The Cognitive Function of Humanistic Tradition

I. The humanistic tradition

1.1 Behaviorism (Skinner and Krashen)

Behaviorism (or behaviourism), also called the learning perspective (where

any physical action is a behavior), is a philosophy of psychology based on the

proposition that all things that organisms do — including acting, thinking and

feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviors. The school of psychology

maintains that behaviors as such can be described scientifically without recourse

either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as the

mind. Behaviorism comprises the position that all theories should have

observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between

publicly observable processes (such as actions) and privately observable processes

(such as thinking and feeling).

From early psychology in the 19th century, the behaviorist school of thought

ran concurrently and shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic and Gestalt

movements in psychology into the 20th century; but also differed from the mental

philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways. Its main influences were

Ivan Pavlov, who investigated classical conditioning, Edward Lee Thorndike, John

B. Watson who rejected introspective methods and sought to restrict psychology to

experimental methods, and B.F. Skinner who conducted research on operant

conditioning.

In the second half of the twentieth century, behaviorism was largely eclipsed

as a result of the cognitive revolution. Though these two schools of psychological

thought may not agree theoretically, they have complemented each other in

practical therapeutic applications. One notable legacy of behaviorist investigations

is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, a popular treatment that uses cognitive models

alongside behaviorist techniques such as 'systematic desensitization' and

'contingency management' that have demonstrable utility in helping people with

certain pathologies, such as simple phobias, PTSD, and addiction.

Versions. There is no classification generally agreed upon, but some titles

given to the various branches of behaviorism include:

Methodological: The behaviorism of Watson; the objective study of behavior;

no mental life, no internal states; thought is covert speech.

Radical: Skinner's behaviorism; is considered radical since it expands

behavioral principles to processes within the organism; in contrast to

methodological behaviorism; not mechanistic or reductionist; hypothetical

(mentalistic) internal states are not considered causes of behavior, phenomena must

be observable at least to the individual experiencing them. Willard Van Orman

Quine used many of radical behaviorism's ideas in his study of knowing and

language.

Teleological: Post-Skinnerian, purposive, close to microeconomics.

Theoretical: Post-Skinnerian, accepts observable internal states ("within the

skin" once meant "unobservable", but with modern technology we are not so

constrained); dynamic, but eclectic in choice of theoretical structures, emphasizes

parsimony.

Biological: Post-Skinnerian, centered on perceptual and motor modules of

behavior, theory of behavior systems.

Two popular subtypes are Neo: Hullian and post-Hullian, theoretical, group

data, not dynamic, physiological, and Purposive: Tolman's behavioristic

anticipation of cognitive psychology.

Definition. B.F. Skinner was influential in defining radical behaviorism, a

philosophy codifying the basis of his school of research (named the Experimental

Analysis of Behavior, or EAB.) While EAB differs from other approaches to

behavioral research on numerous methodological and theoretical points, radical

behaviorism departs from methodological behaviorism most notably in accepting

feelings, states of mind and introspection as existent and scientifically treatable.

This is done by identifying them as something non-dualistic, and here Skinner

takes a divide-and-conquer approach, with some instances being identified with

bodily conditions or behavior, and others getting a more extended 'analysis' in

terms of behavior. However, radical behaviorism stops short of identifying feelings

as causes of behavior. Among other points of difference were a rejection of the

reflex as a model of all behavior and a defense of a science of behavior

complementary to but independent of physiology. Radical behaviorism has

considerable overlap with other western philosophical positions such as American

pragmatism.

Experimental and conceptual innovations. This essentially philosophical

position gained strength from the success of Skinner's early experimental work

with rats and pigeons, summarized in his books The Behavior of Organisms and

Schedules of Reinforcement. Of particular importance was his concept of the

operant response, of which the canonical example was the rat's lever-press. In

contrast with the idea of a physiological or reflex response, an operant is a class of

structurally distinct but functionally equivalent responses. For example, while a rat

might press a lever with its left paw or its right paw or its tail, all of these

responses operate on the world in the same way and have a common consequence.

Operants are often thought of as species of responses, where the individuals differ

but the class coheres in its function—shared consequences with operants and

reproductive success with species. This is a clear distinction between Skinner's

theory and S-R theory.

Skinner's empirical work expanded on earlier research on trial-and-error

learning by researchers such as Thorndike and Guthrie with both conceptual

reformulations – Thorndike's notion of a stimulus-response 'association' or

'connection' was abandoned; and methodological ones – the use of the 'free

operant', so called because the animal was now permitted to respond at its own rate

rather than in a series of trials determined by the experimenter procedures. With

this method, Skinner carried out substantial experimental work on the effects of

different schedules and rates of reinforcement on the rates of operant responses

made by rats and pigeons. He achieved remarkable success in training animals to

perform unexpected responses, and to emit large numbers of responses, and to

demonstrate many empirical regularities at the purely behavioral level. This lent

some credibility to his conceptual analysis. It is largely his conceptual analysis that

made his work much more rigorous than his peers, a point which can be seen

clearly in his seminal work Are Theories of Learning Necessary? in which he

criticizes what he viewed to be theoretical weaknesses then common in the study

of psychology. An important descendant of the experimental analysis of behavior

is the Society for Quantitative Analysis of Behavior.

Relation to language. As Skinner turned from experimental work to

concentrate on the philosophical underpinnings of a science of behavior, his

attention turned to human language with Verbal Behavior and other language-

related publications; Verbal Behavior laid out a vocabulary and theory for

functional analysis of verbal behavior, and was strongly criticized in a review by

Noam Chomsky. Skinner did not respond in detail but claimed that Chomsky

failed to understand his ideas, and the disagreements between the two and the

theories involved have been further discussed. In addition; innate theory is opposed

the to behaviorist theory which claims that language is a set of habit that can be

acquired by means of conditioning. According to some, this process that the

behaviorists define is a very slow and gentle process to explain a phenomena

complicated as language learning. What was important for a behaviorist's analysis

of human behavior was not language acquisition so much as the interaction

between language and overt behavior. In an essay republished in his 1969 book

Contingencies of Reinforcement, Skinner took the view that humans could

construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over their behavior in

the same way that external stimuli could. The possibility of such "instructional

control" over behavior meant that contingencies of reinforcement would not

always produce the same effects on human behavior as they reliably do in other

animals. The focus of a radical behaviorist analysis of human behavior therefore

shifted to an attempt to understand the interaction between instructional control

and contingency control, and also to understand the behavioral processes that

determine what instructions are constructed and what control they acquire over

behavior. Recently a new, promising line of behavioral research on language was

started under the name of Relational Frame Theory.

Skinner's view of behavior is most often characterized as a "molecular" view

of behavior; that is, behavior can be decomposed into atomistic parts or molecules.

This view is inconsistent with Skinner's complete description of behavior as

delineated in other works, including his 1981 article "Selection by Consequences."

Skinner proposed that a complete account of behavior requires understanding of

selection history at three levels: biology (the natural selection or phylogeny of the

animal); behavior (the reinforcement history or ontogeny of the behavioral

repertoire of the animal); and for some species, culture (the cultural practices of the

social group to which the animal belongs). This whole organism then interacts with

its environment. Molecular behaviorists use notions from melioration theory,

negative power function discounting or additive versions of negative power

function discounting.

Molar behaviorists, such as Howard Rachlin, Richard Herrnstein, and William

Baum, argue that behavior cannot be understood by focusing on events in the

moment. That is, they argue that behavior is best understood as the ultimate

product of an organism's history and that molecular behaviorists are committing a

fallacy by inventing fictitious proximal causes for behavior. Molar behaviorists

argue that standard molecular constructs, such as "associative strength," are better

replaced by molar variables such as rate of reinforcement.[16] Thus, a molar

behaviorist would describe "loving someone" as a pattern of loving behavior over

time; there is no isolated, proximal cause of loving behavior, only a history of

behaviors (of which the current behavior might be an example) that can be

summarized as "love."

Theories of language learning

There are many. In this session you’re going to learn about the views of

Skinner, Chomsky, and Krashen.

“Behaviourism” is a school of psychology which teaches that behaviour (and

language is considered by behaviourists as a type of “learned behaviour”) is

learned. B.F.Skinner believed that correct grammar is formed over time by a

process of stimulus-reinforcement: correct utterances receive “positive stimulus”

(i.e. praise, receiving the thing you asked for) and are therefore reinforced and

repeated, whereas incorrect utterances receive “negative stimulus” (frowns, electric

shocks!) and are negatively reinforced and not repeated. Behaviourist ideas

approximate to many people’s ideas of how learning happens (think of the

common ideas about training a dog, or bringing up a child, for example), but they

have one big drawback, particularly when applied to language: there is little or no

evidence of this process existing or leading to actual language learning. Language

(particularly your first language) is learnt rapidly, its nature is complex, and it is

used creatively. Studies of behavioural stimulus-response have not evidenced clear

relationships between utterance/response/reinforcement (the opposite in fact, as

parents of young children seem mainly interested in their child’s meaning, not in

correct grammar). Moreover, the language that learners do come out with is often

unrelated to anything they might have “learnt” via a behaviourist process: a

common example is the way children (and adults) over-generalise using grammar

rules (i.e. I goed, you sayed).

In 1959 N.Chomsky challenged Skinner’s view of language learning, arguing

that a child has an innate ability to learn language, which he termed a “language

acquisition device”. The theory is complex but basically outlines how a learner can

“generate” grammatical sentences using basic “rules” which are pre-programmed

into our brain and which are common to all languages (i.e. the use of nouns, verbs,

pronouns, etc.). This theory allows us to explain the creative use and rapid learning

of language, and learner errors such as the over-generalisations mentioned above

(common in children and adult learners) can be viewed as evidence of learning,

rather that as “errors” which need to be corrected.

Many people would recognise elements of common sense in both of these

views of language learning. A pure behaviourist might have great difficulty in

explaining the creative range of “learned” language, but a disciple of Chomsky

would equally scratch his/her head when faced with the widespread and respected

use of teaching/learning methods based on behaviourist views.

Perhaps the most well-regarded modern theorist of “second language

acquisition” is S.Krashen, whose views strike an immediately practical and

common sense note in the way they appear to give a role both to behaviourist

“learning” and Chomskyian “acquisition”. Your trainer will give you a handout to

read which describes Krashen’s theory. (click here to see the text used)

Teaching “methods” and “approaches”

There are many. Often a given method is associated with a particular period of

history, with a theory of learning (see above) such as behaviourism, or with a

reaction to the perceived limitations of an existing method.

Grammar-Translation Approach: the way people learned Latin and Greek in

public schools in the distant past. Translate the classic, study the grammar, learn to

conjugate the verbs, speaking and listening largely irrelevant.

Direct Approach: a reaction to the above. Only the target language is used,

grammar rules are learnt inductively. Use of the language and appreciation of its

associated culture is a priority.

Reading Approach: for people such as academics who need to read a

language, but little else. Reading ability and knowledge of the country where the

language is spoken are prioritised. Grammar is learnt only as necessary.

Pronunciation is irrelevant.

Audiolingual Method: grammar taught inductively without explanation.

Sentences are modelled, mimicked and then memorised. Use of technology such as

language labs. Listening first, then speaking, reading and writing. Vocabulary is

limited, as are opportunities for free expression. Because this method is based on

behaviourist principles, errors must be avoided (uncorrected errors may result in

“learning” the incorrect forms).

Community Language Learning: based on client: counsellor relationship,

where the teacher acts to support the learner who participates in a group discussion

with other learners (the teacher translates, models the phrases the learner wishes to

say, helping less as the student develops language ability and confidence).

Silent Way: eliminates the teacher’s voice via a system of gestures and

symbols, encourages student speech and attention to pronunciation

Functional-notional Approach: an element of the Communicative Approach,

whereby the syllabus is based around language “functions” (i.e.

requesting/apologising) and “notions”. Clearly the language is being learnt in order

to meet future communicative needs.

Total Physical Response: movement aids learning. Understanding comes

before speaking. The teacher gives instructions (“Get the book from the table. Give

it to John.”) and the student resonds. Eventually the roles are reversed.

The abouve survey of teaching approaches was summarised from the text by

Jill Kerper Mora at http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/ALMMethods.htm

Professional teachers may prefer to pick and choose elements from various

methods depending on their students needs. In fact, in British Council teaching

centres around the world this “eclectic approach” is officially used (teachers are

expected and trusted to use whatever teaching method or methods seem most

appropriate in any given situation). It may be worth making this point to students,

who may have seen advertisements for “method” schools and might like to know

about YOUR method or approach.

Implications for teaching. Theories of teaching and learning should inform the

work we do, but not dominate it; they should help us define our objectives and

choose our methods, but they should also help us empathize with our

clients/students as they struggle with the psychological, intellectual and practical

difficulties of learning a foreign language.

We should always try to consider both the short term (individual lessons and

activities within them) and the long term(“learning” or “acquisition” over a period

of months or even years) by planning lessons which meet the students’ needs and

which foster a sense of progress. As all students are individuals, and all individuals

are by definition different, this will involve considerable flexibility, creativity and

effort!

The Krashen Era and the Natural Order of Acquisition. In the 1970s, an

applied linguist from the University of Southern California started raising

eyebrows by, like Chomsky, making some controversial assertions about language.

Unlike Chomsky, though, Stephen Krashen's linguistic theories had a direct

relationship to language learning and acquisition, thereby bringing them to the

attention of language teachers around the world.

Steve Krashen, along with the late Tracy Terrell, is the father of "input

theory," which stresses massive amounts of passive language or what Krashen

(1979) refers to as i+1, language that is just a little beyond comprehension.

Krashen contends that through context and extralinguistic information, like a

mother talking to her child, learners will climb to the next level and then repeat the

process. Terrell (1982) seconded Krashen's findings and coined the term, "natural

approach"; that is, an approach that is like a child learning its L1 in the home.

The central core of Krashen's work involves his nine hypotheses, the main two

being the input hypothesis and the acquisition-learning distinction hypothesis.

One of the more interesting discoveries in language acquisition has been the

finding that acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in predictable order.

Krashen (1987) cites research that shows both learners of L1 and of L2 tend to

acquire grammatical elements in a fairly predictable order. Brown's (1973) study of

children learning English as an L1 shows a distinct order with -ing progressive and

plural being early acquired and regular past and possessive s being late acquired.

Later Dulay and Burt (1974, 1975) showed that children studying English as a

second language also showed a natural order of acquisition, no matter what their

native language. Both the Brown study and the Dulay and Burt studies have been

replicated (see de Villiers & de Villiers, 1973; Kessler & Idar, 1977; Fabris, 1978;

Makino, 1980). In addition, Bruce (1979) and van Naerssen (1981) confirm a

natural order of acquisition for other languages.

Does this mean that research should be applied to sequence grammar teaching

according to the natural order of acquisition? Not really, according to Krashen.

While arguing that grammatical sequencing will not lead to fluent acquisition of

language, Krashen (1987) does hedge by saying, "...that we should present rules

one at a time in some order when the goal is conscious learning..." Many orders of

grammatical sequencing have been suggested over the years, including frequency

of occurrence, grammatical simplicity, and utility, with most traditional grammar

texts attempting to order along the lines of grammatical simplicity. But does this

make sense when research has shown that the irregular past tense is most often

acquired before the regular past tense? Partly. Krashen suggests that simplicity

does play a role, but natural order does also. Krashen (1987) contends that we can

only teach what is learnable and what is portable (that which can be carried around

in the students' heads). The natural order studies can provide us with at least some

of the information we need in that rules to be learned should meet three criteria:

learnable, portable, not yet acquired. The sequencing issue then revolves around

which items meeting all these criteria should be presented first. Granted, this is not

a "magic bullet" for sequencing grammatical items in the classroom, but it

contributes by limiting the set of items that must be sequenced.

Many textbooks are sequenced according to grammatical simplicity which is

part of the equation, but "perceived" grammatical simplicity may vary from

country to country; that is, a materials developer in Malaysia may arrange English

syntactical items in a far different simple to complex order than a materials

developer in Hungary. Here is where an understanding of the "natural order of

acquisition" may have practical application in the classroom. However, it has yet to

make any meaningful inroads in most traditional curricula.

1.2 Theory of behavioristic education

B.F. Skinner Behaviorism is described as a developmental theory that

measures observable behaviors produced by a learner’s response to stimuli.

Responses to stimuli can be reinforced with positive or negative feedback to

condition desired behaviors. Punishment is sometimes used in eliminating or

reducing incorrect actions, followed by clarifying desired actions. Educational

effects of behaviorism are key in developing basic skills and foundations of

understanding in all subject areas and in classroom management.

According to behaviorism, knowing is giving the correct response when

exposed to a particular stimulus. The behaviorist is not concerned with how or why

knowledge is obtained, but rather if the correct response is given. Yu Ching Chen’s

web site on behaviorism states that, “Learning is defined as nothing more than the

acquisition of new behavior”.

In terms of the concept of learning, the process tends to be passive with regard

to the behaviorist theory. The learner uses low level processing skills to understand

material and the material is often isolated from real-world contexts or situations.

Little responsibility is placed on the learner concerning his/her own education.

Typical classroom instruction consistent with the behaviorist theory includes;

classroom management, rote memorization, and drill and practice. Several

examples of behaviorism used in classroom management were highlighted in the

reading section titled, “Behavioral Views of Learning” by A. Woolfolk.

One example, used by two of our own group members, is using a token

system to reinforce positive academic performance and student behavior. A

classroom application of using drill and practice includes computer software, such

as Math Blaster’s. These types of software provide positive and negative

reinforcements for answering math problems correctly or incorrectly. A final

example highlighting the behaviorist theory is rote memorization. Rote

memorization may include memorizing addition or multiplication facts or

memorizing state capitals.

The behaviorist approach to teaching has practical applications in education.

In particular, understanding basic skills and core subject knowledge. The approach

of using positive and negative reinforcements to elicit desired behaviors of

students is also useful in establishing and maintaining classroom management.

Among educational researchers and theorists it's sometimes said that

education is now guided by its "third metaphor", or overriding theory. The

principal overriding theories that have been used as general models to guide

educational practice, theory, and research are "Behaviorist theory", "Cognitive (or

information processing) theory" and "Constructivist theory" (in historical order

from first to most recent). These are all interesting concepts/models, and have

certain implications for the teacher-to-be, but, in my humble opinion, once we

really start translating these into implications for practicing teachers, the lines

among them start to blur, and the differences in what they imply for the teacher to

do are not so clear. Nevertheless, I feel obligated to introduce you to each of these

theories briefly, since they are fundamental concepts within educational

psychology circles. One other important editorial point is that, despite the tendency

of educational researchers to discount historically old theories, such as

behaviorism, it is my view that each of these general theories is applicable in at

least some educational contexts.

The historical roots of "behaviorism" actually go back further in the history of

psychology than your book addresses, to a charismatic character named John B.

Watson, who you very possibly read about in general psychology. Watson's

theories were, in many ways, a response to psychological theories popular near the

beginning of the 20th century (e.g., Freud's Psychoanalysis), that relied heavily on

non-observable (non-scientific) variables, such as the sub-conscious. It was

Watson's view that, if psychology was to progress, it needed to deal with variables

that could be defined empirically (i.e., those that could be experienced through the

senses, and those on which observers could find consensus). This is the reason why

operant conditioning, that you'll read about in the book, relies specifically on

observable behaviors. Watson, and B.F. Skinner who came after, were strongly

opposed to psychological theories that included speculation about "mental

processes". So, the first basic characteristic of behaviorism is that behaviorists

emphasize the importance of empirical, observable behaviors. It is your instructor's

view that this is the point when psychology actually became a "science" as an

extension of "harder" sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics. At this

point in the history of psychology, psychological researchers began studying

phenomena that could be experienced empirically and that could be agreed upon

reliably by multiple observers.

A second fundamental characteristic of behaviorists, not unrelated to the first,

is that they view the external environment as the principal (maybe the only)

determinant factor in behavior. So, in the classic "nature vs nurture" debate, the

behaviorists fall squarely on the "nurture" side. According to "radical behaviorists"

like Watson, what determines the intelligence, temperament, and other personality

characteristics of a child, is the environment in which the child is raised. Genetic

predisposition is unimportant. One of Watson's most famous quotes goes as

follows:

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world

to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to

become any type of specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-

chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and theif, regardless of his talents, penchants,

tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."

Behaviorism originated with the work of John B. Watson, an American

psychologist. Watson claimed that psychology was not concerned with the mind or

with human consciousness. Instead, psychology would be concerned only with

behavior. In this way, men could be studied objectively, like rats and apes.

Watson’s work was based on the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, who had studied

animals’ responses to conditioning. In Pavlov’s best-known experiment, he rang a

bell as he fed some dogs several meals. Each time the dogs heard the bell they

knew that a meal was coming, and they would begin to salivate. Pavlov then rang

the bell without bringing food, but the dogs still salivated. They had been

“conditioned” to salivate at the sound of a bell. Pavlov believed, as Watson was

later to emphasize, that humans react to stimuli in the same way.

Behaviorism is associated today with the name of B.F. Skinner, who made his

reputation by testing Watson’s theories in the laboratory. Skinner’s studies led him

to reject Watson’s almost exclusive emphasis on reflexes and conditioning. People

respond to their environment, he argued, but they also operate on the environment

to produce certain consequences.

Skinner developed the theory of “operant conditioning,” the idea that we

behave the way we do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences

in the past. For example, if your girlfriend gives you a kiss when you give her

flowers, you will be likely to give her flowers when you want a kiss. You will be

acting in expectation of a certain reward. Like Watson, however, Skinner denied

that the mind or feelings play any part in determining behavior. Instead, our

experience of reinforcements determines our behavior.

Behaviorism originated in the field of psychology, but it has had a much

wider influence. Its concepts and methods are used in education, and many

education courses at college are based on the same assumptions about man as

behaviorism. Behaviorism has infiltrated sociology, in the form of sociobiology,

the belief that moral values are rooted in biology. What are the presuppositions of

behaviorism?

1. Behaviorism is naturalistic. This means that the material world is the

ultimate reality, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has

no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli.

2. Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds

to conditioning. One writer has summarized behaviorism in this way: “The central

tenet of behaviorism is that thoughts, feelings, and intentions, mental processes all,

do not determine what we do. Our behavior is the product of our conditioning. We

are biological machines and do not consciously act; rather we react to stimuli.“1

The idea that men are “biological machines” whose minds do not have any

influence on their actions is contrary to the biblical view that man is the very

image of God – the image of a creative, planning, thinking God. In fact, Skinner

goes so far as to say that the mind and mental processes are “metaphors and

fictions” and that “behavior is simply part of the biology of the organism.“2

Skinner also recognizes that his view strips man of his “freedom and dignity,” but

insists that man as a spiritual being does not exist.

3. Consistently, behaviorism teaches that we are not responsible for our

actions. If we are mere machines, without minds or souls, reacting to stimuli and

operating on our environment to attain certain ends, then anything we do is

inevitable. Sociobiology, a type of behaviorism, compares man to a computer:

Garbage in, garbage out.

This also conflicts with a Christian worldview. Our past experiences and our

environment do affect the way we act, of course, but these factors cannot account

for everything we do. The Bible teaches that we are basically covenantal creatures,

not biological creatures. Our nearest environment is God Himself, and we respond

most fundamentally to Him. We respond either in obedience to or rebellion against

His Word.

4. Behaviorism is manipulative. It seeks not merely to understand human

behavior, but to predict and control it. From his theories, Skinner developed the

idea of “shaping.” By controlling rewards and punishments, you can shape the

behavior of another person.

As a psychiatrist, one of Skinner’s goals is to shape his patients’ behavior so

that he or she will react in more socially acceptable ways. Skinner is quite clear

that his theories should be used to guide behavior: “The experimental analysis of

behavior has led to an effective technology, applicable to education,

psychotherapy, and the design of cultural practices in general, which will be more

effective when it is not competing with practices that have had the unwarranted

support of mentalistic theories.“

In other words, Skinner wants behaviorism to be the basis for manipulating

patients, students, and whole societies.

The obvious questions, of course, are: Who will use the tools? Who will pull

the strings? Who will manipulate the technology? No doubt, Skinner would say

that only someone trained in behavioral theory and practice would be qualified to

“shape” the behavior of other persons. But this is contrary to the biblical view,

which commands us to love our neighbor, not to manipulate him.

In summary, the ethical consequences of behaviorism are great. Man is

stripped of his responsibility, freedom, and dignity, and is reduced to a purely

biological being, to be “shaped” by those who are able to use the tools of

behaviorism effectively.

1.3 The cognitive function in teaching foreign languages

An irrate parent approached the principal of the elementary school, where his ten-

year-old son had been a student since age six, with the challenging question, "Why aren't

your teachers doing the job that they are being paid to do"

Rather than to answer the question directly the self-composed principal, accustomed

to dealing with emotionally distressed parents, opened a discussion with the parent in an

effort to ascertain the full meaning behind his question.

The parent's son had finished the fifth grade, the summer recess had ended, and he

was ready to begin grade six. At the beginning of the summer he was reading at a low

second-grade level and his ability in arithmetic was equally low. At the cost of $150 the

father had enrolled his son in reading and mathematics at the Westinghouse School of

Learning for a six-weeks session. The guarantee was that the boy would progress at least

one grade level in each of the subjects, or they would work with him beyond the six weeks

at no extra charge until he did make such an achievement. Actually, he had progressed

more than one and a half grade levels in arithmetic and almost two grade levels in reading

as measured by standardized tests, all within the six-weeks session.

The father's question to the principal was that if Westinghouse can succeed with his son,

why can't regular teachers succeed with him. He resented paying taxes to have his son

educated and then have to pay a private organization to accomplish what the public schools

had been unable to accomplish.

The word "accountability" has become popular in recent months in discussions about

school learning. Evidence that students who fail in certain instructional environments

manage co experience more than average success when placed in another instructional

environment suggests that someone in our public educational systems (other than the

student) might be held accountable for student achievement.

The growing demand for accountability seems to be the result of four influences.

First, the average family is no longer willing to try to keep up with the spiraling cost of

education from out of its own budget. Local ballot propositions that would increase taxes

to support education are repeatedly voted down by the taxpayer.

Second, there is ever increasing evidence that the application of management

procedures from business can procure results in the field of education where outmoded

school techniques have failed. If it can be done by outside organizations, why can't the

schools do it?

Third, many young people with high school diplomas are inadequately prepared for

some of the most basic jobs in society. The taxpayer resents continued financial support

of an institution that is not doing its job properly.

Finally, the student himself is voicing concern about the relevancy for adult living of

many course offerings of public educational institutions. The student also is disillusioned at

the meager amount of learning and lack of retention of learnings from many of those

courses that do seem relevant. Some consequences of student unrest have seriously

effected foreign language offerings. Colleges and universities across the nation have been

forced by student pressure to either decrease or abolish foreign language requirements.

Students who have filled the foreign language requirements of previous years tend to agree

that their learning was not sufficient to enable them to reach any useful degree of fluency in

the language and that most of what they did learn was promptly forgotten.

Some students who have followed class enrollments in the secondary schools are

quick to point out that the mortality rate between Language 1 and Language 2 often runs

more than 50 percent. By the time a student enrolls in a fourth-year language class on the

high school level he is no longer one of 200 students as he was in Language 1. He is now

one of fifteen or fewer, hopefully a sufficient number to justify a teacher for that class.

The administrators of our schools as well as foreign language teachers are aware of

this low measure of success. It has become so common place, so much the rule rather

than the exception, that few teachers would even consider it an indicator of failure. But

there are parents and government representatives of the people everywhere who voice

resentment that a high school student should spend two full years studying a foreign

language to drop it long before fluency is acquired and rarely put to use or see any value,

resulting from the learnings of that two-year sequence.

Parents are asking for accountability. Russell U. Peterson, Governor of Delaware,

made the following statement, which is representative of the attitude of many:

When a child fails to learn, school personnel have all too often labeled him "slow",

"unmotivated" or "retarded". Our schools must assume the commitment that every child

shall learn. Such a commitment must include the willingness to change a system that does

not work, or to find one that does; to seek causes of failure in the system and its personnel,

instead of entirely in students.

The failure of the foreign language teacher was evident during World War II when

the military had difficulty finding men with a knowledge of more than one language.

Their lack of faith in the ability of the schools to train men in a second language was

demonstrated by their seeking elsewhere for the development of a program that could

provide in a short time men with these necessary skills.

The search for help outside the schools was apparent again when Congress began

appropriations in 1958 through NDEA for the retraining of foreign language teachers.

This was accompanied by the audio-lingual habit-forming approach to learning foreign

languages. But even though the number of students studying a foreign language soared,

the mortality rate remained unchanged, indicative of little improvement toward success.

There appear to be three possible avenues for the study of foreign languages to take in

the near future. First, it is possible that external forces, such as Sputnik and the NDEA,

might come once more to the rescue and replace foreign languages high on the list of

important subjects for students to take, regardless of the degree of success actually

achieved by students.

Second, the study of modern foreign languages can move in the same direction as the

study of Latin and Greek. Such courses can be left for a small minority of students who

are curious or have some personal reasons for studying them.

Third, the challenge to be successful might be accepted by teachers, trainers of

teachers, textbook authors and all others concerned with accountability in foreign language

education. They might begin to study the approaches used by such organizations as the

Westinghouse School of Learning. They might begin to organize and find ways of using

to good advantage the wealth of available educational theory in order to bring about the

success sought after.

How is it that some private companies that have moved into the educator market are

able to guarantee results for the learner? A brief conversation with those in charge of such

organizations usually reveals a sound awareness on the part of these people of some basic

principles of learning and instruction. They seem to have assimilated and possess at their

command a practical grasp of many of the theories dealing with human learning to which

most teachers were barely exposed during college teacher training years.

Such organizations thoroughly test the child prior to any instructional efforts, to find

out exactly where he is along the learning continuum of the particular subject matter.

With this knowledge they begin exactly where he is so that his initial learning efforts are

rewarded with success. Motivation of the child is not only increased by success, but

through other uses of reinforcement theory. Accomplishments are rewarded extrinsically

by permitting the child to win points when finishing correctly a specified amount of work

within a given time period. When a certain number of points have been earned, they may

be exchanged for some tangible reward from a variety offered. Children frequently leave

these learning centers reluctantly and return to them eagerly the next day to experience

more success and to win more points.

Parents ask why such an organization can set up almost over night a small school and

achieve results that the public schools were unable to achieve even after more than a

century of experience behind them. The audio-lingual habit formation methodology is

giving way to the cognitive code-learning approach. John Carroll, a psychologist from

Harvard University, was the first to use the term "cognitive code-learning". He first used it

in an address on September 5, 1964 to the International Conference on Modern Foreign

Language Teaching in Berlin. In this address he discussed some of the contributions

made to the teaching of foreign languages from psychological theory and educational

research.

Among the theories of mental organization and functioning held by psychologists

today two overlapping, yet distinctive views have the greatest number of advocates.

Those who hold one view are called neo-behaviorists. Skinner and Osgood are

representative of this group. This theory exercised considerable influence on the

development of the audio-lingual habit formation approach to learning foreign languages.

The new-behaviorists believe that cognition or mental functioning is most satisfactorily

described in terms of stimulus-response theory, i.e., in terms of chains made up of a

stimulus followed by a response which in turn becomes the stimulus for another response,

etc. They theorize that all behavior is best explained in terms of S-R theory and,

therefore, there is no reason to hypothesize that there is more to the cognitive structure

(mind) than these S-R chains.

Those who hold the second theory are called cognitivists. Representative of this

group are Ausubel, Bruner and Gagne. Although their theories differ somewhat, they all

have in common belief in the existence of a cognitive structure in which ideas are formed

and stored with various degrees of irretrievability. Their theories explain the functioning

of this cognitive structure in the light of experimental evidence from psychology.

At approximately the same time that Carroll delivered his address in Berlin, there

appeared in the Modern Language Journal an article by Ausubel in which he discussed

several features of the audio-lingual approach that were psychologically incompatible with

the learning process in adolescents and adults. Beginning with this article some foreign

language educators became interested in Ausubel and subsequently have gained

considerable useful information from his cognitive approach to learning.

Kenneth Chastain gives a simplified resume of Ausubel's theories of cognition in his

methods text. He also outlines some of the obvious contrasts between the audio-lingual

habit forming approach and the cognitive code-learning approach. Chastain emphasizes

that as of the time of his writing there was no textbook published that falls into the

cognitive code-learning category. Since then a Spanish series has been published by

Houghton Mifflin Company that makes extensive use of cognitive code-learning theory.

Surely, others will follow in the near future.

Ausubel's first degree was in medicine. This was followed by a doctorate in

psychiatry. Through his work in psychiatry he became interested in the psychology of

learning. His publications are very scholarly and well researched. He has tended to work

in five-year cycles, first producing in 1954 a text on adolescent psychology. This was

followed by a book on child development in 1958. The book that best presents his theory

of cognition is The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning, published in 1963. And

his next major work was published in 1965, Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View.

Until the reader learns Ausubel's particular vocabulary and style of writing (and he has

developed his own), much of his writing on cognitive theory is rather difficult to read with

understanding. For example, the following is a short excerpt from Educational

Psychology: A Cognitive View, in which he discusses retention: " . . . barring repetition

or some other special reason (for example, primacy, uniqueness, enhanced

discriminability, or the availability of a specially relevant, clear and stable anchoring idea)

for the perpetuation of their dissociability, newly-learned ideas that are related to

established ideational systems tend gradually and spontaneously to become undissociable

from their anchoring ideas to undergo obliterate assimilation, . . . "

Ausubel's subsumption theory of cognition provides the natural psychological

foundations for the cognitive code-learning focus for foreign languages. Ausubel believes

that the cognitive process is capable of retaining broad generalizations (when substantially

anchored), but incapable of holding for very long the more detailed instances of

generalizations which are readily "forgotten" or subsumed into (become undissociable

from) the broader generalizations. Hence, his focus in instruction is much more on

teaching "meaningful" generalizations through receptive learning (a deductive approach)

rather than providing numerous examples of the generalization in practice toward

discovery learning (an inductive approach).

Extremely important to Ausubel is that all learning be meaningful. For

meaningfulness to occur there already must be learnings firmly anchored and secure within

the cognitive structure of the learner to which the new learning may be related and tied.

And, it must be related in a "non-arbitrary" and "substantive" way. He uses these two

adjectives often and to understand what he means by them is very important to the

understanding of his theory of cognition. Rote learning, as opposed to meaningful

learning, must be acquired in a specified or arbitrary way (rather than non-arbitrarily) and

is retained according to the pre-specified verbal sequence not to be deviated from (rather

than retained substantively). In meaningful learning (the opposite of rote learning) the

new material is retained by the functional usability of its content, not by specific verbatim

memorizing.

With meaningfulness as the foundation, Ausubel expands his subsumption theory to

include and explain in relation to it basic findings from research. His awareness of such

research is exhaustive as evidenced by the comprehensiveness of his writings. In part, it is

this thoroughness that makes his psychology a satisfactory basis for most all facets related

to learning and instruction.

The goals of the cognitive approach include not only a thoroughly meaningful

understanding of all skills and knowledge provided for the learner, but also maximum

retention of all learnings as well as the ultimate development of a high degree of "usability"

(automaticity). These goals will find achievement through a maximum use of learning

theory with a major leaning toward meaningful verbal learning as contrasted with rote,

verbatim memorization through imitation.

Many of the resulting changes in instruction that are forthcoming have not been and

never would be within the capabilities of teachers to provide for themselves. The

accumulation of knowledge has become too great. Already teachers are overworked.

Teachers everywhere attempt to provide instruction for five classes a day with an average

of thirty students per class. Some teachers are responsible for six classes each day. They

do not have the time to provide instruction materials and planning that will assure

maximum success with all students, and neither do they have in sufficient depth the other

necessary skills to accomplish such a task. Teachers owe it to their students to demand

from publishers instructional materials that have been test taught and have given

substantial evidence of providing opportunities for success in second language learning for

all students intellectually capable enough to survive in the public schools.

If there were no restrictions on the development of instructional materials built on a

cognitive code-learning approach, if appropriate personnel were available and sufficient

funds provided for comprehensive test teaching of the materials under all kinds of teacher-

learner combinations with ample opportunity for revision-retesting cycles, the following

suggestions seem appropriate toward making available materials that will very nearly

abolish the high mortality rate of foreign language students and make possible a success in

student learning heretofore unachieved.

The team of experts who would develop these materials would differ from the usual

team in that each would have sufficient knowledge of the fields of the others so that all of

them have the ability to synthesize.

First, there is a native speaker who has remained up-to-date in his language and is

fluent in English. He has had substantial training in applied linguistics and learning theory

and has been a successful classroom teacher. His wife as a native speaker was such as to

make him a speaker of at least two dialects. He has learned well how to fill the role of

native-informant in working with linguists.

Next, there is an applied linguist who has specialized in describing the target

language as meaningfully as possible for speakers of English. He also has a good

knowledge of learning theory and has been a successful classroom teacher.

A third member of the team is a specialist in learning theory and curriculum

development. He has a good understanding of applied linguistics, is nearly fluent in the

target language, and he has been a successful classroom teacher.

The fourth member has various competencies in research and evaluation, and

especially in field testing curricular materials. He has a good knowledge of the target

language and has been a successful classroom teacher.

Planning begins with a comprehensive listing of the learning content of the target

language. Then, in relation to this content, the authors decide exactly what they want

students to be able to do when they have completed the total learning sequence that they

could not do when they began. With these objectives in mind (and, of course, they are

free to change the objectives in the light of what they learn during the test teaching of the

materials) for each content item, they carefully sequence the content material so as to

provide maximum positive transfer and to avoid interference from one learning to another.

Transfer theory is one of the most significant components of the cognitive approach.

There is a great amount of power to facilitate and propel learning through a wise

instructional use of transfer theory. The use of positive transfer influences the decisions of

the team as they sequence the content of the target language in two ways: First, they are

interested in using what the student already knows about language and communication as

an anchor for similar, yet different, learnings about the target language. Second, they wish

to sequence the introduction of content material whenever possible so that learning one

thing will facilitate the learning that follows. At the same time, they wish to avoid

sequences where learning will interfere with that which follows.

An example of transferring what is already well established in the cognitive structure

of the English speaking student toward facilitating the learning of Spanish, French and

German is easily recognized in the teaching of cultural contrasts in the use of tu and usted,

tu and vous or du and Sie. Students are first lead to recognize how this distinction is made

regularly in English even though two contrasting second person pronouns and verb forms

no longer exist. When Robert F. Maynor was a small child and introduced himself to

another child or an adult he said, "My name is Bobby." In French, German or Spanish this

gives consent to address that person with the familiar form* When his mother was upset

with him, she growled at him, "Robert Maynor, you come here." This formality,

indicative of displeasure on '.he part of the adult with the child, is expressed in the target

language by using the formal pronoun in place of the usual informal. When Robert

Maynor becomes an adult and introduces himself to a child or another adult, he says, "I am

Robert Maynor," indicating that their relationship is more formal and that the child or adult

stranger is expected to address him formally, equivalent to the use of the formal pronoun in

the target language. Robert Maynor is to appear in court. He asks Bill Smith, a lawyer

and good friend to handle the case for him. Bill Smith, who generally calls him Bob,

addresses him in court as "Mr. Maynor", indicating the shift from the usual informal mode

of address used with close friends to the formal when in social situations that require it.

And so the similarities between what is already known and what is to be learned are made

explicit so as to establish an anchoring relationship between that which is already firmly

fixed in the cognitive structure and that which is being learned.

The use of the subjunctive serves as another illustration of positive transfer from

English to the target language. The child is led from what he uses without hesitation in

English to what he must learn to use with even greater frequency in Spanish. The learner

has no trouble saying, "My teacher demands that I be here on time," an instance of the

subjunctive in the subjoined clause following a verb of influencing. He can be led to

extend this construction in more stilted English or even very unlikely constructions as "She

asks that I be here on time" or "She desires that I be here on time." Then, these are

explained to correspond to normal structures in Spanish where this usage is much more

consistent and frequent than in English.

The following is an example of the utilization of sequencing based on positive

transfer within the target language illustrated in Spanish. The days of the month are taught

sometime after mastery of ordinal numbers from "first" through "tenth". Then the student

is made aware that September through December were the seventh through the tenth

months in the old Roman calendar, hence, the similarity between septimo (seventh) and

septiembre, octavo (eighth) and octubre, noveno (ninth) and noviembie, and decimo

(tenth) and diciembre. Of course, unless the ordinal numbers are firmly planted in the

cognitive structure (well anchored) before this comparison is made, negative transfer is

likely to occur; that is, they interfere with rather than facilitate the learning of the months.

A common example of negative transfer or interference because of exposure to many

similar but different learning problems before the first ones have firmly anchored in the

cognitive structure is seen in the learning of many different but similar forms of a

complicated verb tense in the language. In Spanish, students are frequently required to

"learn" both regular and irregular forms of the preterit in one or two class sessions. In the

past some texts have gone so far as to present the morphology of both the preterit and the

imperfect, regular and irregular, along with their various contrastive uses in a single

chapter. The similarity of all the preterit verb forms is such that trying to learn them for

regular e and i verbs on the same day or the day following initial exposure to the forms for

regular & verbs, results in considerable interference or negative transfer. Then, in the

midst of this mental turmoil the student is exposed to irregular forms. Nothing has had

time to become firmly established in the cognitive structure, so everything is in flux,

without anchorage, an incoherent jumble. Retention is impossible since the original

degree of learning has not been satisfactory. No adequate distribution of practice hat; been

provided. Motivation deteriorates from lack of success. Only the most diligent student

achieves a certain level of success through rote learning techniques, which, according to

the cognitivist, and as demonstrated repeatedly to the classroom teacher, will result in a low

level of retention, not to mention achievement of any competent level of automaticity.

The authors provide for ample opportunity to learn one preterit form thoroughly

before a second one is introduced. Then the similarities between the two are used to effect

positive transfer. No irregular forms are presented until regular forms are mastered (or the

reverse procedure is followed if found through experimentation to be more effective). A

relatively small amount of class time is spent each day toward mastery of the preterit, but

the presentation and practice opportunities extend over several weeks. Through carefully

tested distribution of short but frequent practice periods a much higher degree of mastery is

achieved while actually using a smaller total amount of class time than in a more traditional

setting where all practice opportunities are massed over two or three class sessions mainly

devoted to the learning of preterit morphology.

So, according to Ausubel's cognitive model, all material is presented in a meaningful

way, that is, it is related to something the learner already has securely anchored in his

cognitive structure. Other important aspects of cognitive functioning are taken into

consideration to provide maximum learning and retention.

The student objectives are measured at frequent checkpoints. The authors compose

the tests that provide evidence that the objectives have been achieved. They take the

responsibility for writing materials that, when used properly by the teacher, enable the

learners to achieve the objectives. The materials are field tested in a variety of school

situations. When the materials are taught properly and students do not achieve the

objectives stated for them, the materials are reworked and field tested again, and this

procedure is repeated, until they become the means whereby students can be successful.

According to cognitive theory, learning that is meaningful is acquired when the

learner has the appropriate learning set, that is, when he has the necessary motivation to

learn. Therefore, the materials are developed with such variety as to afford interest to the

learners. Practice opportunities are provided at a level of difficulty that assures continual

success but with enough challenge to prevent boredom. Also, the materials are presented in

such a way as to enable the learner to know whether or not his responses are correct

immediately after he has made them. By having interesting material, being successful,

and knowing that they are successful immediately following each attempt, the student's

level of motivation is kept high.

The materials provide for active participation by all learners during all class time

devoted to the course. This active participation may be covert, that is, only mental; but it

will be continuous without lapses of non-attention caused by periods of inactivity, as

occurs, for example, when the teacher becomes tutorial, teaching to a single student rather

than leading the learning of the whole class.

Multiple approaches are provided for the presentation and practice of those learning

problems proven to be unsuccessfully handled by some students in group-learning

environments. This enables the teacher to prescribe alternate approaches according to the

most successful style of learning of particular individuals. But this need is far less than in

conventional classes because of meeting the commitment of making all material

meaningful to the learner from the first exposure.

A great variety of practice opportunities are provided according to the need dictated

by the complexity of the problem being learned. These practice opportunities are massed

initially so as to provide a sufficient degree of original learning. Then they are spaced at

ever-increasing intervals so as to maximize retention. Subsequent practice opportunities

gradually increase in difficulty according to the nature of the problem and the desired level

of pupil achievement. The intervals of practice are spaced at ever-increasing distances

from each other until field tests confirm a degree of learner mastery and retention that will

show little or no loss over the summer vacation period.

All material is purposefully kept alive, especially after formal tests, so that students

perform even better in relation to each objective at the end of the course than they do when

they are first tested on it. This practice following tests provides non-alerted practice

opportunities (non-alerted meaning that it is not announced to the students just what

problem in the language is being practiced). This enables the student to perform correctly

with a high degree of automaticity.

Rather than to expose the student on the first day of class to a majority of the sounds

of the target language in a dialog, the learning of pronunciation is carefully controlled.

The student first works with all the sounds in the target language that do not differ

significantly from those in English. To these are added only one or two foreign sounds

carefully selected so as not to interfere with each other. Several days of practice are pro-

vided before introducing another sound foreign to English phonology. In this gradual way

the entire phonological system of the target language is presented.

Almost simultaneously to the presentation of the new sounds, their latter

correspondences are presented so that students learn systematically what letters represent

which sounds and the reverse. The problems of interference (negative transfer) from

English are faced directly and "meaningfully" as simple learning problems. The minimal

pair technique is used to point out the problem in interference and to provide contrastive

practice towards its elimination.

This also provides the opportunity for the learner to write words almost from the

beginning, thus utilizing early this extremely helpful learning modality rather than

postponing it. Copying Is usually rote learning and rarely will have a place in the

cognitive approach. Most spelling practice is provided through dictation. This skill is

developed carefully so that students learn which sounds are consistently spelled by only a

single letter or combination of letters. From that point on, all of these sounds can be

spelled by ear, that is, when the student hears these sounds, he knows that there is only one

way to spell them. Those sounds that have alternate spellings that are governed by

consistent rules are learned so that they can also be spelled correctly when they are heard.

Students then learn that words containing any of the sounds that have two or more

spellings not governed by rules can only be guessed at when being spelled. Students need

to see the words containing these sounds in order to learn their spelling. But even in these

instances, highly frequent consistencies of spelling are learned through positive transfer

from base forms to derivatives and from the consistency in the spelling of affixes and most

cognates.

Listening comprehension practice is sequenced so as to assure success for the

student. At initial stages only vocabulary and structures that the student has nearly

mastered are used. The first recorded voices heard are those of clearly enunciating native

speakers whose normal speaking rate is slower than average. Building upon experiences

made successful by these precautions, listening comprehension skill is carefully developed

through gradual sequencing of increasingly more difficult material until the student

becomes proficient in comprehending a conversation between two fast-speaking natives

that includes unfamiliar vocabulary and structures, the meaning of which is understandable

from context.

The learning of vocabulary takes place in as meaningful a way as possible;

"meaningful" still refers to the attachability of new learnings to something already well

anchored in the cognitive structure. This is done through association, cognate recognition,

reference to already known vocabulary, base forms, learning of word groups in sets where

they are all related to the same topic or are instances of the same category, and in pairs

(synonyms, antonyms and associated pairs). Regularly spaced review opportunities are

provided so as to allow for an accumulation of vocabulary without problems in retention of

nor interference from earlier learned words. For the first two years, a substantial basic

vocabulary is kept alive in this manner and readily available for use by the student in all

four language skills. Some informal investigations give evidence that regular vocabulary

review of three minutes a day is sufficient exposure for most students to accumulate a

mastered vocabulary of over 500 words in a single semester.

Reading comprehension material is first very simple so as to assure success for the

student. Graduated sequencing toward material of increasing complexity is provided

much in the same way as for listening comprehension. This skill is developed along a

continuum that provides feedback so that the teacher is given the opportunity to know the

moment that students are not being successful in their reading. Diagnostic assessment

makes it possible for the teacher to ascertain problems the moment they arise, and steps are

provided for taking care of them. This technique, along with consistent mastery and

maximum retention of all learned material, especially vocabulary, assures success in

reading comprehension at more advanced levels of study. Cognitive strategies are

developed for acquiring from context the meaning of unknown words.

Reading and listening comprehension content is sustained carefully at the interest

level of most adolescents. Many topics aim at cultural contrasts between the native and

the target cultures. Particularly are included those topics known to evoke cultural shock.

Practice opportunities are carefully selected and built into the program so as to

provide feedback during most class activities as to how well students are progressing in

each area of learning. Alternate instructional strategies are readily available for the teacher

to use in the event the regular materials are not progressing with a satisfactory degree of

success with a given class of students.

Pre-tests are designed for use at the beginning of second, third and fourth level

language courses. These pre-tests provide a sampling of all learning problems in the

prerequisite courses. The teacher then learns at the beginning of the course exactly where

each student stands in his capabilities in the language and what he has available in his

cognitive structure to use as anchors for new learnings. Individual instructional units are

available for assignment to students who demonstrate deficiencies.

In-service training efforts in short summer sessions have not been sufficient to

develop more than a small portion of the potential instructional capability of the foreign

language teacher. Much more of this potential must be utilized in order to take sufficient

advantage of instructional materials based on a cognitive approach so as to decrease the

foreign language student mortality rate and assure success. The author team assumes the

responsibility of providing the means whereby the teacher can develop more of his

instructional potential.

Improvement in instruction seems most fittingly measured by the degree of success

of one's students. The best environment for practice toward this kind of improvement is

the classroom. The instructional materials will have built into them explanations of the

use of sound pedagogy at the exact point during instruction when a given theory is put into

practice. The teacher will be able to learn through following the guidance in the materials

and through carrying out the advocated instructional procedures. In this way a very

practical course in learning theory and methodology is provided within the materials, to be

studied before teaching and then immediately put into practice with the opportunity to

observe the results thereof.

The most recent aids to understarding and teaching the target language as provided

by the applied linguist are built into the materials in order to facilitate student learning.

Consequently, the teacher is provided with a thorough, up-to-date course in applied

linguistics merely from his normal instructional efforts.

The cognitive code-learning approach is characterized especially by less rigid

methodological boundaries. In fact, because of the emphasis on experimental procedures,

lack of bias, and openness to new discoveries that might improve his theory, the cognitivist

is in a position to be eclectically pragmatic. He is interested in acquiring an understanding

of cognition that not only explains learning behavior, but that also enables him to control

learning and predict the outcomes.

If the foreign language teacher accepts the goals of the cognitivist, he will seek to be

aware of and understand the learning process as it moves forward in each of his students.

His teaching will be diagnostic. He will constantly be striving to know how each student

is progressing and what decisions to make to continue to propel that student forward.

II. The cognitive function of the humanistic tradition

2.1 Contemporary methods of the humanistic tradition

Contemporary theories and methodologies have seen many innovative approaches

evolve, especially over recent years. Many notable linguists have worked towards

developing increasingly effective methods, by using various ‘teaching principles’.

The intention of each new method being to ‘progress’ and improve upon it’s

predecessor. However, this does not mean to suggest, previous methods should be

regarded as ineffective, therefore useless. Moreover, evolution is a response to the

changing ‘needs’ of a modern world, and for the very same reasons,

Total physical response was first invented by Dr. James Asher in the 60’s

and 70’s of the 20. century. Learning a foreign language by the TPR-method is

based on behaviouristic psychol- ogy. TPR students are supposed to learn as

children do when they learn their mother tongue. TPR is meant as a stimulus-

response action, like in the adult’s language adressed to children. This means the

teacher “showing” and “acting” what he has just said before, so that students

understand and internalize the vocabulary, like they did when they learned their

native tounge as their parents talked to them. Furthermore motivation and self-

confidence are increased, due to fast success in the student’s understatement and

oral skills. Ortner puts it as follows:

Anhand zahlreicher empirischer Untersuchungen versucht Asher

nachzuweisen, dass die direkte, physische Involviertheit, die er im sogenannten

Motorlernen für gegeben hält, zu einer besseren kurz- sowie langfristigen

Behaltensleistung und daher zu schnellerem L2 [the new language]- Erwerb führe.

Durch den Einsatz physischer Antworten werde zudem Stress abgebaut, die

Motivation und das Selbstvertrauen erhöhe sich.1

Basically, TPR consists of simple advices, which are given in the very

beginning of the course, and of complex actions, which are taught in the end. For

example in the beginning Students are taken by their teacher’s hand while he or

she gives the students the advice to for instance stand up, as the teacher himself

does the same together with the students. In slide-shows and on pictures the

context for the new vocabulary is presented. Simple advices consisting only of one

word are supposed to be extended at the moment the first one is understood. If it is

not understood it has to be repeated and their order has to be changed. It is possible

to build chains of actions, always taken for granted that the teacher does the new

action simultaneously with the students.

Those advices are to be repeated about ten times by the teacher followed by

the obligatory physical action. The first five times the students have to act

promptly after having received the advice, the following five times the action has

to happen a certain time later. After the first sequence of ten new orders students

have to pass a memory test. They have to react physically to the orders they have

learned until then.

Drama Method. According to Oldfather, West, White, and Wilmarth (1999,

p. 8), social constructivism is "a particular view of knowledge, a view of how we

come to know". In this view, "learning is constructed through interactions with

others, which take place within a specific socio-cultural context" (Oldfather et al.,

ibid.). The most significant base of social constructivism was laid down by

Vygotsky.

Vygotsky (1978) emphasized the importance of social interaction. He

suggested that a child has the potential to reach beyond her present level within a

certain zone, which is called the Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP). Vygotsky

believes that the process of development is dependent on social interaction, which

leads to cognitive development. A child needs to interact with adults and other

children who are more knowledgeable in order to grow. In other words, through

adult guidance and peer collaboration, a child can perform tasks which cannot be

achieved alone. Vygotosky claimed that optimal learning occurred in the ZDP.

EFL lessons, viewed from a Vygotskian perspective, should provide

collaboration, small group interaction, and work space for peer interaction. The

instructional design should be structured to promote student interaction and

collaboration. Thus the classroom can become a community of learning.

Scaffolding, a concept developed by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976), refers

to the process that "enables a child or novice to solve a task or achieve a goal that

would be beyond his unassisted efforts" (Wood et al., 1976, p. 90). Scaffolding is

said to be an effective way to promote learning in the ZDP. In scaffolding learners

get opportunities to extend their current skills and knowledge. Teachers must know

children's interests and simplify tasks so they are manageable and motivate

children to pursue the instructional goals.

Teaching language through drama is an attractive option because it gives a

context for listening and meaningful language production, forcing the learners to

use their language resources (Chauhan, 2004). Drama is an activity which

establishes human relationships and communication with others. A child performs

drama under teacher guidance and peer collaboration. Drama activity enables

children to work together in groups. That is, the Drama Method appears to promote

interaction in the ZDP and scaffolding (Wagner, 2002) when used appropriately.

Movies in EFL classes. Some researchers (e.g., Edasawa, Takeuchi, and

Nishizaki, 1989) have suggested movies can be a good motivator for English

learners. There have been many studies and reports on movies in EFL classrooms.

For example, Voller and Widdows (1993) show some guidelines of using movies

in EFL classrooms. Carter and Miyauchi (2005) explored socio-cultural motives

for using Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and suggested several ideas to

improve learners' socio-cultural knowledge. Most of the published studies have

focused on adults and adolescents. There have however been few studies on

movies in EFL classes for children. Children learning EFL probably are unable to

understand most the expressions in movies designed primarily for native English

speakers.

An old Chinese proverb says: “I have heard-I have forgotten, I have seen-

have remembered, I have done- I know”. Therefore, in foreign language, teaching

the main thing is to involve all the pupils in activities and exercises, but for it we

need some good planning principles. The two main problems between two daily

planning are variety and flexibility. Variety means involving pupils in a number of

different types of activities and introducing them to a wide selection of materials. It

means planning so that learning is interesting and never monotonous for pupils.

Flexibility comes when the teacher has to change the plan in particular situation. I

want to speak about some hints for lesson management.

Prepare more than you need. It is advisable to prepare an easy activity, ready

in case of extra time.

Make sure you’re aware of how the time is going relatively to your program.

Do not leave the home task to the last moment. At the end of the lesson, the

learner’s attention is at the lowest level and you may run out of time before you

finish explaining. Explain it earlier and then give a quick reminder at the end.

Write your homework on the blackboard.

If you have papers to distribute to a large class, do not try to give every paper

yourself to every student.

If you are doing group work, give instructions and make sure these are

understood before handing out materials.

I want to mention some types of the lessons that are more resentful in foreign

language teaching.

Fantasy lesson. Pupils sit in a circle, make up a story according to the theme,

and draw a picture to it.

Integral lesson. Pupils are given the words, which have been taken from

English dictionary and try to explain their meaning by finding synonyms or using

them in the context. This activity gives an opportunity to students to show their

skills in language learning.

In planning daily lessons, it is used different activities and exercises.

Zhaunbay Karaev’s level tasks are useful for arising interests in learning. It

consists of four levels:

1. Common (pupil’s) level.

At this stage, pupils are given simple and easy tasks, such as:

Fill in the missing letters: weat_er, wh_t, Brit_ in, We_nesday, etc.

These tasks vary according to the students’ level and they help to revise all

learned materials

2. Algorithmic level. At this stage, pupils do various tasks, which make

students to think a lot. These tasks may include the new grammar structures, which

has just been explained or it may be in the form of revising. It is prefered such

exercises as comparing and choosing the tense forms for 7th, 8th grades , making

up the sentences in Subjunctive Mood or changing direct speech into indirect

speech for 9th and 10th grades. There are some examples given below:

Past Perfect or Past Continuous?

Omar had written/ was writing when I came. Jane had cleaned/ was cleaning

the room by 6 o’clock. Victor said that he had translated/ was translating the article

at that time.

Past Perfect Passive or Past Continuous Passive?

The secretary announced that the letters had been written / were being written

at that moment.

The teacher informed that the dictations had been checked / were being

checked before the lesson started.

3. Creative level. It is the most interesting stage for pupils. This level gives

them to show their talents and abilities in poetry and drama. E.g. after reading the

text, I give to the pupils a task to make up a short poem according to the text they

have just read. In this case, I give them a structure to which they will refer:

_________________________________ fox,

_________________________________box.

_________________________________clever

_________________________________never.

Some of the pupils made up such poems: A red fox,

Was sitting in a box

It was so clever,

Eat hares never or

I have a fox,

It is a toy in the box.

I think it is very clever,

I will leave it alone never.

May be in some cases it will be alike more to nonsense than to poems, but it

helps a lot in practicing the vocabulary and grammar.

The last level is search level. It involves students into research works and

projects. For example, by finding the neutral words in the text a pupil may become

interested in the formation of neutral words, such as flight attendant instead of

stuardess, shop assistant instead of sales woman, so on. But this level can not be

done during the lesson, as it needs much time.

John Sores’ method of critical thinking is very useful in teaching foreign

language. I always use “Group strategy”, “Have learnt strategy” and Venn

diagram. Let us take one of the lessons from home reading. The text is about wild

animals, especially wolves.

1. “Group strategy”. What can you say when you hear the word “wild animal

wolf”?

2. Presenting the new words by means of pictures, translation, synonyms and

gestures.

3. Reading the text about the wolf. Answering questions.

4. “Have learnt” strategy. What did you know about wolves before reading

the text? What have you learnt from the text? What do you want know further?

What are you interested in?

There are some possible answers of pupils:

I know that wolves live in forests; they are meat-eating animal.

I have learnt from the text that wolves try not to attack the sheep of neighbor

farms.

I want to know about their habitat and ways of living, why they are called

“the sanitary of the nature”.

Then students draw a diagram about differences and similarities of wolves

and dogs.

Wolves Both Dogs

Grey Meat-eating Various

Wild Domestic

Sometimes giving them a task to make their own album of animals and plants.

They must write stories using the new words and word combinations. The result of

this task will astonish you because everyone tries to make his book or album better

than others do.

They will find a lot of new information and share it with their classmates.

These albums and books will help you next year in explaining this theme to the

next grade.

The next interesting activity for pupils is making a project work on the theme.

For example, in the sixth form the pupils had studied a unit connected with

education and schools. At the last lesson, they prepared the project “My Ideal

School”. They drew the pictures of their dream schools and wrote descriptions for

them. The result was exciting, though they were the sixth form pupils; they had so

big ideas and plans. Their dream schools were great and even I wanted to be

accepted to these schools as pupil or work at them as a teacher.

Children are our treasure, our future, and, we, teachers, must bring up them

with great sense of love for Mother-earth and nature. The great Kazakh scholar and

teacher Ahmet Baitursunov said: “The education must be given with up-bringing,

because the education given without up-bringing is dangerous for society”.

2.2 The Silent Way and Community language learning as the effective methods of

teaching foreign languages

he decade of 1970s was the decade when the audiolingualism era began to fade out

and the language teachers began to think of some alternatives. It was the decade when the

inspiration of the innovative methods for language teaching began to blossom. It was the

time when psychologists began to admit the existence of the affective and interpersonal

nature of all learning. This means that the importance of factors such as the cognitive and

affective ones in the second language learning has affected the new teaching methods.

Some people call those new teaching methods as the innovative and revolutionary

methods because they are compared to the Audiolingual and Grammar Translation

methodology that had been used before 1970s. According to Brown (2000:103) there are

five most popular methods of the 1970s, they are Community Language Learning,

Suggestopedia, The Silent Way, Total Physical Response and The Natural Approach.

The Silent Way is an approach to language teaching designed to enable students to

become independent, autonomous and responsible learners. It is part of a more general

pedagogical approach to teaching and learning created by Caleb Gattegno. It is

constructivist in nature, leading students to develop their own conceptual models of all the

aspects of the language. The best way of achieving this is to help students to be

experimental learners. The Silent Way allows this.

The main objective of a teacher using The Silent Way is to optimize the way students

exchange their time for experience. Gattegno considered this to be the basic principle

behind all education: "Living a life is changing time into experience."

The students are guided into using their inherent sense of what is coherent to develop

their own "inner criteria" of what is right in the new language. They are encouraged to use

all their mental powers to make connections between sounds and meanings in the target

language. In a Silent Way class, the students express their thoughts and feelings about

concrete situations created in the classroom by themselves or the teacher.

The approach is called The Silent Way because the teacher remains mainly silent, to

give students the space they need to learn to talk. In this approach, it is assumed that the

students' previous experience of learning from their mother tongue will contribute to

learning the new foreign language. The acquisition of the mother tongue brings awareness

of what language is and this is retained in second language learning. The awareness of

what language is includes the use of non-verbal components of language such as

intonation, melody, breathing, inflection, the convention of writing, and the combinations

of letters for different sounds. Rods, pictures, objects or situations are aids used for linking

sounds and meanings in The Silent Way.

- Caleb Gattegno based his whole pedagogical approach on several general

observations which therefore underlie The Silent Way

- Firstly, it is not because teachers teach that students learn. Therefore, if teachers

want to know what they should be doing in the classroom, they need to study learning and

the learners, and there is no better place to undertake such a study than on oneself as a

learner.

When Gattegno studied himself as a learner, he realised that only awareness can be

educated in humans. His approach is therefore based on producing awarenesses rather than

providing knowledge.

- When he studied other learners, he saw them to be strong, independent and gifted

people who bring to their learning their intelligence, a will, a need to know and a lifetime

of success in mastering challenges more formidable than any found in a classroom. He saw

this to be true whatever their age and even if they were perceived to be educationally

subnormal or psychologically 'damaged'. For an account of Gattegno working with such

learners, see John Caldwell Holt How Children Learn.

As a teacher, he saw that his way of being in the class and the activities he proposed

could either promote this state of being or undermine it. Many of the techniques used in

Silent Way classes grew out of this understanding, including the style of correction, and the

silence of the teacher -though it should be said that a teacher can be silent without being

mute. Simply, the teacher never models and doesn't give answers that students can find for

themselves.

Secondly, language is often described as a tool for communication. While it may

sometimes function this way, Gattegno observed that this is much less common than we

might imagine, since communication requires of speakers that they be sensitive to their

audience and able to express their ideas adequately, and of listeners that they be willing to

surrender to the message before responding. Working on this is largely outside the scope of

a language classroom. On the other hand, language is almost always a vehicle for

expression of thoughts and feelings, perceptions and opinions, and these can be worked on

very effectively by students with their teacher.

Thirdly, developing criteria is important to Gattegno's approach. To know is to have

developed criteria for what is right or wrong, what is acceptable or inacceptable, adequate

or inadequate. Developing criteria involves exploring the boundaries between the two. This

in turn means that making mistakes is an essential part of learning. When teachers

understand this because they have observed themselves living it in their own lives, they

will properly view mistakes by students as 'gifts to the class', in Gattegno's words. This

attitude towards mistakes frees the students to make bolder and more systematic

explorations of how the new language functions. As this process gathers pace, the teacher's

role becomes less that of an initiator, and more that of a source of instant and precise

feedback to students trying out the language.

- A fourth element which determines what teachers do in a Silent Way class is the fact

that knowledge never spontaneously becomes know-how. This is obvious when one is

learning to ski or to play the piano. It is skiing rather than learning the physics of turns or

the chemistry of snow which makes one a skier. And this is just as true when one is

learning a language. The only way to create a "know-how to speak the language" is to

speak the language.

Materials. The materials usually associated with Silent Way are in fact a set of tools

which allow teachers to apply Gattegno's theory of learning and his pedagogical theory -

the subordination of teaching to learning- in the field of foreign language teaching. The

tools invented by Caleb Gattegno are not the only possible set of tools for teachers working

in this field. Others can and indeed have been invented by teachers doing research in this

area.

Sound / color chart. This is a wall chart on which can be seen a certain number of

rectangles of different colours printed on a black background. Each colour represents a

phoneme of the language being studied. By using a pointer to touch a series of rectangles,

the teacher, without saying anything himself, can get the students to produce any utterance

in the language if they know the correspondence between the colours and the sounds, even

if they do not know the language.

Fidel . This is an expanded version of the Sound/Colour chart. It groups together all

the possible spellings for each colour, thus for each phoneme.

A set of colored Cuisenaire rods. For low level language classes, the teacher may use

Cuisenaire rods. The rods allow the teacher to construct non ambiguous situations which

are directly perceptible by all. They are easy to manipulate and can be used symbolically.

A green rod standing on the table can also be Mr. Green. They lend themselves as well to

the construction of plans of houses and furniture, towns and cities, stations… - However,

the most important aspect of using the rods is certainly the fact that when a situation is

created in front of the students, they know what the language to be used will mean before

the words are actually produced.

Word charts. These are charts of the same dimensions as the Sound/Colour chart and

the Fidel on which are printed the functional words of the language, written in colour.

Obviously, the colours are systematized, so that any one colour always represents the same

phoneme, whether it is on the Sound/Colour chart, the Fidel or the word charts. Since the

words are printed in colour, it is only necessary for someone to point to a word for the

(other) students to be able to read it, say it and write it.

A set of 10 wall pictures These are designed to expand vocabulary for low level

groups.

The pointer. This is one of the most important instruments in the teacher's arsenal

because it allows teaching to be based consciously and deliberately on the mental powers

of the students. It allows the teacher to link colours, graphemes or words together whilst

maintaining the ephemeral quality of the language. It is the students' mental activity which

maintains the different elements present within them and allows them to restitute what is

being worked on as a phonetic or linguistic unit having meaning.

Thus, each of the tools associated with Silent Way plays its part in allowing the

teacher to subordinate his teaching to the students' learning. Each tool exists in order to

allow the teacher to work in a pin-pointed way on the students as they work on the

language. Each exists for the express purpose of allowing the teacher to work on the

students' awareness in order to produce as many awarenesses as possible in the language

being studied. The tools correspond to the theory and stem directly from it.

No Silent Way lesson really resembles another, because the content depends on the

know-how "here and now" of learners who are "here and now."

A beginning or elementary lesson will start with working simultaneously on the basic

elements of the language: the sounds and prosody of the language and on the construction

of sentences. The materials described above will be frequently used. At first, the teacher

will propose situations for the students to respond to, but very quickly the students

themselves will invent new situations using the rods but also events in the classroom and

their own lives.

A recurrent pattern in low level Silent Way classes is the initial creation of a clear and

unambiguous situation using the rods. This allows the students to work on the challenge of

finding ways -as many as possible- of expressing the situation in the target language. The

teacher is active, proposing small changes so that the students can practise the language

generated, always scrupulously respecting the reality of what they see. They rapidly

become more and more curious about the language and begin to explore it actively,

proposing their own changes to find out whether they can say this or that, reinvesting what

they have discovered in new sentences. The teacher can then gradually hand over the

responsibility for the content of the course to the students, always furnishing the feedback

necessary for the learning process. The content of the course then becomes whatever the

students want it to be, usually an exploration of their own lives, their thoughts, feelings and

opinions.

In more advanced courses, the basic way of functioning remains the same. Although

the class might look quite different to an inexperienced observer, the students will be

exploring the language in the same spirit. The rods are seldom necessary and the word

charts are used much less frequently, since the students can usually find their own mistakes

once they become aware that there is a mistake to look for. The students will be invited to

talk to each other on any subject they wish. The lesson will be based on their mistakes -

"the gifts of the student to the class" as Gattegno liked to call them. The teacher will not

correct the mistakes, but help the students to do so themselves by encouraging them to

discuss the problem, and find other similar and/or contrasting examples.

Whatever the level, giving learners the opportunity to explore and capitalize on their

mistakes enables them to work both on the language and on their own functioning as

learners and encourages confidence and the expansion of their know-how. This is an

intrinsically interesting experience as is visible and audible in the intense involvement of

students in Silent Way classes. The fun students have in this type of class is not derived

from extraneous activities imported into language classrooms (games, songs, role-plays...)

but on the sheer pleasure of self discovery though the exercise of their mental capacities

(imagination, intuition, sensitivity, etc.) on the task of language learning itself.

The fun for the teachers is in having to "think on their feet" to see that their students

are constantly faced with do-able linguistic challenges in the "here and now".

The teacher's silence. Firstly, the teacher’s silence is a constant reminder that, in this

approach, the teacher’s role is not to transmit knowledge but to create situations in which

the students can build linguistic know-hows: pronunciation, syntax, morphology... all the

aspects that constitute being able to speak a language.

Secondly, the teacher’s silence forces him to reflect constantly on his own clarity, and

this changes the preparation of his class completely. The teacher always has to try to find

strictly non-ambiguous means of presenting each situation.

Thirdly, the teacher's silence allows him to keep his students in direct contact with the

unknown. It is the teacher's silence which allows the lesson to become an improvisation

played between the students and himself jointly as they advance. For the class to take place

at all, the teacher has to stay with the students wherever they happen to be, following them

in their exploration and working on their errors and mistakes as they are produced.

Community Language Learning. is considered to be an interesting method to discuss

because it was not designed by a language teacher, instead it was created by a counselor

who was also a therapist and a priest. The design of this method is based on a therapeutic

approach in order to facilitate the learners of a new language to enter their independence

and high level of trust in the target language. Since the counseling techniques are applied

on this method, it is also well-known by the name of Counseling Learning. The use of the

counseling techniques is based on the assumption that the counseling relationship without a

threat or unwanted force can create an optimum environment for the learners in learning a

target language.

Community Language Learning is a humanistic-oriented methodology which has

been getting a lot of attention recently and there are many people who call this

methodology as a humanistic approach to language learning. The term humanistic used

here refers to the mixture of all other emotions and feelings of learners in the teaching-

learning process which includes self-esteem and pride after their accomplishment in their

own efforts and the creation of the cooperation atmosphere in the classroom (Subiyakto,

1988:48). Now it is time to discuss the historical and theoretical background, followed by

the basic principles of Community Language Learning along with the ways to apply it in

real life and concluded by the positive and negative sides of this method.

Charles A. Curran was a specialist in the counseling program and a professor in

psychology in Logola University of Chicago, in the United States of America. He came up

with the idea to apply the concept of psychotherapy in the form of counseling to his

students soon after he was inspired by Carl Rogers. According to Brown (2000:103), Carl

Rogers has a way in viewing education that in order to facilitate learning so that each

individual in the group can be valued and prized appropriately, students and teacher should

join together. This is the main reason why Curran created a special method which is called

the Community Language Learning. In this method there are two roles that should be

played in the process of language teaching and learning. The first role is a counselor, which

is played by the teacher and the second role is the clients, which are played by the students.

There are other terms used to refer to the teacher’s role in this method. Besides using the

term counselor, the terms knower, counselor experts and counselor teachers exist as well.

This method is based on several theories. First of all, it is based on the idea that what

is actually learnt by a human being is generally in his cognitive and affective areas

(Subiyakto, 1988). It means that a learner gets all of the inputs from outside world through

his mind, which can be considered as his cognitive ability and also through his feelings,

which can be considered as his affective ability. Creating a learning atmosphere that

facilitates a learner to communicate and interact with others freely seems to be the best way

to maximize a learner’s cognitive ability as well as his affective ability.

The second theoretical base of this approach is quite similar to the first. According to

Pateda (1991:103) who quoted from Atmodarsono (1984:22) as an effort to learn a second

language, Community Language Learning is based on several factors in a learner’s mind

such as attitude, emotion and motivation. It is clear from this statement that this method is

dealing mostly with the internal factors of a language learner. Pateda (1991:103) also

mentions that this method is based on the interactional theory as well. It means that

language can be used by an individual as a mean to have an active interaction with others

in a community.

The next theoretical premise of this approach is basically directed to achieve the

personal needs of the individuals. It is confirmed by Tarigan (1989:232) that this approach

is based on a particular assumption saying that a person as an individual needs to have an

understanding and assistance from others to go through the process of achieving not only

their personal values but their personal goals as well.

Another assumption that has become the basis of this method is that Curran

emphazise that counseling and teaching should be integrated together (Hamied:1987:143).

It is because according to Curran, counseling is concerning with the self-insight and self-

awareness of an individual that can stimulate his personal growth, satisfaction and better

relationship with others, while teaching is exclusively concerning with intelectual learning

process therefore counseling and teaching should not be separated.

1. Basic Principles

There are five important principles in Community Language Learning according to

Stevick (1976:128-131) as quoted by Pateda (1991). Those principles are:

1. Language is a behavior of a learner that is directed towards others. The learner can

talk about things that make him interested and things that he has been experienced before.

2. A learner can learn a new behavior fast if he is not interupted. Therefore a leaner

as the client must have as many opportunities as possible to practice his language

knowledge without many interverence from the teacher as the counselor.

3. The counselor should give assistance the clients in using their language all the

time.

4. The counselor should give assistance in maintaining useful behavior by using

three suggested techniques, they are (1) give the chance to clients to talk much, (2) develop

the language productivity of the clients and (3) give the counseling and then make some

evaluations.

5. In preparing the materials, the counselor should choose the easy ones for both the

clients and counselor which are suitable for the level and goal to be accomplished.

Besides those basic principles above, Curran also has five stages in the learning and

teaching process. Several experts such as Tarigan (1989), Hamied (1987) and Pateda

(1991) have similarities in discussing these five stages while Subiyakto (1988) discusses

the same five stages with different terms and perspectives. The differences and similarities

of the five stages can be seen in the discussion below.

There is a brief explanation made by Hamied (1987) in his book about the five stages

of development in the teaching and learning process of the clients from Curran. Those

stages are:

1. The embryonic stage. In this stage therea is a total dependancy of the clients to

their counselor.

2. The self-assertion stage. In this stage the clients begin to show their independence

and try the language they learn.

3. The birth stage. In this third stage the clients speak independently although not

perfectly. In this stage they tend to get upset whenever they gets the unwanted assistance

from the knower.

4. The reversal stage. In this stage the clients feels safe and they are open to take

correction from others, they are now in the position to exchange the role play periodically

with the knower and they begin to elaborate the warmth and understanding with their

counselor.

5. The independence stage. In this stage interruption from the knower to correct the

clients’ mistakes is not done too often, instead it is only done to enrich and improve the

language style of the clients.

As quoted by Pateda (1991:107) from Dardjowidjojo (1987:186-189), Curran divides

the stages in the language acquisition into five main stages, which are:

1. The embryonic stage. In this stage the dependancy of the clients to their counselor

is nearly or even exactly 100%. The clients do not feel sure of their abilities when they face

their counselor or other people. The counselor’s role is to lose the clients’ anxiety so that

they feel confident to practice the language they are learning.

2. The self-assertion stage. In this stage the clients feel that they already have the

moral support from their friends. The clients begin to free themselves from the dependancy

to their counselor and start to practice the language they are learning to their friends by

using simple words, phrases and sentences.

3. The birth stage. In this third stage the clients lower the use of their first language

gradually. Since the clients are moving towards their independence, they still need some

help from their counselor although they do not realize it, the counselor needs to minimize

his assistance wisely.

4. The reversal stage. This stage refers to the stage where the clients and the counselor

are now in the level of trusting each other. It means that in this stage the clients feel that

now they have become more active and on the other hand they need the counselor to

correct their mistakes.

5. The independence stage. In this stage the client feel that they have master the

materials given by the counselor and they want to elaborate their knowledge by learning

the social and cultural aspects of the language they are learning.

There are also five other stages mentioned by Tarigan (1989) similar to the ones

mentioned by Pateda (1991) above. Those five stages are:

1. First stage. The first client builds sentences in his native language based on

whatever he wants to talk about to others in a group. The counselor then translates the

utterances in the target language and asks the first client to repeat the translation correctly.

The translation is recorded. The second client who wants to respond to the first client says

his sentences in his native language and again the counselor translates them into the target

language. This response is also recorded so in the end of the conversation all data has been

recorded. The script of the recorded data then can be used in the classroom as an input for

the analysis and exercise of the language.

2. The self-assertive stage. In this stage the clients try to say what they want to say

without the interference and constant assistance from the counselor.

3. The birth stage. This is the stage where the clients improve their independence

and freedom from e counselor and speak in the target language without the translation

from the counselor. The counselor gives the translation only when the clients ask for it.

4. The teenage stage or reversal stage. In this stage the clients have become strong

enough to take the corrective feedback from other clients or the counselor.

5. The independent stage. This stage is characterized by the interaction that flows

freely among the clients themselves and the counselor. Here everybody does the correction

work in stylistic areas for each other. In this stage, the level of trust is high and the clients

do not feel nervous or anxious anymore.

Subiyakto (1988:48-49) somehow has a different opinion about the five stages

existing in the learning and teaching process constructed by Curran. Those five stages are

as follows:

1. The stage of birth. In this stage the clients are nurtured in order to have feeling of

“safety” and feeling as “a member of the community”.

2. The stage of accomplishing independence. In this stage the clients learn more and

more through time and they get more experience. With more knowledge and experience

their ability increase as well and they become more independent from the counselor.

3. The stage of speaking freely. In this stage the clients begin to show their identity

by rejecting the unwanted advice and suggestions given by other people.

4. The stage of accepting the constructive criticism. In this stage the clients have

already had the self-confident and they are ready to take the constructive criticism from

others to improve their ability.

5. The stage of improving the language style and knowledge of the normal linguistic

forms. The clients begin to improve their language style in order to make it suitable for

certain situation and also more satisfying for themselves.

2. Application

There are several simple steps of Community Language Learning method that can be

applied in real life. Those simple steps are taken from Brown (2000:104), and they are

shown as follows:

1. The group of clients are seated in a circle with the counselor on the outside of the

circle. Thos clients first of all have to establish an interpersonal relationship and trust in

their native language. The clients may consist of complete beginners in the foreign

language.

2. When one of the clients wants to say something to the group or to an individual,

he say it in the native language.

3. The counselor translates the utterance back to the client in the target language.

4. The client repeats the translation as accurately as possible.

5. When another client responds in his native language, again the counselor

translates his utterance in the target language. This is done over and over again with other

clients who wants to speak.

6. If possible the conversation is taped for later listening, and at the end of each

session the clients try to get information about the new language.

7. The counselor may take a more directive role and explain certain linguistic

explanation rules.

The simple steps of Community Language Learning method that can be conducted in

real life taken from Brown (2000:104) above can be developed further as shown in the

work of Subiyakto (1988:49-50) below:

1. The group of students are limited from 5 to 10 people in order to get a more

effective teaching process. The students are asked to choose a topic based on the general

agreement among them. Once they are ready, they record their sentences or utterances one

by one.

2. After taping for 20 minutes, the teacher stops the activity and ask the students to

listen carefully and play the recorded sentences or utterances of the students.

3. After listening to the tape, the teacher stops the tape to give a chance to the

students to make some suggestions to improve the recorded sentences or utterances.

4. On the next meeting, the students are asked to listen to the record once again and

write down the transcription of the record together.

5. After reading the transcription written by the students, the teacher can determine

which language structures that should be learnt more thoroughly.

6. By using the sentences made by the students, the teacher can give the instruction to

change a form of sentence into another form of sentence, for example from statements into

questions. The teacher can also give other language exercises, for example making

sentences or utterances to invite special responds from the students.

There are also several complete stages of development shown by Charles A Curran

which are in accordance with the stages mentioned before (Tarigan, 1989:239-241). Those

complete stages are as follows:

1. The first stage. This is the stage where the clients still depend on the counselor

almost entirely.

a.. The client expresses what he wants to say only to the counselor in the native

language. Every member of the group listens to what he says but they are not involved in

it.

b. The counselor reflects the client’s ideas back to him in the target language, in a

simple way by using phrases that consist of five or six words.

c. The clients expresses his ideas in the target language and he will get the assistance

from the counselor when he makes a mistake or does not feel sure about a word or a

phrase. This is also called as the client’s maximum security stage.

2. The second stage.

a. The client expresses what he wants to say only to the counselor in the native

language. Every member of the group listens to what he says but they are not involved in

it.

b. The counselor walks around the group and begins to speak directly to the group

in the target language.

c. The counselor only give assistance to the client when he does not feel sure about

a word or a phrase. It is a sign of trust and positive expectation.

3. The third stage.

a. The client speaks directly to the group in the target language. This is a sign that

the group has acquired the ability to comprehend simple phrases.

b. The counselor only give assistance to the client when he does not feel sure about

a word or a phrase. It is a sign of bigger trust, independence and the view of the clients

towards the relationships among phrases, structures and ideas. Translation is given only

when a member of the group needs it.

4. The fourth stage.

a. The client now speaks more freely by using more complicated structures and

expressions in the target language. It is a sign that the group can understand what he says.

b. The counselor interferes directly especially in correcting complicated expressions

to make sure that the clients get satisfying improvement.

5. The fifth stages.

a. The client now speaks more freely by using more complicated structures and

expressions in the target language. It is a sign that the group can really comprehend what

he says.

b. The counselor interferes not only to correct the client’s mistakes but also to give

idioms and more beautiful construction.

c. In this stage, the clients may become the counselor for groups that are still in early

stages of the first, second and the third.

According to Stevick (1976:126) as quoted by Pateda (1991:104-105), there are two

main phases in applying the method of Community Language Learning. The two main

phases are the investment phase and the reflection phase. The description can be seen in the

following:

1. The investment phase. This phase refers to the effort of involving the clients with

the social interaction with others, for example the need to talk to someone else in a certain

community. It consists of five stages as shown below:

a. Stage 1. The client utters short sentences in his native language. The counselor

stands behind him, and translates the client’s utterances to target language. When the clien

makes a mistake, the counselor corrects him.

b. Stage 2. The client begins to utter the previous utterances that were used in his

native language by using the target language.

c. Stage 3. The client directly utters new sentences or utterances in the target

language. He only uses his native language when other clients need him to. In this stage,

making mistake is something that is inevitable.

d. Stage 4. The client utters his utterances or sentences in the target language and he

feels free from anxiety.

e. Stage 5. The clients are capable of using words and sentences in the target

langauge, the counselor gives additional vocabulary and guides them in using the basic

structure.

2. The reflection phase. This phase refers to the effort of doing some introspection to

see whether the clients have acquired and mastered the material and problems in the

language learning. It consists of three steps as shown beow:

a. Step 1. The client expresses his experience in his own words. The counselor listens

to what he says and he can say if he agrees or not to what the client says.

b. Step 2. The client’s utterances are played back with no pause.

c. Step 3. The client’s utterances are played back sentence by sentence. It is also

possible for those utterances to be written down on the whiteboard and the clients copy

them. Then every clients translates the sentences in the target language.

C. Strengths and Weaknesses

Just like any other methods in language teaching the Community Language Learning

method also has some strengths and weaknesses. Those strength and weaknesses are

summarized as follows:

1. Strengths of Community Language Learning

1. Since this method is a student-oriented method it can help students become

independent in doing their activities in the classroom.

2. Having a strong cooperation with other students in learning a target language can

help create a healthy atmosphere, reduce the low self-esteem of the slow learners and

increase the self-confident.

3. The students learn to communicate and use the cognitive knowledge from the

very beginning in order to practice the rules of the target language before they formulate

their individual sentences or utterances.

4. This method offers certain insights to teachers by reminding them to lower the

learners’ anxiety, to create as much supportive group as possible in the classroom, to allow

students to initiate language, and to show learners the autonomous learning as a

preparation to face the day when the teacher is no longer around to guide them.

5. Eventhough this method allows students to move according to their own speed,

the fast learners may push and help the slow ones.

6. This method allows students to identify themselves to language they are learning.

7. This method allows students to have the freedom and inisiative as much as they

want that makes this method as a unique and fascinating learning experience.

2. Weaknesses of Community Language Learning

1. In the beginning when the teacher uses a tape recorder as an audio instrument and

the students build their own sentences and utterances, the process can only go well if the

students have a certain knowledg about the structure and vocabulary of the target language.

If the teacher keeps on giving the translation of the students’ sentences, the presentation in

the classroom tend to be “translation presentation”.

2. The presentation of this method in the classroom is process-based and not

content-based which makes it difficult to build the outline of this method.

3. The possible fixed material to be used in all classrooms may be the instructions

given about the structure of the target language.

4. The recording process can create difficulties to those who are not familiar to the it

and may waste valuable time in doing it.

5. The new role of the teacher may cause a certain feeling of frustation to those who

do not get the teacher-student relationship that they expected before.

6. The evaluation test to see the progress that students have may be more

complicated to be done than in ordinary classroom that does not use this method.

7. The success of this method depends largely on the translation expertise of the

counselor. The counselor must not make any mistakes in doing the translation because if

certain aspects of language are mistranslated there could be a less effective understanding

of the target language.

Community Language Learning is a method which is basically concerning with the

internal aspects of the learners of a new language. In this method, in understanding what

the learners need in the classroom, the teacher must have a high sensitivity to be able to

identify the time when the clients need help in communicating their ideas and the time

when they need to do it on their own. Since the teacher has a role as a translator to guide

the learners on the early stages of this method, the teacher must have a good command of

the target language so that he can make necessary correction to the mistakes that the clients

do.

For those who are interested to apply this interesting method in their classrooms here

in our country, it may be a little difficult since this method not only takes more time and

energy but it also depends on the diversity of the culture and language as well as the clients

themselves. Inspite of that, the role-play in the classroom offered by this method still can

be applied in our country, the teacher may take the part as a counselor and the students as

the clients. As long as the teacher is less active than the learners the use of this method will

give a great advantage and a brand new wonderful learning experience to both the learners

and the teacher.

III. Practical assignments

3.1 Teaching grammar according to The Silent Way

I wish to present an innovative approach to teaching structures of a language to L2

learners. I contend that it is possible to teach any structure in any second language in such a

way that (1) there is no need to resort to metalinguistic vocabulary to explain how to

operate correctly in the new tongue (e.g. "noun," "prepositional," phrase," "do-support"),

and (2) the teacher need not speak at all. Rather, I suggest that grammatical meanings can

be made clear in perceptible situations which force the students to use the language

correctly and understand why they are doing so. Thus, my primary concern is not with

teaching grammar, but in how the students function.

I have found that all of the structures in English can be presented in unambiguous

situations using a set of colored rods and a word chart of necessary vocabulary. For this

paper I will limit myself to a discussion of how ESL students can acquire the articles "a"

and "the." These are often considered a fine point that even advanced students have

difficulty mastering, yet I know that the following lesson can be successfully grasped by

students with only a few hours' exposure to English.

In answer to the question, "Why teach structure at all?" I respond that students need

this kind of work if they are to function in the new language on a par with native speakers.

The vast majority of ESL students today would like to learn English well enough so that

they can exist alongside native speakers in schools and jobs without being penalized for

misuse of the language. To reach this state of attainment they must study the language

consciously.

Thus, when I present a linguistic situation such as the following, I want my students

to see it as native English speakers do, and act accordingly. In this exercise, then, the

students' responsibility is to perceive the situation and work on the appropriate language.

My responsibility is to make sure the meaning is clear, and to make sure the students work

properly. (I mention this last point because at times I have observed students who did not

know how to look very well-they trained their eyes on the teacher or a student sitting next

to the, rather than on the rods.)

I put a collection of colored rods someplace where they can be seen by everyone.

They may be lying in a shallow box that is tilted slightly, or they may stand up on a table or

desk. A sample collection would look like this:

In this lesson I am assuming that the students are familiar with the names of the

colors, the word "rod," and the imperative "take." They have most likely have also met the

words "a" and "the," although it is not necessary. On the wall is a chart with all of these

words located in random order. If I don't have a chart, I can easily write the words on the

board. Here is an example of this chart:

Miming, I convey to the students that I want them to tell me to take a red rod. I

listen to the students' output and work with what they say. If someone says, "Take a red

rod," I have the entire class listen to and repeat. My work can be done via gestures, so I do

not have to speak at all.

If no one says anything correctly, I work with a statement with errors in it. For

example, if I hear, "You take a rod red," I can stop the class, have the student repeat the

sentence while I put it, word by word, on the outstretched fingers of my right hand. "You"

is placed on my thumb, "take" on my index finger, "a" on my middle finger, "rod" on the

ring finger, and "red" on my pinky. When this has been established, I fold my thumb

down, indicating that the first word should be dropped. The student responds with, "Take a

rod red." Then I cross my last two fingers, to show a change in word order, and the student

says, "Take a red rod." At last we have a correct, working sentence. The class repeats the

sentence and I take a red rod.

I mime that the class should tell me to take a green rod. They say, "Take a green

rod," and I do. I point to a black, they say, "Take a black rod," and I do.

Then I point to the sole yellow rod. Many students will naturally say, "Take a

yellow rod." I shake my head "no" at this, which perhaps perplexes them. I let them try

again, making other guesses. If someone is right ("Take the yellow rod"), I indicate this

and have the rest of the class listen. If not, I go to the word chart, cover the word "a" with

one hand while pointing to "the" with the other. This should be sufficient for the students to

say, "Take the yellow rod," though some may still be perplexed. I then take the yellow rod.

The remaining rods look like this:

I have the students tell me to take a white rod. Some may be confused between

saying "a" or "the," but as a class we decide on "a". I point to a red rod and we do the same.

Next I point to the blue rod, and hope that some of the students will realize that it is time to

say, "Take the blue rod." I nod my head "yes" to them, shake my head "no" to the others.

As we continue to remove rods from the table, I work with the students who have

still not caught on to the rules of this game. Perhaps I stop all of the class from speaking,

while one confused student and I work alone. Usually this is enough not only to bring this

one student "into the light," but also the other uncertain ones who were just watching.

By the time we are through, it should be clear that "a" is used to indicate any one out

of a group of like objects, while "the" is used for something unique.

To test the students, and to provide practice, I can put up a new set of rods, and

repeat the exercise. If both the students and I have been doing our jobs correctly, this

second set should present no problems, and we can complete it easily. As well, if the

students are enjoying the activity, I can expand it by having them work on the distinction

between "Take two blue rods" and "Take the two red rods." Also, we can work on

sentences like "Take a blue rod and a white one; give the blue one to me and put the white

one back."

Since the class will continue to use the rods to learn other structures, additional

practice on the items just learned will naturally arise in subsequent lessons. Working with

rods can occur as a whole class activity, or in small groups. Perhaps the former is best for

provoking linguistic awareness, while the latter allows practice to gain facility.

The point of working in this way is to let students study the language analytically

while developing a synthetic feel for it. To my mind, this is not teaching grammar at all, it

is teaching students. The grammatical structures of English are something I must have

conscious knowledge of, yet foremost in my mind when I teach is that I must be in contact

with what the students are doing. The "model" lesson presented above can be modified

when working with a single ESL student in a class of native English speakers, or when

working with a group of mixed-level L2 learners. I liken teaching language to teaching

music - to be good at either, one must provide the right exercises based on the student's

needs at that moment.

3.2 Teaching vocabulary according to Community language learning

Curran was best known for his extensive studies on adult learning, and some of the

issues he tried to address were the threatening nature of a new learning situation to many

adult learners and the anxiety created when students feared making ‘fools’ of themselves.

THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND LEARNING

According to one of the student of Curran, the foreign language learner’s tasks are

‘to apprehend the sound system, assign fundamental meanings, and to construct a basic

grammar of the foreign language.

La Forge elaborates an alternative theory of language, which is referred to as

Language as Social Process.

‘Language is for communication. Language is for developing creative thinking.

Language is what you learn and share with others. Students should trust the learning

process, the teacher and the others.’

The CLL method does not just attempt to teach students how to use another

language communicatively, it also tries to encourage the students to take increasingly more

responsibility for their own learning, and to ’learn about their learning’ so to speak.

Learning in a defensive manner is considered to be very important, with teacher and

student regarding each other as a whole person where intellect and ability are not separated

from feeling.

The CLL view of learning is a holistic one, since ‘true’ human learning is both

cognitive and affective. This is termed ‘whole person learning’

Such learning takes place in a communicative situation where teachers and learner

are involved in ’an interaction….in which both experience a sense of their own

wholeness.’ Within this, the development of the learners relationship with the teacher is

central.

The process involves five stages of adaptation:

STAGE 1

The client is completely depended on the language counselor.

First, he expresses only to the counselor and in English what he wishes to say to the

group.

The counselor then reflects these ideas back to the client in the foreign language in a

mutual warm, accepting tone, in simple language in phrases of five or six words.

The client turns to the group and presents his ideas in the foreign language. If he

mispronounces or hesitates on a word or phrase, the counselor helps.

STAGE 2

1. Same as above

2. The client turns and begins to speak the foreign language directly to the group.

3.The counselor aids only as the client hesitates or turns for help. These small

independent steps are signs of positive confidents and hope.

STAGE 3

Client speaks directly to the group in the foreign language. This presumes the

client’s greater confidence, independence, and proportionate insight into the relationship of

phrases, grammar ,and ideas.

Translation is given only when a group member desires it.

STAGE 4

1.The client is now speaking freely and complexly in the foreign language,

presumes groups understanding.

2.The counselor directly intervenes in grammatical error, mispronunciation, or

where aid in complex expression is need.

STAGE 5

1. Same as stage 4

2. The counselor intervenes not only to offer correction but to add idioms and more

elegant constructions.

3. At this stage the client can become counselor to the group in stages 1,2,3.

A group of ideas concerning the psychological requirements for successful learning

are collected under the acronym ‘SARD’

S A R D

Security

Attention

Aggression

Retention

Reflection

Discrimination

CULTURE

Knowing the target culture is important to be successful in communication. Culture

is integrated with language. Social life style, art literature ,customs, habits should be learnt.

Culture is an integral part of language learning.

THE GOALS OF TEACHERS

They want their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively.

In addition to this, they want their students to learn about their own learning, to take

increasing responsibility for it and to learn how to learn from one another.

ROLES OF TEACHERS

In the early stages of learning, the teacher has a supportive role, providing target

language translations and a model for imitation on request of the student. The teacher ‘s

initial role is primarily that of a counselor.

The teacher skillfully understands and supports his students in their struggle to

master the target language.

The teacher monitors utterances, providing assistance if necessary.

The teacher can help them overcome negative feelings that might otherwise block

their learning.

The teacher says correctly what the student has said incorrectly.

The teacher is considered as a counselor- teacher.

ROLES OF STUDENTS

At the beginning, they depend on the teacher but later they don’t need a lot.

Learners become members of a community and learn through interaction with the

community.

Students are expected to listen attentively to the teacher, to freely provide meanings

they wish to express, to repeat target utterances without hesitation, to support fellow

members of the community, to report deep inner feelings and frustration as well as joy and

pleasure and to become counselors of other learners.

INTERACTIONS

The CLL method is neither student-centered nor teacher-centered but rather teacher-

student-centered. They are both decision makers in the class.

Building a relationship with and among the students is very important. In a trusting

relationship, their anxiety can be reduced and this helps students to stay open to the

learning process.

Students can learn from their interactions with each other as well as their interaction

with the teacher.

In later stages, interaction between student and teacher are characterized as self-

assertive (stage 2), resentful and indignant (stage 3), tolerant (stage 4), and independent

(stage 5)

Grammar and vocabulary are taught inductively.

MATERIALS

This activity allows learners to talk about whatever they want by saying it first in

their own language and then repeating after the counselor in the target language. In other

words, learners create their own materials.

In the early stages, Students generate the material since they decide what they want

to say.

Later on, the teacher might prepare specific materials or works.

Since a CLL course evolves from the interactions of the community, a textbook is

not considered a absolutely necessary component.

materials are developed as

course progresses and

teacher understands what students need and want to learn;

learning involves the whole person and

language is seen as more than just communication.

Community Language Teaching incorporates all components of language and helps

students with various learning styles;

-use of communication-based activities with authentic materials,

-needs of learner are taken into consideration when planning topics and objectives.

SYLLABUS

Community Language Learning does not use a conventional language syllabus,

which sets out in advance the grammar, vocabulary and other language items to be taught

and the order in which they will be covered. The progression is topic based, the learners

need to participate during the lesson.

In other words, the Community Language Learning Syllabus comes from

The interaction between the learner’s expressed communicative intentions and the

teacher’s reformulations of these into suitable target-language utterances.

Specific grammatical points, lexical patterns, and generalization are studied.

ROLE OF L1

The first few attempts at CLL work better with a monolingual class as the

instructions can be given in L1. It's important that the learners understand their and your

new roles in the language learning process.

Students' security is initially enhanced by using their native language. The purpose

of L1 is to provide a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Also, directions in class and

sessions during which students express their feelings are understood and conducted in their

L1.

Meaning is made clear in other ways, with pantomime, pictures, and the use of

target language synonyms, for example.

EVALUATION

In fact, although no particular mode of evaluation is prescribed in CLL method,

whatever evaluation is conducted should be in keeping with the principles of the method.

A teacher-made classroom test would be an integrative test rather than a discrete-

point test.

Students would be asked to write a paragraph or be given an oral interview rather

than being asked to answer a question which deals with only one point of language at a

time.

Teacher asks questions to assess gains in: Grammar Vocabulary Syntax

for self-evaluation.

Teacher enables students to look at their own learning and to become aware of their

own progress.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

First main goal of CLL is to help students about how to use the target language

communicatively.

Helping students about their own learning by taking increasing responsibility for it.

Helping students how to learn from one another

are other goals of CLL.

Non- defensive learning is the result when the teacher and the students treat each

other as a whole person.

The initial struggles with learning the new language are addressed by creating an

environment of mutual support, trust and understanding between both learner-clients and

the teacher-counselor.

ERROR CORRECTION

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

Teacher repeats correctly what student has said incorrectly without calling further

attention to the error and the owner of the error.

Techniques depend on where the students are in five-stage learning process,

but consistent with sustaining the relationship.

STUDENTS’ FEELINGS

Student’s feeling is very important in CLL;

1) Teacher asks how they feel about learning a foreign language. 2) Teacher helps

Students to overcome negative feelings.

3) Students’ security is provided (Teacher use Student’s L1,respecting time limits,

giving Students only language at a time, giving clear instructions, taking responsibility for

structuring activities)

SKILLS

At first, students create the material themselves as they decide what they want to say

in L2.

Then, as they feel more secure. Teacher can prepare a specific material or work

with published textbooks.

Grammar pronunciation and vocabulary are emphasized on the language students

have generated. The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at

the beginning with

reading & writing

TECNIQUES

1.Tape recording student conversation

( Recording student-generated language )

After each native language utterance or use of a gesture, the teacher translates what

the student say or acts out into the L2.The teacher gives the students the target language

translation in appropriate-sized chunks. Each chunk is recorded, giving students a final tape

recording with only the L2 on it.

After a conversation has been recorded, it can be replayed. Since the students had a

choice in what they want to say in original conversation, it is easier for them to associate

meaning with a particular L2 utterance.

Being able to remember the meaning of almost everything said in a first

conversation is motivating for learners. The recording can also be used to simply listen to

their voices in L2

2.Transcription

Teacher transcribes the student’s tape recorded target language conversation.

Students can copy the transcript after it was written on blackboard or teacher can provide

them with a copy

3.Reflection on experience

Giving students the opportunity to reflect on owe they felt about language learning

experience ….Their responses can encourage students to think about their unique

engagement with language, activities, teacher and other students strengthening their

independent learning.

4.Reflective listening

Students listen their own voices speaking target language on tape.

Teacher reads transcript when students listen.

Students mouth words when teacher reads transcript.

5.Human computer

Students choose same part of transcript to practice pronouncing. She is ‘in control’

of teacher when she tries to say the word or phrase. Teacher doesn’t correct errors but it is

through his/her consistent manner of repeating words clearly that they self corrects.

6.Small group task

Students learn from each other better and have more time to get practice in target

language. Moreover small groups provide students to know each other better. This can lead

to the development of a community among class members.

Questions about appropriateness of CLL and whether teachers should attempt

counseling without special training arouse. Other concerns have been expressed regarding

the lack of a syllabus, which makes objectives unclear and evaluation difficult to

accomplish and the focus on fluency rather than accuracy which may lead to inadequate

control of grammatical system of target language.

FOOTNOTES

1 Accountability in Education , ed. Leon M. Lessinger and Ralph W. Tyler. Worthington,

Ohio: Charles A. Jones Publishing Co., 1971, pp. 21, 22.

1 This address wcs published in the Modern Language Journal, 1965, 49, pp. 273-281.

2 For an informative discussion of this view, see Arthur W. Staats, "Verbal Habit-Families,

Concepts, and the Operant Conditioning of Word Classes," Psychological Review, 1962,

68, pp. 190-204.

3 For discussions of both views and a collection of experiments supporting each, see

Readings in the Psychology of Cognition, ed. Richard C. Anderson and David P. Ausubel.

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965.

4 "Adults versus Children in Second-language Learning: Psychological Considerations,"

Modern Language Journal, 1964, 48, pp. 420-424.

5 Kenneth Chastain, The Development of Modern-language Skills: Theory to Practice.

Philadelphia: The Center for Curriculum Development, Inc., 1971.

6 William E. Bull, Laurel A. Briscoe, Enrique E. Lamadrid, Carl Dellaccio and Margaret J.

Brown, Spanish for Communication. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972. This

instructional series contains a student text, daily lesson plans, workbook for individualizing

instruction, and various audiovisual aids. See especially the daily lesson plans and student

text.

8 Houghton Mifflin Company has contracted for the writing of a secondary French program

and a college Spanish program.

8 Theory and Problems of Adolescent Development . New York: Grune and Stratton,

1954.

10 Theory and Problems of Child Development . New York: Grune and Stratton, 1958.

10 New York: Grune and Stratton, 1963.

11 New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968. ibid., p. 94.

12