Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2025
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Fostering Environmental Awareness of Young Learners through Critical Language Pedagogy: A Transformative Approach
Dr. Eda Nur Özcan, Prof. Dr. Esim Gürsoy
ABSTRACT:
While environmental issues are becoming increasingly global, fostering environmental awareness at a young age has become a necessity in EFL classrooms, where preparing students for global citizenship is a key objective. However, traditional pedagogical methods often fall short in engaging young learners in critical reflection on these issues. Consequently, the use of transformative approaches has gained momentum over the past decades. Although critical pedagogy has been widely applied to promote social justice and empowerment in EFL contexts, its application on environmental issues, especially with young learners, is under researched today. This research addresses this gap by examining how critical language pedagogy can be used to enhance the environmental awareness of young learners in an EFL context, and the results suggest a promising model for language educators aiming to cultivate environmentally responsible and critically conscious citizens from an early age.
keywords: critical language pedagogy, young learners, environmental issues, EFL context, transformative approach