Incorporating sustainability into American postsecondary modern foreign language classrooms at the pre-advanced level: exploring current practice and identifying future directions

Abstract

This article reviews recent literature concerned with the issues of interdisciplinary integration of sustainability-related content in American higher education curricula and expands the discussion into the integration of sustainability-related content into modern foreign language classrooms, particularly at the introductory and intermediate levels of study. The article first unpacks the concept of sustainability as an interdisciplinary curricular construct in a postsecondary context and situates it alongside recent research in education for sustainability (EfS) and content-based second language (L2) instruction. It then outlines the specific challenges and affordances of sustainability content and language integration for introductory and intermediate level language learners. Finally, the authors propose several considerations for language-and-content integration in order to both foster sustainability competencies and support student linguistic development in an instructed L2 setting at all levels. This article will be of interest to L2 educational professionals, higher education policy makers, and researchers concerned with enhancement of language and content integrated practices at tertiary levels of education.