Delta Publishing/ Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH

pp 191

2024

This is a welcome addition to the growing number of resources making it possible for language teachers to incorporate environmental awareness and action into their everyday practice. It has been slow in coming to ELT but there now seems to be a groundswell of initiatives recognising and promoting green issues. 

One of the earliest initiatives was the JALT (Japan Association of Language Teachers) founding of GILE (Global Issues in Language Education) special interest group:  http://gilesig.org, by Kip Cates some 30 years ago.  And the GILE newsletter is still a great source for information and ideas.  

IATEFL announced its commitment to Eco-education at the Brighton conference in 2024 and we look forward to a progress report at the 2025 conference in Edinburgh.  IATEFL’s incoming President, Christopher Graham, is a lifelong eco-activist, with the website ELT Footprint (https://eltfootprint.org/ ) and his recent book 50 Ways to be a Greener Teacher (2022).  

The British Council had earlier published a book on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Maley and Peachey, 2017).   And freely-downloadable books such as Sue Robbins’ Develop Your English (2022) have also appeared.  HLT Mag opened a new section on Eco-Issues in 2024.  And there is now an organisation for accrediting schools with a green agenda, founded by Jonathan Dykes: Green Standard Schools (https://greenstandardschools.org/ ).  

There have also been increasing numbers of articles and conference presentations on Eco-issues in recent years (Maley 2022), while teacher training courses on green issues have been offered by a range of schools, including NILE and The Bridge (Bratislava).   And last but not least, Harry himself has been a tireless advocate for the green cause with Renewable English (https://renewableenglish.com/ ) and Green Action (https://green-action-elt.uk/ ).  This book distils much of his earlier work and presents it in a single teachable format.

So, what does Activities for a Greener Mindset look like?

It consists of an Introduction followed by seven teaching Units.  The Introduction argues for making environmental education an integral part of language learning. He is critical of the rather bland and negative attempts to pay lip-service to such issues in many existing published course materials. ‘They tend to be overly negative, irrelevant to the students’ lives, and fail to address the significant emotional toll that climate change can have.’ (p7)  So the book offers ‘… practical, engaging activities that not only educate but also empower students to take meaningful action and stay positive in the face of climate challenges.’ (p7)  He cites research on environmental education and links this to specific examples in the book.  Likewise for sections on Improving ecological literacy and behavioural change; The cognitive benefits of learning in nature; The Impact of creative learning and Climate mental health: Understanding and addressing the emotional impact of climate change.  He also refers users to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are linked to every unit in the book.

These are the seven units:

1. Micro-strategies and tools offers some simple, quick activities which can be used as part of any lesson.  For example: Snowball pledges, where students commit to an eco-friendly action.

2. Planting the seeds of change comprises 5 activities related to the benefits of involvement with growing plants in the classroom.  For example, 2a Choosing your plant.

3. Sustainable behaviours sets out 5 activities involving sustainability awareness – and action.  For example, 3c Waste not, want not, focussing on awareness of waste and developing actions to reduce it.

4. Ecology and ecosystems offers 5 activities designed to foster understanding of the inter-relatedness of everything in our environment.  For example, 4a A mindful walk, where students take part in a nature walk focussed on noticing and reflecting on natural features.

5. The plastic problem sets out 5 activities to collect data and organise activities related to the scourge of plastic.  For example, 5a The big plastic audit, where students make an audit of all forms of plastic used by the school. 

6. Harnessing big climate emotions sets out 5 activities designed to deal with the negative emotions provoked by eco-anxiety.  For example, 6c Common causes of big climate emotions, which helps raise students’ awareness of eco-anxiety and helps them to confront it. 

7. Becoming changemakers lays out 5 activities designed to prepare students to take on active campaigning roles in dealing with the climate crisis.  For example, 7c Social media campaign, where students develop a campaign for the integration of climate crisis education across all school subjects.

Each unit in the book has an identical structure:

• A brief overview of the purpose and content of the Unit.

• Key concepts involved.

• The activity itself:  

About the activity (Green Goals, Language Goals, Communication Goals, Summary of the activity)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

How to run the activity (Preparation Procedure, Language levels, Differentiation, Alternative ideas, Extension ideas, Adaptation for the virtual classroom.)

The text or input material plus worksheets etc.

 

Comments

The book is clearly a significant and valuable resource for teachers seeking to integrate eco-issues into language education.  

Particular positive points to note include:

Active involvement.  The fact that the units involve students in hands-on activities, not just receiving passive information remote from their daily reality, is likely to boost motivation as well as encouraging a more committed mind-set.

The promotion of action orientation, as well as a language learning purpose – within the school, the community and the wider world – is also to be welcomed.

The integration of green issues, language learning activities and broader social issues demonstrates that eco-issues are relevant to students’ lives both outside the classroom as well as in.

The Differentiation section offers valuable support and guidance in helping teachers address the mixed levels of students – and of those with special needs. 

Particularly interesting is the author’s concern for student well-being to counter eco-anxiety.  The book makes the case for the need to offer encouragement and to develop positive attitudes, and offers activities to develop them. 

The referencing of every unit to the SDGs helps give a structure the book can call upon, as well as raising awareness of the SDGs themselves.

There is also a laudable attempt to integrate AI as a helpful tool where appropriate.  Given the current slightly confused debate about the value of AI in education, this pragmatic approach is refreshing. 

I have two suggestions if there is to be a second edition of the book: 

~ It might be worth reassuring teachers that they do not have to learn to use a whole raft of new teaching techniques.  The actual techniques do not need to change – all the methodological activities can be applied.  What does change is the content – and the manner in which it is dealt with.

~ I think there is a design issue.  Each unit contains large blocks of detailed content very densely packed on the page.  This might discourage some teachers from using it.  The page formats could be slightly re-designed so as to leave more white space to allow the text to breathe.

However, overall it is heartening to add this remarkably well-conceived book to the growing resources available to teachers wishing to integrate eco-issues into their language teaching practice.  It should certainly be part of any teacher training course.

 

References

Graham, C. (2022) 50 Ways to be a Greener Teacher.  Wayzgoose Press.

Maley, A. (2022) Language Teachers as Eco-activists: From talking the talk to walking the walk.    Journal of World Languages. Vol 8, Issue 2.  2022.  https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jwl-2022-0005/html?lang=en 

Maley,A. & Peachey, N. (2017)  Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  British Council.

Robbins, S. (2024)   Develop Your English: with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  Open Press at University of Sussex.  https://openpress.sussex.ac.uk/developyourenglish/

 

Please check the Pilgrims in Segovia Teacher Training courses 2025 at Pilgrims website.

Please check the Pilgrims f2f courses at Pilgrims website.