1.

4 HUMANISM THEORY

The behaviourist theory of learning places prominence on repetition and the

stimulus- response model. The humanistic theory plays major importance on affective and
emotional factors. In this theory, an educator’s key responsibility is to create an environment
which students can do their own growing. Some methods of language teaching and learning
associated with the humanist tradition are Communicative Language Learning, developed by
Curran; The Silent Way developed by Gattegno and Suggestopedia started by Lazonov.
Language is a means of communication and beyond ‘speech’, ‘sign’, interaction’, and of
bringing ‘meaning’ into learning which is true for every learning context (Vygotsky, 1962,
1978, cited in Burden & Williams). Vygotsky and Feuerstein (Burden & Williams, 1997:40)
thought that substantial persons, termed as intermediary, can help choosing and moulding
students’ learning experience.

Significantly, Charles Curran, counsellor and educator cum priest developed the
Community Language Learning (CLL) method also called counselling learning. It has its origin
in Rogerian therapeutic counselling theory (Richards and Rogers, 2001:90; Sinclair, 2006). In
a distinctive CLL class, learners be seated in a circle. Standing outside the circle, the teacher
states them about the purpose and talk about their personal and linguistic problem while
students decide what they want to learn. In this content students decide the ‘curriculum’ and
the teacher act as a facilitator. This method is also regarded as a perfect treatment to develop
individuals in group situation (Lindsay, 2001:249).

Theories of humanism emphasizes the content of respect for student’s feelings.

Humanism considers the understanding of students inner thought and admits their variance
in interest, needs, experience and individual personality. According to Georgi Lozanov, the
originator of the Desuggestopedia method, the reason for our inefficiency is that “we set up
psychological barriers to learning: we fear that we will be unable to perform, that we will be
limited in our ability to learn, that we will fail” (Larsen- Freeman 2000:73).

In between that, developed by Caleb Gattegno, The Silent Way is a humanistic

approach to learning language based on cognitive theory (Brown & Lee, 2015). The method
is based on student finding with the teacher staying mainly silent. The teacher offers single
word or sentences provocations to prompt students if they struggle (Brown & Lee). Gattegno
applied Montessori theory to this method, basing the method on the fact that learning a
 second language is a natural process (Mocanu, 2012). Furthermore, Gattegno understood,
upon replication on himself as a learner, that a significant part of learning is making errors;
from errors, students learn what is right and incorrect and can improve from that point (Young,
2000).

Overview of Humanism in Language Teaching

Another vital contributor of humanism theory in language teaching and learning are
the two founding figures of humanistic psychology, which emerged as a reaction to
behaviourist claims of mechanical learning, whom are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. In
Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs, self-actualization was proposed as the ultimate and
highest level of human development (Williams and Burden, 1997). Self-actualization defined
as the realization of one’s full potentials and real qualities will not be achieved before lower-
order deficiency needs, which are directly related to the person’s biological or psychological
balance, are satisfied. Maslow recommends that everybody has a series of needs and these
needs can be organised into a hierarchy of priority. Once you have this information, you can
decide which need has to be satisfied in order to motivate your subject. Rogers, on the other
hand, as the founder of counselling psychology introduced experiential self-initiated learning
originating from inside the learner into the psychology of learning (Rogers, 1961). To him, a
precondition for learning to take place is that the subject of learning be relevant to the learner
and stimulate active participation of the learner.

To conclude, the humanistic approach places the students at the centre of the
learning process. Selection of learning activities, content and materials must take into account
the students’ affective domain. Generally, learners are allowed to set their own goals and
follow their own pace. Experiential learning apparently encouraged as personal involvement,
stimulation of feelings and thinking, self-initiation and self-evaluation are increased.

REFERENCES:

Khatib, M., Sarem, S. N., & Hamidi, H. (2013). Humanistic Education: Concerns, Implications
and Applications. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(1). doi:
10.4304/jltr.4.1.45-51

Maslow, A. H., & Frager, R. (1987). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row.
Rahman, M. (2013). ‘ Humanistic Approaches’ to Language Teaching: from Theory to
Practice. Stamford Journal of English, 4, 77–110. doi: 10.3329/sje.v4i0.13491

Chitravelu, N., Sithamparam, S., & Teh, S. C. (2005). Elt methodology: principles and practice.
Shah Alam: Penerbit Fajar Bakti.