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20230720T131520230720T1615Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language TeachingHybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Language students’ understanding of the significance of ecological, social, cultural and economic sustainability
Oral Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
The world has changed rapidly during the last decades, prompting language teachers to provide their students with multiple skills needed in the future (Kramsch 2014; Kubanyiova & Feryok 2015). The integration of sustainability education in language classes has become mandatory in many UN member countries through curricular changes, and this raises a need for research on how language students understand sustainability and its relevance in language education. Language students may find it challenging to find a connection between sustainability education and language learning and teaching, especially due to its interdisciplinary character (Abbonizio & Ho 2020). Prior research has shown that language students generally have a positive attitude toward sustainability, but they often lack professional training and skills to implement sustainability education in their future teacher profession (Sinakou, Boeve-de Pauw, Goossens & van Petegem 2018).
Language students' views provide valuable information for assessing the needs for developing language teacher education to meet the new requirements of sustainability education. This study analyses language students' understanding of the significance of sustainability dimensions and their sub-themes through a questionnaire conducted to 55 students at a Finnish University. The dimensions were introduced at the beginning of the questionnaire and under each dimension and the students had to decide on the priority order of sub-themes that varied from local to global in their scope. We investigated the order of priority the students organised the sub-themes into and the justifications they gave for these decisions. We also studied whether their justification differed between the four sustainability dimensions.
Our preliminary results show that there are clear differences between students in how they understand and prioritise different sustainability dimensions and their sub-themes. This should be taken into consideration when training teachers in sustainability education to provide language teachers with adequate skills to integrate it in their classes. Based on our results, it might be beneficial to incorporate a more holistic approach to sustainability in language education, which enables a better understanding of the interconnectedness of different sustainability dimensions and their sub-themes.
Abbonizio, J. K., & Ho, S. S. (2020). Students' perceptions of interdisciplinary coursework: An Australian case study of the master of environment and sustainability. Sustainability, 12(21), 8898.
Kramsch, C. (2014). Teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization: Introduction. The modern language journal, 98(1), 296-311.
Kubanyiova, M., & Feryok, A. (2015). Language teacher cognition in applied linguistics research: Revisiting the territory, redrawing the boundaries, reclaiming the relevance. The Modern Language Journal, 99(3), 435-449.
Sinakou, E., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Goossens, M., & Van Petegem, P. (2018). Academics in the field of Education for Sustainable Development: Their conceptions of sustainable development. Journal of cleaner production, 184, 321-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.279
Promoting sustainability through linguistic equity – pre-service language teachers’ beliefs on linguistically responsive teaching
Oral Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
During the last decades, migration has changed realities in schools world-wide. This has also been reflected in research on multilingualism, although most studies have been done in North America. To gain a wider understanding, other countries and contexts should be investigated. Finland presents an interesting context for two reasons. First, compared to many other European countries, the proportion of migrant background inhabitants in Finland is relatively low (7%, Statistics Finland, 2019). Second, as a response to the growing number of migrant-background children in Finnish schools, the current Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic education (EDUFI, 2016) is very progressive and promotes language awareness (van Lier, 2010). Language-awareness can be considered a key value within sustainability because it promotes equity and democracy. The language-aware approach can be understood as linguistically responsive teaching (LRT), which requires linguistic knowledge, as well as an understanding and willingness to interact and communicate responsibly (Lucas & Villegas, 2010). The aim of the study was to examine the beliefs and competences pre-service language teachers have in LRT and their skills to promote linguistic equity in education. These beliefs and competences were investigated through responses to an online survey including 35 Likert scale statements and several open-ended questions. 48 language students participated in the survey. The responses to the Likert scale statements were analyzed statistically. The students' responses were compared based on three dichotomous background variables: 1) teacher's pedagogical studies, 2) living abroad and 3) studying in another language besides Finnish. The responses to two open-ended questions regarding LRT were analyzed by using theory-driven content analysis. The study is part of the EKKO project (Ethically Sustainable Language Teaching).
Based on the results, the development of linguistically responsive pedagogy takes time. The pre-service teacher's pedagogical training lasting one year is not long enough to prepare future language teachers to holistically include linguistically responsiveness in their teaching. Living abroad and studying in other languages besides first language can develop language students' beliefs regarding linguistically responsive pedagogy and their understanding about how language can promote equity. Teacher education should focus on offering pre-service teachers more information and practical skills in the role of language in all teaching and learning and in promoting linguistic equity. Also, students' possibilities to study abroad and to study in other languages besides their first languages should be supported even more than is currently done.
van Lier, L. (2010). The ecology of language learning: Practice to theory, theory to to practice. Procedia – Social and behavioral sciences, 3, 2–6.
Lucas, T. & Villegas, A. M. (2010). The missing piece in teacher education: The preparation of linguistically responsive teachers. Yearbook of the national society for the study of education, 109(2): 297–318.
Statistics Finland (2019). Immigrants and integration. Available at stat.fi (24.6.2022)
Presenters Leena Maria Heikkola Senior Lecturer, Åbo Akademi UniversityMinna Maijala Professor, University Of Turku, Finland Co-authors
Addressing linguistic and social sustainability: English reading comprehension strategies among multilingual students with varied heritage language literacy levels
Oral Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
In today's world of migration and diaspora, linguistic and social sustainability are key factors in promoting social cohesion among linguistically diverse populations. The European Commission (EC, 2018) stresses the importance of developing multilingual pedagogies to address the diverse needs of multilingual children in schools. Finland has been a multilingual country for centuries, yet it seems that even today teachers uphold monolingual ideologies (Alisaari et al., 2019). This could lead to a situation where students are taught with a "one-size-fits-all" mentality. The premise behind the present study is that a one-size-fits-all mentality in teaching English reading comprehension (RC) does not address multilingual students' diverse language learning needs, nor does it represent the multilingual pedagogy referred to by the EC. Indeed, the Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014) emphasizes the importance of addressing students' individual learning needs and encouraging them to use different ways of learning English. However, there is little mention of how teachers should go about addressing those needs and encouraging students to find the best ways to learn English. The present study focuses on reading comprehension strategies (RCSs), because migrant students' literacy skills are especially weak compared to the country's non-migrant youth (PISA, 2018). RC and literacy in general are the building blocks for linguistic and social sustainability. This study, therefore, offers insight into the English RCSs of 77 students aged 13–14 with a migrant background. Their heritage language (HL) literacy level varies from complete non-literacy to being able to read at a level appropriate for their age. The data were collected using a combined and modified version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1989) and the Survey of Reading Strategies (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002); the mean and median scores were analyzed in SPSS. The questionnaire was supplemented with interviews of nine respondents, which were analyzed with NVivo. The results revealed that more active, purposeful strategy use is needed; closer focus should be given to helping individual students understand the importance of using RCSs and encouraging them to experiment with different strategies to find those most suitable. Also, they need more skills in applying prior language knowledge in English/foreign language RC. Addressing these issues has the potential to improve migrant students' overall literacy skills.
References Alisaari, Jenni, Leena Maria Heikkola, Nancy Commins, Emmanuel O. Acquah (2019). Monolingual ideologies confronting multilingual realities. Finnish teachers' beliefs about linguistic diversity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 80, 48–58. European Commission (2018).Council recommendation on improving the teaching and learning of languages (8.7.2022) Finnish National Board of Education (2016). Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014. Finnish National Board of Education Publications 2016:5. Mokhtari, Kouider and Ravi Sheorey (2002). Measuring ESL Students' Awareness of Learning Strategies. Journal of Developmental Education, 25(3), 2–10. Oxford, Rebecca (1989).Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Version 7.0 (ESL/EFL) (8.7.2022) PISA (2018).Ensituloksia. Suomi parhaiden joukossa. Finnish National Agency for Education (8.7.2022)
Educational linguistics and ecocriticism: environmental narratives for children and young people to promote sustainability
Oral Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
From a Discourse Analysis perspective, the popular notion of sustainable development is both anthropocentric and controversial as it implies the paradoxical idea that environment can be protected through technological, economic and social growth even if this is also the main cause of its degradation (Antelmi, 2018). Thus, due to this premise, we believe that Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (Leicht et al., 2018; UNESCO, 2017, 2020) should foster a more ecocentric idea of sustainability, where nature, culture and humans are conceived as interconnected elements belonging to the same ecosystem. Within this perspective, the aim of this paper is to show and discuss some of the results of my ongoing PhD project, whose purpose is to create a language education course, which employs children and young adults' literature to foster learners' ecoliteracy and environmental awareness, with a focus on the relationship between nature, language and culture. Departing from the wider scholarly field of environmental humanities, the study draws on the developing field of ecocriticism, and it is divided in two parts. The first consists in the initial construction and analysis of a corpus of texts for children and young adults through the use of both the Nature-in-Culture Matrix (Goga et al., 2018) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The main goal is to uncover the narratives and ideologies on nature and the human-nature relationship included in the chosen texts. The second part corresponds to the actual creation of a language education course for language teachers, based on the texts previously analysed and aimed at showing how children's literature and critical literacy can be used in language education as tools to educate for sustainability.
Abednia, A., & Crookes, G. V. (2019). Critical Literacy as a Pedagogical Goal in English Language Teaching. In X. Gao (A c. Di), Second Handbook of English Language Teaching (pagg. 255–275). Springer International Publishing. Antelmi, D. (2018). Verdi Parole. Un'analisi linguistica del discorso green. Mimesis-edizioni. Bonyadi, A. (2019). Discourse Analysis and Language Pedagogy: A Review. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability; Daugavpils, 21(1), 128–136. Goga, N., Guanio-Uluru, L., Hallås, B. O., & Nyrnes, A. (A c. Di). (2018). Ecocritical Perspectives on Children's Texts and Cultures: Nordic Dialogues. Palgrave Macmillan. Goga, N., & Pujol-Valls, M. (2020). Ecocritical Engagement with Picturebook through Literature Conversations about Beatrice Alemagne's On a Magical Do-Nothing Day. Sustainability, 12(18), 7653. Grilli, G. (2012). Libri nella giungla: Orientarsi nell'editoria per ragazzi. Carocci. Guanio-Uluru, L. (2019). Education for Sustainability: Developing Ecocritical Literature Circles in the Student Teacher Classroom. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 10(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2019-0002 Hayik, R. (2011). Critical visual analysis of multicultural sketches. English Teaching, 10(1). Leicht, A., Heiss, J., & Won, Y. B. (2018). Issues and trends in education for sustainable development. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000261445 Montano. (2020). La natura negli albi illustrati. Il Folletto. Speek, T. (2000). Environment in literature: Lawrence Buell's ecocritical perspective. Estonian Academy of Arts, 8, 160–171. UNESCO. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning objectives. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444 UNESCO. (2020). Education for sustainable development: A roadmap. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374802.locale=en
Presenters Monica Peluso PhD Student, Alma Mater Sudiorum - Università Di Bologna
Incorporating SDGs and beyond in an English for global citizens curriculum in an international liberal arts university in Japan
Poster Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
To address unprecedented challenges and collaborate to solve emerging issues in today's globalization, university students, as global citizen, are required to develop various skills including diverse cultural literacy, knowledge at a high international standard as well as critical thinking, problem solving and intercultural communication skills. English for global citizenship (EGC) is a four-credit language course required for sophomores in an international liberal arts department in a university in Tokyo. In this department, after completing this course, students choose their concentration from intercultural communication, global society and global health services. As one of the curriculum-designers since the department's establishment and a current lead curriculum coordinator, the author of this paper reflects on the process of incorporating sustainability in the EGC curriculum in the past eight years. The paper first reviews the program's theoretical background from a Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) perspective, how the course initially started back in 2015 by covering international English and intercultural communication based upon a principle of plurilingualism, and how the course gradually transformed by incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a principle connected to individual global module themes (e.g., peace and conflict, global warming, poverty, gender inequality). The paper then reports results of student feedback surveys conducted regularly in the curriculum to monitor student needs, ensure the quality of teaching and to develop the curriculum further. As one of the products of the course evaluation, the paper introduces recent initiatives of increasing opportunities for joint learning events (e.g., petition letters to world letters, poster presentations on action plans for 2030, refugee film festivals). Finally, this paper emphasizes the importance of teacher collaboration to put theories in practice. For example, to teach sustainability and global issues and content to build academic English skills in a CLIL-like language program, 10 to 12 teachers responsible for all 20-class section together created and updated in-house materials and meet for the curriculum regularly. In addition, a group of faculty members from different disciplines beyond language courses meet regularly to establish shared understanding of global citizen, international liberal arts and contents of individual courses. As implications, the paper suggests what language teachers could do when they incorporate sustainability into their teaching while meeting other requirements to cover academic language skills. The paper will also explore strategies to further develop the curriculum by overcoming some dilemmas to meet demand from the university to connect the content of each course with liberal arts education further to nurture humanity. At the same time, we are motivated to include corporate-levels' ESG initiatives to prepare students for future career. This paper concludes by discussing how teaching of sustainability at university language programs can enhance students to prepare for skills required in communications happening in this globalized world.
Ethical dialogue and well-being for sustainable development: Practicing Bohmian dialogue in ELF on a university English course
Oral Presentation[SYMP69] Sustainability in Language Teaching01:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/20 11:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/20 14:15:00 UTC
The events during the past few years have made it drastically clear that sustainable development cannot happen without a common agreement of values. The United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 with its 17 goals is an ethical statement which was adopted by all the Member States in 2015. The goals may work as guidelines but to transform the thinking in the world, education for sustainable development (ESD) is needed. Interaction through language is in a key role when humanity tries to solve the problems of the world. Language education has been awakening to sustainability education in various ways (Maijala et al., 2021). It has been acknowledged that there is a need to consider ethics and linguistic equality in ESD.
In this presentation, I will discuss and describe the potential of practicing Bohmian dialogue through English as a lingua franca to contribute to transformative learning and well-being (cf. UN Agenda 2030, goal 3) in the context of a higher education (HE) English course. Practicing ethical dialogue concepts in a shared foreign language may raise students' awareness of ethical communication and contribute to their well-being. This is needed when working for the ethical goals on the Agenda 2030. Without ethical communication and well-being reaching the goals of Agenda 2030 is difficult if not impossible.
I will report a theory-based content analysis of a reflection data collected from 100 students who took the course Dialogue: Constructive Talk at Work at Tampere University, Finland, in 2018-2020. Dialogue can be a way to promote well-being starting from the individual participating in ethical dialogue, thinking together, and becoming part of a whole (cf. Bohm, 1996; Kakkuri-Knuuttila, 2015). The course was based on David Bohm's (1996) and his followers' (e.g., Ellinor and Gerard, 1998; Isaacs, 1999) approach to dialogue. I will show how Bohm's holistic and ethical dialogue philosophy is in line with the Agenda 2030 goals and will report results from the content analysis of students' course reflections.
Raising awareness of ethical dialogue through English as the shared language, lingua franca, has potential to contribute to sustainable development in a way that could be considered in all language education. As dialogue skills are transferrable, the dialogue approach could have far-reaching effects in education.
References
Bohm, David (1996). On dialogue. Edited by Lee Nichol. London: Routledge. Ellinor, Linda & Glenna Gerard. (1998). Dialogue: Rediscover the transforming power of conversation. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Isaacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the art of thinking together. (First ed.) New York: Currency. Kakkuri-Knuuttila, Marja-Liisa (2015). Kaksi dialogimuotoa ja niiden eettinen merkitys [Two dialogue forms and their ethical significance]. Ajatus, Suomen Filosofisen Yhdistyksen Vuosikirja [ Philosophical Society of Finland Yearbook] 71. 203-260.
Minna Maijala
Maarit Mutta
Leena Maria Heikkola
Monica Peluso
Mirja Hämäläinen