Climate Change in the English Language Classroom

 

Education about climate change is meant to raise awareness of this relevant issue and

foster creative solutions to it. The integration of material on climate change educates

students to deal with the effects of climate change and gives them the tools they need

to make positive changes towards a more sustainable way of living. Climate change

education goes beyond simply knowing how to adapt to changing weather patterns.

It entails broadening up attitude shifts on how climate change might be con-

trolled and addressing politicians on the need for immediate action to mitigate

climate change on both national and international levels.

 

Students must be knowledgeable about the impacts of climate change, how to

mitigate those impacts, and ways to lessen their own personal carbon footprint.

As such, Climate Change Education aids in strengthening the resilience of comm-

unities that are particularly at risk from climate change's negative impacts.

Incorporating key sustainable development issues like climate change, disaster

risk reduction, and others into education in a way that addresses the inter-

dependence of environmental sustainability, economic viability, and social

justice is central to the philosophy of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

Increasing 'climate literacy,' particularly among young people, and helping them

comprehend the impact of global warming is essential.

 

Why bring up climate change in the English classroom?

Education is now concerned about global development. The necessity to change

And deal with the unexpected has been more apparent than ever. Training the next

generation of global leaders to deal effectively with ambiguity and find workable

solutions to tomorrow's challenges is a necessity. The OECD (2018) suggests that

ecological, international, and sociological issues are most likely to be at the root

of such concerns in its study on the state of education in the future. Here is when

global warming comes in to play.

 

Issues like climate change require students to acquire a wide range of abilities

in addition to standard English language proficiency. Competencies such as

creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and cultural sensitivity are essential.

 As learning a language requires us to think and learn about a wide range of issues,

from family to space exploration, the language classroom is an appropriate space

for establishing this broad collection of competences, as shown by studies like those

 conducted by Tuzlukova et al. (2017) and Liddicoat (2018).

The question then becomes, how do we integrate climate change into our English

classrooms if we agree that (a) it is necessary to equip our students with the language,

 knowledge, and abilities to engage with climate change and (b) the language classroom

 is one area in which we can accomplish that? A good resource to look at is the Cambridge

Life Competencies Framework. We can break down the Social Responsibilities competency

 into its three main areas as follows:

Knowing one's place in a community and accepting accountability for one's actions

Demonstrating an awareness of other cultures

Insight into international problems

Incorporating work on climate change into students' curriculum strengthens these

fundamental areas while also preparing them to collaborate effectively in a more

interconnected and globalized environment. That means they will get an idea of

how they can help with the battle against climate change, how to accept personal

responsibility for their part in solving this global problem, and how to answer ques-

tions as, "What is climate change, and how does it relate to my own life?"

As awareness of climate change grows around the world, it is crucial to incorporate it

into our classes. Incorporating the development of life competences into our lessons is

most successful when it is paired with the acquisition of a linguistic competency. First of

all, we should pre-teach the vocabulary related to climate change before reading, listening,

 writing or speaking activities. The Cambridge English Corpus provides a wealth of data that

 can be mined for answers to these concerns. Some useful keywords that may aid our

students in discussing the concerns, such as climate and environment, come from an

analysis of a subcorpus of around 300,000 words of data with a climate-change subject.

Interestingly, carbon- and energy-related words, such as: decarbonisation, Net-zero,

zero-carbon, low-carbon. Second, put the students age in mind as activities and

teaching methods differ according to age range. Young learners need more

scaffolding.

Adults can create products. Third, remember Bloom Taxonomy while preparing your

lesson and think about how students will reach higher thinking skills.

 

Here are some helpful resources that can help teachers integrate climate change in their curriculum: 

Climate change resources | British Council

Climate change resources for schools | WWF

strange_weather-final-ning.pdf (state.gov)

How to turn your classroom green - BBC Teach

Resources for Teaching About Climate Change With The New York Times - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

For Educators – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet (nasa.gov)

27 Climate change English ESL worksheets pdf & doc (islcollective.com)

References

Liddicoat, A.J. (2018). Language teaching and learning as a transdisciplinary

endeavour: Multilingualism and epistemological diversity. AILA Review, 31 (1), 14-28.

OECD (2018). The future of education and skills: Education 2030. OECD.

Tuzlukova, V., Al Busaidi, S., & Burns, S. L. (2017). Critical thinking in the language

classroom: Teacher beliefs and methods. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences &

Humanities, 25 (2), 615-634.