About ELTsustainable

ELTsustainable was founded in 2012 and is run by Owain Llewellyn. Since then it has supported thousands of language teachers. Above all, it seeks to help teachers empower learners to engage in the international dialogue around sustainability in their language learning journey and beyond.

Who am I?

My name is Owain Llewellyn and I am an English language teacher and teacher trainer. In addition, I am also an environmentalist.

I studied English Literature. My passion is protecting the environment. For example, at university, I had many adventures taking part in direct action. I occupied oil company offices, took part in attempts to block construction of a bypass through a forest, and helped halt oil drilling in Cardigan Bay, Wales.

After that, I trained to be an English teacher and have since worked in Europe, North Africa, and Asia as a teacher and academic manager. In addition, I have completed my DELTA and am now working on my MA. A key moment in my career was 2012 when I created ELTsustainable website. As well as that I enjoy cycling with my family in my free time, especially travelling by bike ain new places and camping. Furthermore, as a language teacher, I believe the language teaching community can help overcome the climate crisis. This is because language teachers are in dialogue with millions of people on a global scale. As a result, they can help learners engage in the sustainability dialogue and the search for solutions both locally and globally.

Achievements

The achievements I am most proud of since starting ELTsustainable in 2012 are:

  • Being a member of the IATEFL Belfast 2022 plenary discussion panel
  • Writing 6 environment-themed lessons for the British Council MyClass and English Online courses
  • Creating the successful online teacher development course Language Teaching for the Planet
  • Writing Module 2 of the British Council online course Climate Action ELT which has been taken by thousands of teachers
  • Leading the ELTsustainable team of materials writers to create 10 high-quality language lessons focussing on environment topics for Green Standard Schools
  • Writing an article for the Cambridge University Press English Language Teaching Blog World of Better Learning Why does Sustainability Matter in the Language Classroom
  • Featuring in the British Council Podcast ‘The Climate Connection’ in an interview in episode 4 and mentions in episode 1
  • Delivering webinars for organisations such as ELT Footprint, English UK, TESOL Africa.
  • Presenting to state school teachers in Germany at the Bremen Ministry of Education training day on integrating environmental matters in language education
  • Writing lesson plans for the British Council myClass adult course myClass to showcase the COP26 climate summit
  • Featuring material on the Genial.ly page https://view.genial.ly/profile/alice_in_methodologyland

What can ELTsustainable do for you?

There are a number of ways in which ELTsustainable has helped people develop themselves and realise projects. Furthermore, we have worked on both large and small-scale activities. For instance, ELTsustainable can help you with the following:

  • Access to free lesson plans and activities on the website.
  • Opportunities for the professional development of you and your team by taking Language Teaching for the Planet online course.
  • Gain access to a pool of skilled and experienced materials developers to help you to create environment-themed language teaching materials for your organisation or project. For instancce, we have worked for the biggest names in language teaching and delivered high-quality materials to tight deadlines.
  • Source motivating conference and webinar presenters who focus on embedding environmental matters into the language classroom. Furthermore, sessions can be tailored to your needs.
  • Access qualified, skilled, and experienced online course and materials designers with a passion for environmental issues and language teaching.
  • Commission articles and blog posts on the intersectionality of language teaching and environmental matters.

What People Say …

Owain is fab. He was one of my MA students and his work is excellent. He was very early to the climate stuff and his time has come.

Gavin Dudeney

Owain and his team produced some outstanding lesson plans for us, covering a broad range of key environmental issues. We’ll definitely be back for more.

Jonathan Dykes, Green Standard Schools

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