Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning (CLL) is a teaching method developed in the 1970s in the USA by Jesuit priest, psychologist and educator Charles Curran. Drawing on principles of counselling therapy then prevalent, CLL emphasizes the importance of the learners themselves by calling them "clients" and letting them design lesson content. The teacher plays the part of "counsellor", while the learners are encouraged to work together, interacting and helping each other personally in a supportive community. The method, which aims to alleviate the anxiety and threat so often felt by language learners, is sometimes described as "counselling learning".

Typical features of a CLL lesson:

• target language/mother tongue
• teacher/learner-centred
• counselling role for teacher; client roles for learners
• in-a-circle seating for learners
• recorder inside circle and teacher outside
• TL dialogue generated learner by learner (helped as necessary by teacher)
• recorded dialogue transcribed by teacher on board
• analysis of dialogue by learners
• dialogue used in follow-up sessions for other activities
• movement for learners from total dependence to growing autonomy