Faith-Informed Green ELT as Education for Sustainable Development: Enhancing Environmental Awareness and English Learning Motivation in a Christian University in Indonesia

Jane Elvira Scipio; James Edward Lalira

Authors

Jane Elvira Scipio Universitas Kristen Indonesia Tomohon
James Edward Lalira Universitas Kristen Indonesia Tomohon

Keywords:

education for Sustainable Development, english language teaching, environmental awareness, faith-informed pedagogy, green ELT

Abstract

Sustainability issues and global Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) compel universities to ensure sustainability is incorporated into disciplinary courses, such as English language teaching (ELT). The research problem examined in this study is the effects of a faith-based Green ELT curriculum as a component of an English for Religion course in a Christian university in Indonesia. The curriculum consists of a sequence of tasks which integrate local environmental matters, ecolinguistic and critical reading exercises, Christian creation-care theology and English production exercises. A design-based research design was employed in the study, in which 50 EFL students were surveyed on motivation to learn English, environmental awareness and pre- and post-questionnaires about environmental awareness, and observed in classrooms to collect data. Quantitative results indicate that both the environmental awareness and L2 motivation are statistically more significant after the intervention. The qualitative thematic analysis displays that students came to reformulate environmental issues as stewardship and moral responsibility and reinterpret English as a medium of stewardship and witness and mediate between comfort, responsibility, and agency. The research finds that faith- informed Green ELT can be a strategic type of ESD in the higher education that will at once enhance the eco-consciousness and also boost the motivation of language-learning. It also provides design principles and consequences to ELT practitioners and curriculum developers of faith-based institutions.

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