The Climate Connection
The Climate Connection (#TheClimateConnection) is a new 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. Visit https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/podcast for more information and additional content.
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 46 minutes
- Episodes
- 10
- Years Active
- 2021
Future perfect
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 re…
Environmental writes
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 …
Present tense
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 discu…
Natural language
Episode 7 is all about how language shapes our environment and how the environment shapes our language. In exploring this topic, we talk to two renowned academics working in this field. Firstly, we t…
Global Schooling
The focus of episode 6 is on educational institutions themselves, and what they can do to promote climate literacy. Our first guest is Asha Alexander, the dynamic principal of a large kindergarten in…
Greenhouse classes
In episode 5, our attention shifts away from the ‘macro’ to focus more on the ‘micro’. In a double-length interview with Stephen Heppell, a world expert in online education and learning spaces, we ex…
Where there’s a CLIL, there’s a way
Teaching materials are the focus of episode 4, specifically how we can maintain the right balance between content and language.
To begin with, Aleksandra Zaparucha guides us through the world of CLIL…
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’, dis…
Speaking youth – to power
Young people are heavily affected by the climate crisis. It is they who will have the job of cleaning up the mess left by previous generations. Episode 2 talks to two young climate activists who have…
Taking the temperature
The opening episode of The Climate Connection considers what the ELT Community is already doing – and what it should be doing – about the climate crisis.
The first interview is with Harry Kuchah Kuch…