In our final episode, we draw together some of the main themes of this series and explore how language learning and the climate crisis should not be looked at in isolation, but rather how they are related to wider social justice issues. Renowned language expert Suzanne Romaine discusses some of her recent research into language and sustainable development, and the links between the climate crisis and language death.

 In our second interview, we hear from Mike Solly about how the British Council’s practices and values are developing with regards to the climate crisis, and from Mariana Roccia who focuses on topics as diverse as ecotourism, ecowriting and ecolinguistics. Our final From the Field is a ‘vox pop special’, where we find out more from our listeners all around the world about language teacher initiatives to fight the climate crisis. Our last Green Glossary looks at two more words which we haven’t had the opportunity to look at elsewhere in the series, namely ‘greenwash’ and ‘morbique’.

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In episode 9 we explore how the global climate crisis is represented in English language textbooks.

From the practitioner side, the teacher, researcher and textbook writer George Jacobs explores how the climate crisis can successfully be integrated into language learning, so as to engage and inspire learners. From the publisher side, Andrew Robinson from National Geographic Learning and Angelica Manca from Hoopla Education talk about how their companies have responded to environmental challenges, both in terms of their own business practices, and in the kind of ELT books which they are publishing.

In From the Field, we hear from Sheena Adams, who has worked with a group of Inuvialuktun elders in Canada’s Northwest Territories to create a new vocabulary of renewable energy terminology so that they can more effectively talk about – and solve – some of the new challenges presented by the climate crisis.

In the penultimate Green Glossary, the team share some of their favourite climate-related words which we haven’t had a chance to discuss in the series so far.

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Anxiety about the climate is a serious and growing problem, in particular amongst young people.

In Episode 8, Caroline Hickman from the Climate Psychology Alliance explores this phenomenon. She discusses how eco anxiety emerges, how it can affect learning, how it can be managed, and how language can act as a ‘safe space’ where these anxieties can be addressed.

In From the Field, we hear from Malaika, an incredible school in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is doing all it can to be self-sufficient and to embed climate responsibility in everything that it does, and how this can create resilience.

The Green Glossary, meanwhile, focuses on the etymology of ‘fossil fuel’, and considers the process of ‘register shift’, that is, how the meaning of words can change over time.

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