Emmanuelle Betham, M.Ed. (Applied Linguistics) is an Educator/Coach, Company Director, and author of An Introduction to Coaching for Language Learning (2018, Amazon Publishing), the I Realise series (2019-21, Amazon Publishing) and numerous articles on Education and Parenting. She is a native French speaker who specialises in Language and Communication (for Business, Family, Self-Management and Performance), facilitating Confidence, Resilience and Growth – including in the acquisition of English and French as Foreign Languages. Email: E.Betham@LanguageCommunicationCoaching.com

 

Introduction

When adopting a coaching approach in the ESL classroom, I have to be very careful with the language I use. I need to pay particular attention to avoiding loaded language in order to give my learners and myself the freedom and the power to think creatively. Loaded language, or rhetorical language, contains set, unchosen ideas and beliefs. It therefore tends to cloud and disable the critical mind. It is also likely to close the subject rather than stimulate thinking and open conversation. I will therefore avoid words such as ‘imminent’ or ‘catastrophe’ when I introduce the topic of Global Environmental Issues to my learners. This is not to say that I don’t personally believe that the Imminent Global Environmental Catastrophe is a real thing. It is just to say that I do not want to impose any views on my learners. Instead, I want to use ‘clean language’, an unbiased language, denuded of assumptions and sensations, to allow learners to shape their own thoughts, and ultimately choose what works best for them in any given situation (please refer to Coaching For Language Learning, E. Betham, 2018, chapter X.3, Seeing ‘what works’). This also does not mean that I cannot share my knowledge and beliefs with learners. I may choose to do so or not. But if I do, I will do it in a way that guides them to explore their own.

 

Process

Global Environmental Issues are a subject that is likely to interest and motivate learners, and fuel conversation in the classroom. It is a good opportunity to implement shared research (see Coaching For Language Learning, E. Betham, 2018, chapter V.5.), during which you can use your coaching skills. We all have coaching skills and we are all capable of using them unless we doubt ourselves or just refuse to. So, supposing you are willing and daring to try teaching less, this is a wonderful opportunity to coach and empower your learners. And here is one way you could do it:

First, suggest Global Environmental Issues as the theme for today’s discussion (if your learners have other priorities, you will want to address these first). Then, introduce the method you will use – described below – which is coaching compatible. Learners will be requested to do the following (individually or in pairs): 

1. Shared research

Learners will research what they can find and want to know about Global Environmental Issues. During this activity you, the teacher-coach, will be a research companion, helping learners find and access information sources, and helping them with emergent language so that they can understand what they read and/or listen to, and so that they can note relevant expressions.

You will want to help them find articles and videos from reputable sources. Here are a few: 

• International Panel on Climate Change: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf

• UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme): https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2022, NASA https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/139/video-global-warming-from-1880-to-2022/, 

• The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/climate/global-warming-ipcc-earth.html, 

• The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-crisis 

• The Economist: https://www.economist.com/climate-change 

• New Scientist: https://www.newscientist.com/search/?q=Global+warming+&sort=date_desc

• National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/topic/climate-change 

• The Royal Society: https://royalsociety.org/~/media/royal_society_content/policy/projects/climate-evidence-causes/climate-change-evidence-causes.pdf 

• Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/issues/climate-change-impacts/

• Recent Scholarly articles…

Learners may gather information from several sources or choose to focus on just one.
Relevant vocabulary will include the following:

• acid rain

• agricultural practices

• air quality/pollution

• biodiversity (loss of)

• climate change

• conservation

• consumerism

• deforestation

• endangered species

• environmental degradation

• extreme weather

• extinction

• fossil fuel consumption

• gas emissions

• global warming 

• global impact

• greenhouse effect 

• green technologies

• hole in the ozone layer

• habitat destruction

• industrialisation

• marine ecosystem depletion

• ocean acidification

• overfishing

• pollution

• resource depletion

• soil degradation

• sustainability

• tropical forest clearance

• urbanization and habitat fragmentation

• waste generation and management

• water pollution and contamination

Most of these words and phrases should come up during your learners’ research process, and if not, you may ask them to research any that did not. You could suggest that, throughout their research, they collectively collect all relevant vocabulary, on the whiteboard for example.

2. Report

To perform the exercise of reporting successfully, learners need to understand the difference between facts and interpretations (see Coaching For Language Learning, E. Betham, 2018, chapter X.1.). Grasping the difference between the two is crucial for the execution of this task, which is usually the most challenging one. When reporting, learners will re-tell in their own words the information they obtained from their source/s as facts. In other words, they will convey what was said, without analysing or critically explaining it. There should be absolutely no allowance for interpretations here; interpretations will be welcome in the next exercise.

3. Interpret 

Now, learners will be invited to give their opinions on what they previously reported, and they should ideally give real life examples to illustrate and back up their points of view. They will now take a critical stand and convey what resonated with them or not. Perhaps just as importantly, they might point out what they think was not talked about, or what relevant issues were not raised in their information source. They will, for example, explain how the information they obtained relates to what they already knew on the subject. They might share how concerned they are, or not, about a specific issue. They might voice what they think can or should be done about it, and by whom. 

In my experience, learners do not usually struggle with this part. However, it is crucial that you make sure that everyone’s view point is respected. Nobody needs to be right or wrong and everyone is entitled to think what they do, and to change their mind when they want.

4. Make a language bank

During the above activities, keep gathering relevant emergent language on the whiteboard or in another collective place.

5. Play language games with the language collected 

For example, ask your learners to write all the words and expressions recorded on the whiteboard on small pieces of paper and put them in a bowl or hat. Then, ask them to take turns to pull one out and describe it (without using the word itself) so that the other learners can guess it. This game allows learners to practice defining and putting each concept in context.

6. Make Pecha Kucha presentations

These presentations will be about your learners’ work, company, community or government’s action for, or lack of, or impact on, the environment. 

Pecha Kucha, meaning chit-chat in Japanese, is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. Each learner can use the internet to gather 20 pictures they would like to comment on and paste each picture onto 20 Power Point slides. No text should be written and no rehearsal is necessary before your learners give their presentations. These presentations are extremely short (just under 7 minutes in total) so not too daunting for learners, and they offer the reassuring support of pictures to remember and illustrate what learners want to say. They are a great way to practice natural speech and improvisation. In my experience, the learners’ biggest challenge here is to keep within the time limit.

7. Have fun swapping presentations

Once every learner has presented their 20 slides, invite them to swap presentations and comment on someone else’s slides in any way they want. If they don’t remember the information given by the original presenter, they may use their imagination and just make it up. This last activity usually generates laughter. Treating a serious subject does not mean we need to remain serious and shouldn’t enjoy learning.

In tackling the subject of Global Environmental Issues in this manner, your learners will be constantly and completely involved. You will have no direct role in informing or in inspiring them, as they will do that for themselves. Your role as a coach here is that of a research companion and a facilitator.

If the teacher in you has information on the subject that you would like to share with your learners, then it may work well for you to model what is expected of them in steps 1-7. It would be useful for you to demonstrate how to first report on your research, then interpret it by sharing your opinion. Meanwhile, you would highlight some relevant vocabulary and expressions. You may then show your learners how to participate in language games. You may exemplify a Pecha Kucha presentation by giving one yourself. However, be careful not to impose your opinion. Emphasize the facts that in task 2, you have chosen one source out of many, and in tasks 3 and 6, you are expressing your point of view, purely as an example of how to carry out the activity. Insist on the idea that all viewpoints are welcome, that nobody can get their opinion wrong, and that the nature of opinions is that they can change. So, invite learners to all listen to each other open-mindedly, and to honnor and enjoy differences as they would like-mindedness. This is an essential stance to adopt and a necessary skill to acquire as we strive to improve our world.
 

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