Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning


Book Description

This unique volume utilizes the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework to illustrate successful integration of sustainability education in post-secondary foreign language (FL) learning. Showcasing a variety of approaches to using content-based instruction (CBI) in college-level courses, this text valuably demonstrates how topics relating to environmental, social, and cultural dimensions of sustainability can be integrated in FL curricula. Chapters draw on case studies from colleges throughout the US and consider theoretical and practical concerns relating to models of sustainability-based teaching and learning. Chapters present examples of project-, problem-, and task-based approaches, as well as field work, debate, and reflective pedagogies to enhance students’ awareness and engagement with sustainable development issues as they acquire a foreign language. Insights and recommendations apply across languages and highlight the potential contribution of FL learning to promote sustainability literacy amongst learners. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in Modern Foreign Languages, sustainability education, training, and leadership more broadly.




Language Sustainability in a Changing World


Book Description

This volume includes thirteen papers presented at the 16th Conference on British and American Studies held at Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania. It consists of three main parts, the first of which includes contributions falling within the scope of communication and meaning-making. The articles gathered here consider issues such as social identity and the construction of gender both in and through language, and the rendition of cultural content across languages. The second section takes a closer look at language in context: the contributions included here approach language as a means to encode and decode the reality around us, whether in media discourse, academic contexts, fictional literature or bilingual dictionaries. The research strand in the third part of the volume relates to the lexico-grammatical specificities of natural languages. The focus of attention here is Romanian, with some of its structural particularities set against those present in other languages.




Foreign Languages and Sustainability


Book Description

This article describes an interdisciplinary collaboration, which combined the study of German with instruction in environmental issues (sustainable development). The project, involving both an independent study and a classroom unit, allowed students to make connections between disciplines, establish contact with German-speaking communities outside the university, and make cultural and linguistic comparisons. By expanding the German-language content on the website, Appropedia.org, which is devoted to global sustainable development, students took an active role in learning by creating content that can be read and used by the global community of German speakers. This project provided a model for successful interdisciplinary instruction. The results of this study show that integrating environmental issues with foreign language study provides significant opportunities for students to increase their language proficiency, develop their understanding of concepts related to the environment, and become more involved in a global community through a virtual service-learning project.




Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment


Book Description

At a time when environmental humanities and sustainability studies are creating new opportunities for curricular innovation, this volume examines factors key to successful implementation of cross-curricular initiatives in language programs. Contributors discuss theoretical issues pertinent to combining sustainability studies with foreign languages, describe curricular models transferable to a range of instructional contexts, and introduce program structures supportive of teaching cultures and languages across the curriculum. Exploring the intersection of ecocritical theory, second language acquisition research, and disciplinary fields, these essays demonstrate ways in which progressive language departments are being reconceived as relevant and viable programs of cross-disciplinary studies. They provide an introduction to teaching sustainability and environmental humanities topics in language, literature, and culture courses as well as a wide range of resources for teachers and diverse stakeholders in areas related to foreign language education.




Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment


Book Description

At a time when environmental humanities and sustainability studies are creating new opportunities for curricular innovation, this volume examines factors key to successful implementation of cross-curricular initiatives in language programs. Contributors discuss theoretical issues pertinent to combining sustainability studies with foreign languages, describe curricular models transferable to a range of instructional contexts, and introduce program structures supportive of teaching cultures and languages across the curriculum. Exploring the intersection of ecocritical theory, second language acquisition research, and disciplinary fields, these essays demonstrate ways in which progressive language departments are being reconceived as relevant and viable programs of cross-disciplinary studies. They provide an introduction to teaching sustainability and environmental humanities topics in language, literature, and culture courses as well as a wide range of resources for teachers and diverse stakeholders in areas related to foreign language education.




Sustainability of Blended Language Learning Programs


Book Description

This book focuses on the investigation of the sustainability of technology integration in the context of language programs and is based on an 18-month longitudinal study of a blended EAP (English for Academic Purposes) language program situated within a university pathways course. The integration of technology into language teaching and learning in academic English programs often demands substantial investment in professional development, curriculum change, and technological resources. Given the intense effort required, sustainability of such efforts has gained importance, focus, and urgency. Situated in the context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs, this book frames, and investigates, the sustainability of technology integration through a series of case studies of specific technologies: tablet devices, a Learning Management System, and an interactive presentation app. The authors explore sustainable integration of technology; the use of argument-based approaches as a basis for research design; and participant ethnography as a form of data collection. The book concludes by looking at the implications of the research and proposes that change management concepts be applied to better introduce, implement, and most importantly, sustain change involving educational technology integration. The content will be of interest to scholars in TESOL and applied linguistics as well as professional language educators who will benefit from insights into sustaining technology integration in their programs.




Language and Sustainable Development


Book Description

This book addresses the importance of language in matters of sustainability and incorporating such concerns in implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable language policy must aim to include all groups, including language minorities and marginalized populations, such as refugees and aid recipients, in conditions that allow for their inclusion in making and implementing policy. The book brings together nine studies covering such topics as language and digital resources, sustainable and inclusive multilingual education, national language policy, and language in peacekeeping operations. A final chapter addresses the crucial intersection between sociolinguistics and economics, and the implications of this for development and the SDGs.




WorldCALL: Sustainability and Computer-Assisted Language Learning


Book Description

This volume focuses on computer- and digitally-assisted language learning in all of its forms: technology-enhanced language learning, network-based language learning, mobile-assisted language learning and so on, in close relation to the topic of sustainability. How can these technologies and techniques be implemented in a sustainable and repeatable way? The book covers a wide range of areas in terms of this "sustainability". These include: (1) education (teacher/learner training) (2) normalisation (integration) (3) systems (reliability, support, development) (4) mobility (mobile-assisted language leaning) (5) innovation (trends, research) The volume samples research and practice in CALL from around the world, organised into sections. It has an introduction and a conclusion written by the editors (Ana Gimeno, Mike Levy, Françoise Blin and David Barr) which covers the state of the art at the moment and directions it is likely to take in the future.




Language Sustainability in a Changing World


Book Description

This volume includes thirteen papers presented at the 16th Conference on British and American Studies held at Transilvania University of Brașov, Romania. It consists of three main parts, the first of which includes contributions falling within the scope of communication and meaning-making. The articles gathered here consider issues such as social identity and the construction of gender both in and through language, and the rendition of cultural content across languages. The second section takes a closer look at language in context: the contributions included here approach language as a means to encode and decode the reality around us, whether in media discourse, academic contexts, fictional literature or bilingual dictionaries. The research strand in the third part of the volume relates to the lexico-grammatical specificities of natural languages. The focus of attention here is Romanian, with some of its structural particularities set against those present in other languages.




Cultivating Sustainability in Language and Literature Pedagogy


Book Description

This book introduces the notion of "educational ecology" as a necessary and promising pedagogic principle for the teaching of Anglophone literatures and cultures in a time of climate change. Drawing on scholarship in the environmental humanities and practice-oriented research in education and literature pedagogy, chapters address the challenges of climate change and the demand for sustainability and environmental pedagogy from the specific perspective of literary and cultural studies and education, arguing that these perspectives constitute a crucial element of the transdisciplinary effort of "cultivating sustainability." The notion of an "educational ecology" takes full advantage of the necessarily dialogic and co-constitutive nature of sustainability-related pedagogical philosophy and practice while it retains the subject-specific focus of research and education in the humanities, centring on and excelling in critical thinking, perspective diversity, language and discourse awareness, and the literary and cultural constructions of meaning. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of language, literature and culture pedagogy, as well as transdisciplinary researchers in the environmental humanities.