Green Language Lessons Tips for you

Green Language Lessons Tips for you

Focus on the ‘Now’

Focussing on the ‘now’ is a great path to green language lessons. Is it April? Then it’s time for the Earth Day lesson. Is it December? It’s time for the lesson on Christmas trees. Are your students going to sit an English exam? Try a lesson on exam skills. Is urban air quality in the news? Try the lesson I Like Clean Air. In other words, keep environment-themed lessons related to what’s on people’s minds, don’t make it some abstract concept. A good place to start is Lessons by Topic.

Green Language Lessons: Take a Fresh Perspective

We all know the unit on the environment in the coursebook. Usually, there’s a picture of a polar bear, a drought, or a power station belching out smoke. Hardly a fresh and inspiring approach to the topic. You sense the writer of the book dreads the environment unit almost as much as the students! In the lesson Eco-tourism: Travel by Train, we focus on the environment from a fresh perspective: students learn about wonderful journeys you can do by train, and that leads to the focus on the environmental benefits (and the enjoyment) of travel by train rather than plane.

Localise and Personalise

Let us return to the image of the polar bear in the coursebook. Is it the best way to promote environmental concern in your teaching context? Find a topic that is important locally. From my own experience, students in Bulgaria are concerned about the destruction of the Black Sea coast by hotel developments, in Morocco the concern is desertification and in Hong Kong, it is the Pacific vortex, the great floating mass of rubbish in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Bring the local environment issue into your class, and your students will respond much more than a lesson about an environmental problem far away. Think global, but act local with this lesson on local transport for elementary learners!

Green Language Lessons that Focus on People

An environment lesson needs a human face. In my lesson Eco-Achievers, we focus on people doing great things for our natural heritage. I trust they are more relevant than some of the people featured in coursebooks (anyone remember the man who holds the world record for bouncing a ball on their head in the Intermediate Cutting Edge coursebook?). Show the people involved in environmental issues, whether they are those affected by the issue, or those working on a solution to the problem.

Positive and Empowering

Focus on the great things people can do in the fight against environmental degradation and climate change. In the section on shopping, you find lessons that focus on positive actions learners can take in their lives to make a difference. As one of the solutions is a disco powered by the jumping up and down of the dancers, it definitely puts the fun into eco-friendly living! In School Environment Audit young learners are empowered to audit their school and make recommendations on how it can be more environmentally friendly.

What’s the Language Point?

It’s easy to get carried off on a fascinating journey of discovery. The students may love it as much as you, and it’s all in English. Just imagine that it’s an observed lesson, and the observer will ask you at the end  ‘So what was the language aim?’ Make sure you can answer that question. It is an English language lesson in which the environment is the topic, after all! The article about teaching green issues with elementary learners helps you focus on appropriate language.

Make Green Language Lessons Interactive.

An environment lesson shouldn’t be just a lengthy reading on ecological destruction followed by comprehension questions, or listening to an expert talking about climate change. It should be active and communicative. Note the discussion section in the lesson Winter Bike to School and Work Day. It’s the most important part of the lesson.

Keep Learning

If you are a language teacher with an interest in bringing environmental issues into your classes, then you have an extremely useful and specialized skill. Keep developing it. Remember, many climate scientists probably couldn’t do what you do. You facilitate language learners from all walks of life to engage in a dialogue on sustainability and empower them to bring about change. If you found this article useful, then why not access more content like this by subscribing to the ELTsustainable newsletter?

How do you give your language lessons a green twist? If you have any ideas, share them in the comments or via the contact page!

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