Bringing Communities into the KFL Classroom Through Community-Based Language Learning (CBLL)

Community-Based Language Learning (CBLL) is often associated with large-scale partnerships beyond the classroom, which can make its implementation appear resource-intensive and difficult to sustain. This article reconceptualizes CBLL as a scalable pedagogical framework that begins within students’ immediate academic communities and gradually extends to campus, local, and global contexts. Drawing on instructional examples across these four levels of community engagement, the study illustrates how CBLL can be meaningfully integrated into language curricula without requiring extensive external infrastructure. Central to this framework is the role of pedagogical mediation, particularly critical reflection, which enables learners to interpret community participation as a site of learning rather than as a peripheral activity. Through selected student cases, the article demonstrates how critically mediated CBLL experiences can foster learner agency, sustained community engagement, and the transfer of learning beyond formal instruction. Rather than directly assessing learning outcomes or linguistic gains, this study focuses on conceptualizing CBLL as a continuum of engagement and highlighting design principles that support its pedagogical feasibility. By emphasizing accessibility, intentional design, and reflection, this article offers language educators a flexible model for implementing CBLL across diverse instructional contexts.