independence. In reflection stage, learners rectify their mistakes and try to learn from one another's faults. Besides, in this stage, they have the opportunity to candidly express their attitude towards the way they are taught. Such amendments can simply accelerate their progress apart from the fact that counselor can take students' comments and criticism into consideration for further improvement. As the last asset, CLL assists learners to increase the awareness of individual responsibility for their own learning. It indicates that CLL is not only paying dividends for language learning but also making a valuable contribution to the character trait of learners. With regard to disadvantages of CLL, the list goes: First defect is that CLL completely relies on inductive learning; however, deductive learning is also crucially required for the function of distinct skills in the target language as it is a grand strategy of learning. Furthermore, since CLL lacks a conventional language syllabus, it is expected to evolve its own curriculum, which makes aims and objectives unclear to pursue and accurate assessment arduous to carry out. Along with the previous disadvantages, there is one more concern to be added: teacher has to be fairly proficient in L1 and L2 for a competent management method in the classrooms. In translation, for instance, the success of method depends greatly upon the translation expertise of the counselor. Naturally, the question of whether or not teachers must be trained in advance to attempt counseling arises. As explicitly stated above, CLL owns both vantages and drawbacks in language teaching process.

The last debate revolves around the potential implementation of CLL in Turkey. First and foremost, CLL necessitates classes less than 10 students in order for method to be properly implemented. Besides, interaction under way in classrooms is tightly constrained by the number. As a matter of fact, the classrooms, with the exception of private schools, in Turkey are excessively filled with students. As this number exceeds what is demanded in CLL, under no circumstances can CLL currently be efficient in Turkey. Another concern to be considered is that the students in Turkey have a propensity to be regularly directed under the guidance of a teacher in the process of learning. Therefore, it has become a characteristic feature of the way they learn the target language. In contrast to conventional teaching system in Turkey, CLL can be intended to provide independence for both students and teachers at the beginning of the course. It may be counter-productive in practice as the students naturally would need directions after some time. Correspondingly, teachers will suffer from the confusion and they will start to actively intervene when they realize that students fail to carry the assignments further. It inevitably will be at variance with the regulations of CLL. On logical grounds, it can be concluded that the issue of whether CLL should be applied in Turkey is clouded by the compelling reasons set out above.

To draw a conclusion, this paper was an attempt to view CLL approach in a different perspective regarding the effectiveness and applicability of the methods in it. First and foremost, in compliance with the views above, it is to be elucidated that Curran's approach is an authentic philosophy of learning which provides intellectual reflections on humankind rather than being merely a pedagogy based on methods. Therefore, not only does CLL stress the linguistic dimensions of language learning but humanistic side of it by regarding language as something to be widely distributed throughout the community. To put it another way, it can be suggested that the ultimate aim of CLL is both to assist learners accomplish a sense of individuality while learning a language and to experience language learning collectively by removing competitiveness among learners. Secondly, implementing CLL today to teach language can widen its appeal. However, potential practitioner should be cautious about and beware of the fact that CLL requires preparation for a proper application. There are two fundamental implications for teaching a language more effectively through CLL: one is that counselor should work out syllabus in advance so as to successfully pursue the aims of course. Another precaution is to be always alerted as a counselor in the class, which will keep learners engaged. Whether its effectiveness gets down to counselor or circumstances, the utilizers of CLL are virtually unanimous on the point that CLL works out quite well for beginners and adult learners.

Note: This is an original piece of writing lease cite this website if you want to use it for any educational purposes. The text was produced by 1st year ELT student İbrahim Eskin at Erciyes University, Kayseri