Spring 2026 Webinar Series Recordings: Sustainability in Language Education

 

Sustainability in Language Education: Research-Based Curricula and Practices

Drawing on current research and classroom-based practice, this webinar series showcases approaches that connect language learning with ecological awareness, social responsibility, and global citizenship. Sessions explore ecolinguistics as a framework for promoting ecological wellbeing and sustainability, strategies for making sustainability topics accessible to beginner language learners, and inquiry-based pedagogies that foster creativity and build learner communities. Together, the webinars offer practical insights and adaptable models for educators interested in advancing sustainability through language education.
 

Further details and links to view the individual events in the series are below.

Ecolinguistics and Language Education: Promoting Ecological Wellbeing and Sustainability in the Classroom

 

Webinar presented by Robert Poole (University of Alabama)

Friday, April 17, 2026

Abstract:

This webinar introduces participants to ecolinguistics and its potential for fostering eco-critical language awareness in the language learning classroom. Participants will learn:

  • Core features of the emerging field of ecolinguistics and its potential to contribute to ecological wellbeing and sustainability in the language classroom and beyond
  • The principles of eco-critical language awareness and how these aims can inform pedagogy and practice
  • To design activities that develop eco-critical language awareness amongst learners in the classroom

➣ Click here for the recording and other details

Making Complex Content Accessible: Sustainable Development for Beginner Learners

 

A free webinar presented by María Luisa Parra-Velasco (Harvard University) and Jorge Méndez-Seijas (Yale University)

May, 1, 2026

Abstract:

In this interactive webinar, participants learn how to (re)design beginner language courses and tasks in which literacy development progresses alongside rich, meaningful, and compelling content. Grounded in content-based instruction (CBI) and informed by the multiliteracies pedagogical framework, the session positions sustainability as an organizing thread for unit and task planning, thereby connecting novice learners to social, cultural, and environmental questions in Spanish-speaking communities at local, national, and global levels.
 
 

➣Click here for the recording and other details

Fostering Creativity and Growing Learner Communities through an Inquiry-based Approach to Teaching Sustainability

 

Webinar presented by Rick Kern (University of California at Berkeley) and Vesna Rodic (University of California at Berkeley)

Friday, May 15, 2026

Abstract:

This webinar describes an intermediate-level French curriculum designed to enhance students’ creativity, cultural awareness, and community engagement through inquiry-based activities related to environmental sustainability in French-speaking contexts, as well as within their UC Berkeley campus community. The curriculum incorporates analysis of primary sources (legal documents, literary works, visual images, maps, and films) to study a range of environmental issues, both contemporary and historical. The curriculum has also involved videoconferencing exchanges with students at the Université Aix-Marseille, leading to collaborative recommendations for holding “eco-responsible” events on campus. We have found that, if students are introduced to this disposition of inquiry early on in their studies, they encounter more positive, engaging discipline-specific research experiences in upper-division courses.

 

➣Click here for the recording, handout, and other details

Access our YouTube playlist for recordings from previous professional learning webinars, or visit individual event pages to see recordings and other resources shared by the presenters at those events.