the Community Language Learning

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

INTRODUCTION

The method we will examine in this chapter advices teachers to consider their students as ‘whole persons’. Whole-persons learning means that teachers consider not only theirs students’ intellect, but also have some understanding of the relationship among students’ feelings, physical reactions, instinctive protective reactions, and desire to learn.

EXPERIENCE

Some of the activities are as follows :

a. The teacher selects the verbs ‘be’ from the transcript, and together he and the student conjugate it for person and number in the present tense.

b. The students work in small groups to make sentences with the new forms.

c. Students take turns reading the transcript, one student reading the English and another reading the Indonesian.

d. The teacher puts a picture of a person on the blackboard and the students ask questions of that person as if they have just met him.

e. The students reconstruct the conversation they have created.

f. They create a new dialog using words they have learned to say during their conversation.

When they finish these activities, the class has another conversations, records it, and uses the new transcript as the basis for subsequent activities.

THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

Principles

1. Building a relationship with and among students is very important.

2. Any new learning experience can be threatening.

3. Language is for communication.

4. The superior knowledge and power of the teacher can be threatening.

5. The teacher should be sensitive to students’ level of confidence and give them just what they need to be successful.

6. Students feel more secure when they know the limits of an activity.

7. Teacher and students are whole persons.

8. Guided by the knowledge that each learner is unique, the teacher creates an accepting atmosphere.

9. The teacher ‘counsels’ the students. He does not offer advice, but rather shows them that he is really listening to them and understands what they are saying.

10. The students’ native language is used to make the meaning clear and to build a bridge from the known to the unknown.

11. The teacher should take the responsibility for clearly structuring activities in the most appropriate way possible for successful completion of an activity.

12. Learning at the beginning stages is facilitated if student attend to one task at a time.

13. The teacher encourages student initiative and independence, but does not let students flounder in uncomfortable silences.

14. Students need quite reflection time in order to learn.

15. Students learn best when they have a choice in what they practice.

16. Students need to learn to discriminate, for example, in perceiving the similarities and differences among the target language forms.

17. In groups, students can begin to feel a sense of community and can learn from each other as well as the teacher.

18. The teacher should work in a non-threatening way with what the learner has produced.

19. Developing a community among the class members builds trust and can help to reduce the threat of the new learning situation.

20. Learning tends not to take place when the material is too new or, conversely, too familiar.

21. In addition to reflecting on the language, students reflect on what they have experienced.

22. In the beginning stages, the ‘syllabus’ is generated primarily by the students.

REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES

a. What are the goals of teachers who use the Community Language Learning Method ?

Teachers who use the Community Language Learning Method want their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively.

b. What is the role of the teacher ? What is the role of the students ?

The teacher’s initial role is primarily that of a counselor.

c. What are some characteristic of the teaching/learning process.

In a beginning class, which is what we observed, students typically have a conversation using their native language.

d. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction ? What is the nature of student-student interaction ?

The nature of student-teacher interaction in the Community Language Learning Method changes within the lesson and over time.

e. How are the feelings of the students dealt with ?

Responding to the students’ feelings is considered very important in Counseling-Learning.

f. How is language viewed ? How culture is viewed ?

Language is for communication. Culture is an integral part of language learning.

g. What areas of language are emphasized ? What language skills are emphasized ?

In the early stages, typically the students generate the material since they decide what they want to be able to say in the target language.

h. What is the role of the students’ native language ?

Students’ security is initially enhanced by using their native language.

i. How is evaluation accomplished ?

Although no particular mode of evaluation is prescribed in the Community Language Learning Method, whatever the evaluation is conducted should be in keeping with the principles of the method.

j. How does the teacher respond to students errors ?

Teachers should work with what the learner has produced in a non-threatening way.

THE TECHNIQUES

a. Tape recording student conversation.

b. Transcription.

c. Reflection on experience.

d. Reflective listening.

e. Human computer.

f. Small group tasks.