Conceptualising transformative language teaching for sustainability and why it is needed

Abstract

This paper defines transformative language teaching for sustainability (TLS) and shows how contemporary, learner-oriented language teaching can foster important competencies and skills needed to reach the goals of education for sustainable development (ESD). The main aim of our approach is to integrate transformation-oriented ESD into language teaching in a way that considers and utilises the special features of language teaching and learning. We discuss the substantial possibilities that language education offers to ESD and propose a transformation-oriented ESD framework as the foundation for TLS, covering the linguistic and cultural features of sustainability that are central to language teaching and learning. Finally, we outline the pedagogical implications for TLS related to subject matter content and methods, that is, how language teachers can use learner-oriented language teaching methods to integrate ESD in their lessons. We propose a theory-based interdisciplinary model for the implementation of TLS in language education and language teacher education.

Keywords:

• Education for sustainable development
• sustainability
• language education
• language teacher education
• language teaching

Disclosure statement

The authors declare none.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Kone Foundation under Grant number 202006277.

Notes on contributors

Minna Maijala

Minna Maijala (PhD, EdD) is professor in language teaching and learning at the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku. Her areas of expertise include research on the teaching and learning of foreign languages, culture teaching, language teaching materials and their reception, language teacher education, and sustainability in language teaching and learning. She is the principal investigator of the project Ethical and Sustainable Language Teaching (EKKO), funded by Kone Foundation (Finland), which examines how the principles of ethics and sustainability can be promoted in language teaching and pre-service teacher education. Publications: https://www.utu.fi/en/people/minna-maijala

Niklas Gericke

Niklas Gericke (Phd) is professor in science education and director of the research center SMEER (Science, Mathematics and Engineering Education Research) at Karlstad University. He is also visiting professor at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. His main research interests are biology education and sustainability education. Much of his work relates to how the disciplinary knowledge is transformed into school knowledge and what impact these transformations have on teachers’ work and students’ understanding. He has published extensively on education for sustainable development from conceptual, teaching as well as implementation perspectives.

Salla-Riikka Kuusalu

Salla-Riikka Kuusalu (PhD) has her background in ecological research focusing on environmental effects related to various animal and plant species. She is a proficient English L2 and biology teacher, who is specialising in education for sustainable development. Currently she is a full-time project researcher in an interdisciplinary research project studying ethical and sustainable language teaching. Publications: https://www.utu.fi/en/people/salla-riikka-kuusalu

Leena Maria Heikkola

Leena Maria Heikkola (PhD) is adjunct professor (docent) in Finnish language, and she works as senior lecturer in speech and language pathology. Her research interests include clinical linguistics, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, second language learning, songs and music as a teaching method, ethical and sustainable language teaching, and linguistically responsive teaching. Publications: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/leena-maria-heikkola

Maarit Mutta

Maarit Mutta, Associate professor (PhD), has expertise in on-line foreign language writing processes and products of learners with multiple prior languages, especially the multilingual lexicon. She has worked with several language learning and teaching issues such as writing fluency, (in)formal learning, sustainability, and language awareness. Publications: https://www.utu.fi/en/people/maarit-mutta

Katja Mäntylä

Katja Mäntylä(PhD) is senior lecturer of English at the University of Jyväskylä. She is also a docent (adjunct professor) in English, specializing in vocabulary teaching. Her research focuses on different areas in second/foreign language learning and teaching: vocabulary learning, development of writing skills, multilingualism, and more recently learner and teacher beliefs. She has published in the above-mentioned areas and has also co-authored a book on thesis supervision.

Judi Rose

Judi Rose is a doctoral researcher in the Ethical and Sustainable Language Teaching (EKKO) project at the University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include social and linguistic sustainability as they relate to multilingualism. Her doctoral dissertation concerns the impact of heritage language literacy level on English reading comprehension and takes a look at the different reading comprehension strategies multilingual learners use when reading English texts. The EKKO research publications she has been involved in have covered teachers’ understandings of sustainable foreign and language teaching.