The Climate Connection - Episode 3: Language recycling

Download the third episode, show notes and transcript from our podcast series 'The Climate Connection'.

Close up of hands holding shredded paper

The Climate Connection series overview

The Climate Connection is a ten-part podcast series from the British Council which explores the relationship between the climate crisis and language education.

Across the ten episodes, we’ll hear from a wide range of leading practitioners working in the sector – teachers, trainers, researchers, publishers and authors. We’ll travel from Colombia to China, Moldova to Mali, and Palestine to Poland in our quest to share what’s happening at the cutting edge of climate action in language education.

In partnership with the Oxford English Dictionary, we’ll also learn more about the origins of climate-related language, in both English and other languages. 

Episode 3 overview - Language recycling

Our attention in Episode 3 turns to the classroom, exploring what teaching and learning methods can effectively address the climate crisis. Scott Thornbury charts the history of ‘green pedagogy’, discussing what kind of teaching approaches are not only effective for language teaching, but are also climate positive.

The importance of the outside world inside the classroom is also the theme of From the Field, where we visit Voice in Nature English. This school, situated in China’s Yunnan province, inspires its students to use the natural world as a stimulus for language learning. In our second interview, Kieran Donaghy investigates the use of the visual in climate-related ELT materials, and Ceri Jones talks more generally about how ELT Footprint are trying to mainstream climate messages in language teaching. The Green Glossary focuses on the word ‘ecocide’, which has a longer history than you might imagine, and how prefixes and suffixes can be used for language awareness and development.

Show notes

Each episode contains downloadable show notes. These include the following:

  • Information about the interviewees and the 'From the field' section of the podcast,
  • The 'Green glossary', kindly provided by Oxford University Press, with links to definitions of key vocabulary in the Oxford English Dictionary
  • Ideas for how you could use the podcast in your teaching
  • Bonus material

How to listen or subscribe to the podcast

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast in the following ways:

  1. Download the episode below
  2. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts - just search for 'The Climate Connection' and subscribe, or paste the RSS feed URL below in to your podcast platform:
    https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-climate-connection/
  3. Listen on Apple Podcasts
  4. Listen on Google Podcasts
  5. Listen on Spotify

This episode is produced for the British Council by Chris Sowton and Kris Dyer

See other episodes in this series

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight