Education For Sustainable Development In Foreign Language Learning

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.

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.

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.

This volume documents a sixteen-year longitudinal study of two elementary schools in which Spanish and Japanese foreign language programs were implemented and evaluated. Evaluation of the programs involved documenting children’s language development, assessing the attitudes of various constituents, and examining critical issues related to the introduction and successful operation of a well articulated sequential foreign language program in schools. The volume concludes with a discussion of possible reasons why over time certain sequential foreign language programs flourish and grow while other programs are reduced or eliminated from the school’s curriculum. Parallels with the theory and practice of environmental sustainable development are used as a framework for this analysis.

Academic Studies in Foreign Language Education

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.

A Transdisciplinary Approach to Chinese and Japanese Language Teaching illustrates how the transdisciplinary approach to second language acquisition (SLA) centers around collaboration to provide a learning-conducive environment with rich semiotic resources for second/foreign language learners. The volume consists of 14 chapters from leading experts in SLA and Chinese and Japanese language educators from Canada, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. As a first work of its kind, the contributions feature both theoretical interpretations of transdisciplinary concepts that can apply to Chinese/Japanese as a second language learning and case studies showcasing how college-level Chinese and Japanese language educators design and implement pedagogical projects in collaboration with partners across languages, disciplines, communities, and borders by adopting a transdisciplinary perspective to analyze students’ learning outcomes. This book will benefit researchers, administrators, educators, and teacher educators in higher education with an interest in world language education and interdisciplinary and project-based teaching.