Mental Health in English Language Education 3381114611, 9783381114610

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Ludwig / Summer / Eisenmann / Becker / Krüger (eds.) Mental Health in English Language Education

Mental health has become a growing concern in today’s society, with schools emerging as focal points for addressing this topic. The present volume takes this as a starting point to explore the relevance of curricula and competencies, texts and materials, (digital) culture and communication, and teacher education in the context of mental health and English language education. This, for instance, includes insights into interrelated topics such as gender, climate change, stress, and conspiracy theories. A variety of texts including multimodal novels, video games, and songs provides practical impulses for integrating mental health related topics into English lessons. As such, this volume brings together scholars from various fields who discuss the relationship between mental health issues and English as a foreign language learning from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives.

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www.narr.de

ISBN 978-3-381-11461-0

Christian Ludwig / Theresa Summer / Maria Eisenmann / Daniel Becker / Nadine Krüger (eds.)

Mental Health in English Language Education

Mental Health in English Language Education

Augsburger Studien zur Englischdidaktik Edited by Engelbert Thaler (Augsburg) Editorial Board: Sabine Doff (Bremen), Michaela Sambanis (Berlin), Daniela Elsner (Mainz), Carola Surkamp (Regensburg), Christiane Lütge (München), Petra Kirchhoff (Augsburg) Volume 2 13

Christian Ludwig / Theresa Summer / Maria Eisenmann / Daniel Becker / Nadine Krüger (eds.)

Mental Health in English Language Education

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24053/9783381114627 © 2024 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 · D-72070 Tübingen Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Überset‐ zungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Alle Informationen in diesem Buch wurden mit großer Sorgfalt erstellt. Fehler können dennoch nicht völlig ausgeschlossen werden. Weder Verlag noch Autor:innen oder Herausgeber:innen übernehmen deshalb eine Gewährleistung für die Korrektheit des Inhaltes und haften nicht für fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen. Diese Publikation enthält gegebenenfalls Links zu externen Inhalten Dritter, auf die weder Verlag noch Autor:innen oder Herausgeber:innen Einfluss haben. Für die Inhalte der verlinkten Seiten sind stets die jeweiligen Anbieter oder Betreibenden der Seiten verantwortlich. Internet: www.narr.de eMail: [email protected] CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 2367-3826 ISBN 978-3-381-11461-0 (Print) ISBN 978-3-381-11462-7 (ePDF) ISBN 978-3-381-11463-4 (ePub)

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Contents Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Christian Ludwig, Theresa Summer, Maria Eisenmann, Daniel Becker, Nadine Krüger Mental Health in English Language Education – An Introduction . . . . . . .

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Nadine Krüger Mental Health in the School Context: Interviews with a Psychotherapist and an English Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Section 1: Curriculum and Competencies

Daniel Becker We Got a Match! Examining Potential Connections between English Language Teaching and Mental Health Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Roman Bartosch & Stefanie Fuchs The Worst is Yet to Come: Theoretical and Empirical Findings on Mental Health in a Climate-Changed World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Christian Ludwig & Michaela Sambanis Gender and Adolescent Mental Health: Building Students’ Resilience through Authentic Media and Drama Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Theresa Summer & Valentin Werner Music and Mental Health in ELT: A Focus on Emotional Self-Regulation with Insights from Psychotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Section 2: Texts and Materials

Maria Eisenmann Sally Nicholls’ Multimodal Novel Ways to Live Forever in the EFL Classroom – A Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

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Contents

Carolin Zehne Addressing Mental Health (Representation) in and with Video Games – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and its Potential Use in the EFL Classroom . . . . 131 Christian Ludwig & Veronika Martinez Lighter Than My Shadow: Graphic Memoirs about Eating Disorders in the Multimodal EFL Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Section 3: (Digital) Culture and Communication

Michaela Sambanis “Down at the End of Lonely Street”: Social Isolation, Loneliness, Stress and Boredom – A NeuroDidactic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Peter Schildhauer, David Gerlach, Kristin Weiser-Zurmühlen (Mental) Challenges of a Post-Truth Society: Tackling Conspiracy Theories in the English Language Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Ben Opitz Promoting Digital Media Competences by Addressing Cyberbullying in the EFL Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Section 4: Teachers and Teacher Education

Sonja Babic & Sarah Mercer Understanding the Ecology of Language Teacher Well-Being: Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Eva Seidl & Jelena Petrović Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in the University Language Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Eleni Louloudi “But, Are You Really Fine?”: Reconstructing Mental Health through a Critical Literacy Lesson Developed by Pre-Service Teachers of English . . . 239 Editors and Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Acknowledgement This edited volume would not have been possible without the invaluable help of several colleagues. We extend our deepest gratitude to Dr Petra Arndt and Lara Fetzer (TransferZentrum für Neurowissenschaften und Lernen, Ulm) for their critical and meticulous reading of the introduction from a psychologist’s per‐ spective. We would also like to thank Claudia Schnellbögl from the University of Bamberg for her feedback on the introduction. We are grateful to Faruk Aydin (Freie Universität Berlin), Anna Jachimczak (Julius-Maximilians-Univer‐ sität Würzburg), and Lisa Theisen (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg) for their assistance in reading and formatting the contributions.

Mental Health in English Language Education – An Introduction

Christian Ludwig, Theresa Summer, Maria Eisenmann, Daniel Becker, Nadine Krüger

1 Adolescence and Mental Health

Mental health issues have become prevalent among adolescents and young adults.1 According to the World Health Organisation, one in seven 10– 19-year-olds today struggle with mental health conditions, which are often unrecognised and untreated (2021a), with many people experiencing more serious mental disorders such as major depression or anxiety later in life. For Germany, data from the Robert Koch Institut likewise states that about 20 % of children and young adults show signs of disturbed behaviour and mental distress (Klipker et al. 2018: 37). Considering these numbers, teenage mental health thus establishes a most urgent matter since mental disorders become “the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents” worldwide (WHO 2021a). There are many reasons for the increase in mental health struggles among adolescents. To begin with, one fundamental aspect to be considered is the fact that during adolescence, young people show a particularly high vulnerability to mental disturbances. Generally understood as the period between childhood and legal adulthood, adolescence is a phase of physical, mental, and emotional growth when we form our identity and develop a stable sense of self. However, this is also “[t]he age where nothing fits”, as Judy’s mom formulates it in the 1955 film Rebel without a Cause. The neurodevelopmental changes that take place during adolescence make “[it] a period of both vulnerability and opportunity” (Heyes/Hiu 2015). During these formative years, adolescents, on the one hand, 1

All age groups are affected by mental health issues. This introduction mainly focuses on adolescents, as about half of all mental illnesses begin by age 14. Terms such as young adults, teenagers, young people, and adolescents are used interchangeably throughout this introduction, especially as there is no clear definition of youth. As Gravelmann points out: “Das Verständnis bis zu welchem Alter ein junger Mensch als Jugendlicher/junger Mensch/junger Heranwachsender zählt, variiert je nach verwendeter Quelle oder Studie.” (2022: 11)

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are more flexible and more likely to take risks and shift between different identity formations while, on the other hand, being extremely responsive to external environmental influences, such as their peer group or contemporary cultural contexts. Another reason lies in the changed societal expectations and challenges the present generation of teenagers is confronted with in daily life. Today’s adoles‐ cents, for example, are more conscious of the grand global, political, social, and cultural challenges of the twenty-first century than any generation before them (Calmbach et al. 2020: 573). These include, among others, global phenomena such as climate change, migration, and the radical digital transformation of society. At the same time, increasing economic uncertainty, marked by more low-wage, part-time jobs, and an increasing number of fixed-term contracts, has particularly affected those only beginning to enter the labour market – in other words, the young – and led to increased economic precariousness of the younger generation (cf. Mills/Blossfeld 2005: 1 f.). Klaus Hurrelmann and Gudrun Quenzel (2015: 264 f.) speak of increased “status insecurity” and “status inconsistency” as “hallmarks of modern adolescence”: The status passage does not lead to any fixed endpoint. It has lost the notion of a secure and safe transition from one social position to another. It is no longer a foreseeable and well-delineated process connected with a specific social role. (Hurrelmann/Quenzel 2015: 265)

These major social and economic shifts have left contemporary teenagers more vulnerable, which may result in an increased susceptibility to mental health issues. Moreover, today’s achievement generation (Madsen 2021) struggles with external pressures and demands in several “performance areas” (ibid.: 4). They, as Marc Calmbach et al. assert, “feel overburdened, whether due to external pressure to perform or simple lack of time to do everything they want and/or is expected of them” (2020: 572). Unfortunately, schools themselves often play a central role in this respect. Test and performance anxiety, the pressures of standardised education, continuous testing, and, as a result, chronic lack of time, which is a crucial component of successful learning, are issues that teachers are acutely aware of, yet frequently unable to truly confront within the existing structures of the education system (Robert Bosch Stiftung 2023: 20). These profound social, economic, and cultural transformations of the twenty-first century “shape the course of adolescent development” (Heyes/Hiu 2015), making today’s adolescents a vulnerable population, most susceptible to mental health issues (Farley 2020: 48). As Holly Farley argues:

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Adolescent mental wellbeing is multidimensional and is influenced by a shift in adolescent risks and behaviors during the 21st century. Traditional threats to mental health such as low socioeconomic status, poor living conditions, substance abuse, early sexual activity, and bullying are further compounded by contemporary risks such as little social support from parents, peers, or teachers; social media use; and cyberbullying. (Farley 2020: 50)

Teenagers, in other words, live in a social, cultural, and political environment in which emotional and mental stressors abound and in which a constant acceleration of everyday life results in the burden of being quickly overwhelmed. These changes in teenagers’ everyday existence and the mental health issues that result thereof are reason enough, one may argue, to openly address mental health among and with children and adolescents. This can help them learn more about mental health conditions and acquire the social-emotional and cognitive skills to protect their mental health and live a full and balanced life. Nevertheless, despite the growing recognition of the importance of adoles‐ cent mental health and the increasing presence of the term in public discourse, politics, and popular culture (Packer 2017: xxi), mental health remains a “closet topic” (Norris 2021). It can be considered a taboo and controversial topic that is often still kept out of educational contexts (Ludwig/Summer 2022), and, as such, it is a topic that has also been neglected in foreign language classrooms and foreign language research (Becker 2021). The present volume aims to challenge this taboo status and neglect in foreign language education by exploring the relationship between mental health and language teaching from various perspectives. In doing so, it will be shown that English lessons in particular offer great potential to support adolescents in comprehending the complex phenomenon of mental health. As a point of departure, the following section provides an overview of some of these affordances, starting with a brief clarification of terminology used in the volume. 2 Terminology around Mental Health

Mental health is a highly complex construct. According to the mental health pyr‐ amid proposed by the international initiative mentalhealthliteracy.org, mental health needs to be perceived as multilayered. More precisely, it encompasses four interrelated states: in the positive state, a person experiences utter mental satisfaction, which is marked by the lack of any immediate stressors or problems. The mental distress state refers to mental distress that occurs when dealing with everyday stress, worries, or personal irritations (e.g., being in a bad mood or being anxious about a doctor’s appointment). These irritations are

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usually temporary and can be coped with relatively easily in everyday life. In contrast, the mental health problems state addresses more severe mental conditions in the form of mental health problems. Mental health problems occur when individuals are confronted with events that strongly (and often suddenly) disrupt their emotional lives, such as the unexpected death of a family member. These events can lead to long-term physical and mental reactions (e.g., fatigue, sadness, mourning, inability to concentrate), which might necessitate support from friends, family, or even mental health professionals. Finally, the clinical state refers to mental disorders. Specific events can cause both mental health problems and mental disorders, yet, while mental health problems are an aspect of life that can be resolved, for example, through support from family and friends, mental disorders require professional help. These four states are not mutually exclusive but need to be considered as different layers of an individual’s mental health, which can manifest simultaneously. Next to these different layers of mental health, what makes the term even more complex is the fact that it has several meanings and is approached differently by different disciplines (Mechanic 2006); in other words: it has become a ‛travelling concept’. For example, while sociology focuses on how “life events, social conditions, social roles, social structures, and cultural systems” influence a person’s mental health (Horwitz 2009: 7), psychological approaches concentrate on individual factors and intrapersonal processes, which may contribute to mental health conditions (cf., e.g., Schwartz/Corcoran 2009; Peterson 2009). Even within the fields of medicine and psychology, two different systems for classifying issues of mental health and, in particular, mental disorders exist. While the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) serves as a general diagnostic tool to categorise different types of diseases, of which mental disorders form only a small subsection, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is specifically designed to classify, diagnose, and describe different types of mental disorders. Furthermore, with each new edition, some changes are made to both classification systems, indicating that new evidence and information continue to change our understanding of mental health and mental health issues. Used in such different academic contexts, it is hardly surprising that the term mental health often coincides with other related terms (e.g., emotional health, happiness, or mental illness), thus establishing a semantic field of its own. Although many of these terms are often used interchangeably or even synonymously, they are distinct independent dimensions of a person’s holistic well-being. As it would go far beyond the scope of this introduction to discuss all of these constructs from the perspectives of all disciplines, Table 1 provides

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a brief overview of selected key terms and concepts that we consider especially important for the context of English language education. Although mental disorder and mental illness are often used interchangeably, they are not the same and therefore listed separately in the table below. Behav‐ ioural dis‐ orders

Behavioural disorders refer to “a pattern of disruptive behaviors in chil‐ dren that […] cause problems in school, at home and in social situations” (MentalHealth.gov 2022). According to the ICD-10, behavioural disor‐ ders include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorder, and disorders of social functioning with onset specific to childhood and adolescence.

Emotional disorders

Emotional disorders refer to “any psychological disorder characterized primarily by maladjustive emotional reactions that are inappropriate or disproportionate to their cause” (American Psychological Association 2022), including emotional disorders with onset specific to childhood.

Emotional intelli‐ gence  

Emotional intelligence describes a complex construct that involves emotional awareness (i.e., perceiving one’s own and others’ emotions), emotional facilitation of thinking (i.e., using emotions to guide deci‐ sion-making), emotional understanding (i.e., comprehending why one is feeling a certain way), and emotional regulation (i.e., managing one’s emotions for personal well-being and creating and maintaining positive relationships). (Salovey/Mayer 1990)

Health

Health describes “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (WHO 2021b)

Mental health

Mental health is described as “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community.” (WHO 2021a)

Mental disorder

Mental disorder is defined as a “clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes that underlie mental and behavioural functioning. These disturbances are usually associated with distress or impairment in personal, family, so‐ cial, educational, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” (WHO 2023)

Mental ill‐ ness

Mental illness is defined as any condition “involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these)”. As such, mental illness is “associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.” (American Psychiatric Association 2022a), including conduct disorder, hyperactivity, indirect aggression, and symptoms of depression/anxiety.

Mindful‐ ness

Mindfulness “is a state of being characterized by present-moment aware‐ ness of the unfolding of experience in a nonreactive way” (Lueke/Lueke 2019: 1531). Being mindful can help increase social and emotional learning and also improve academic achievement. (Zeilhofer 2020)

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Well-being Well-being describes “the quality of people’s lives” (OECD 2019: 258)   which is defined by the absence of distress, disorder, and illness (Dodge et al., 2012: 225) as well as the awareness of and engagement in positive mental health practices. Tab. 1: Terms and definitions around mental health

Taking this into account, mental health can be defined as a person’s cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being and the ability to effectively function in daily life. Thus, mental health is not simply the opposite of mental illness (UK Department of Health 2014: 1) or the “absence of disease or disorder; it involves self-esteem, mastery, and the ability to maintain meaningful relationships with others” (Scheid/Brown 2009: 1). These aspects are also reflected in the notion of mental health literacy. Based on the concept of physical health literacy, i.e. “the ability to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health” (Nutbeam 2015: 451), mental health literacy is used to describe a person’s ability to take care of themselves and manage stress and anxiety (cf., e.g., Jorm 2000; 2020). According to Anthony Francis Jorm et al., mental health literacy can be understood as a person’s “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention” (1997: 184). As with any other literacy, mental health literacy consists of different components as displayed in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Components of mental health literacy (based on Jorm 2018; cf. Ludwig/Martinez 2022)

Mental health literate adolescents look after their own mental health as well as that of others, identify stressors (such as not getting enough sleep or spending too much time online), respond to mental health problems in a timely and

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adequate manner, seek help, undergo treatment, and, ultimately, help reduce prejudice and stigma around mental health issues (McCance-Katz/Lynch 2019). In contrast to this, and at the other end of the spectrum, adolescents with a low level of mental health literacy find it much more difficult to recognise unhealthy patterns in their feelings, thoughts, and behaviours and may even misperceive their own mental health needs (Miles et al. 2020; Simkiss et al. 2020). Mental health may be misinterpreted as a static state. Yet, mental health is today seen as a continuum on which we take different positions, with mentally healthy and mentally ill representing the two extreme ends of the continuum.

Fig. 2: Selected mental health protective and risk factors

In order to stay on the healthy side of the continuum, the knowledge of potential protective and risk factors is important as their presence or absence contributes to our mental health. According to Mary Ellen O’Connell, Thomas Boat, and Kenneth Warner, protective factors can be defined as a set of characteristics “at the biological, psychological, family, or community (including peers and culture) level that is associated with a lower likelihood of problem outcomes or that reduces the negative impact of a risk factor on problem outcomes” (2009: xxvii). In contrast to this, risk factors are characteristics that precede and are associated with a higher likelihood of problematic outcomes (ibid.). Fig. 2 provides an overview of selected risk and protective factors, once again illustrating the fact that mental health is a complex and multidimensional construct.

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Christian Ludwig, Theresa Summer, Maria Eisenmann, Daniel Becker, Nadine Krüger

3 The Importance of Addressing Mental Health in Foreign Language Classrooms

Despite the increasingly open conversations about mental health, for example, on social media (cf. Section 3) and its increasingly positive representations in popular culture (cf. Section 2), many adolescents still seem reluctant to discuss the issue and seek (professional) help and support. In fact, this may not be because they consider mental health irrelevant but for a number of different reasons (cf. Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Reasons why adolescents may taboo mental health (based on Ludwig/Martinez 2022: 129–130)

Consequently, it is important not only to look out for typical warning signs of mental health struggles among adolescents but also to engage them in open discussions about contemporary views on mental health. By emphasising the fact that mental health is a topic adolescents can learn to be comfortable with and by increasing protective factors and healthy behaviours, mental health literacy

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can be promoted. This is crucial for education – one field of which is in focus here: foreign language education. As the World Health Organisation points out, openly addressing and re‐ shaping the prominent issue of mental health “requires action beyond the health sector” (2021a), including education. However, in education in general and English classrooms in particular, mental health seems to remain a topic that is still largely ignored. This does not mean that teachers necessarily feel that the topic should not be addressed, but rather that (perceived) curricular constraints, lack of material, resources, and tools as well as limited training options make it more challenging for educators to create an environment in which they can openly discuss adolescent mental health. Furthermore, as Christian Ludwig and Veronika Martinez emphasise, teachers may also shy away from promoting mental health education in their classrooms as they ● may fear that they have to open up about their own mental health, ● have to cope with negative reactions from students, and ● are afraid to make the situation of those affected even worse (2022: x). Despite these challenges, there are a number of compelling reasons for discus‐ sing mental health conditions with students in English language education, especially as language and communication (and English as a lingua franca) play a vital role in negotiating mental health in public debates. Furthermore, teaching English as a foreign language no longer sees emotions as “the ele‐ phants in the room – poorly studied, poorly understood, seen as inferior to rational thought” (Swain 2013, p. 195) but, quite in contrast, considers them an important element of foreign language teaching and learning. Finally, the subject of English also holds great potential for fostering mental health literacy within its own pedagogical and curricular framework, especially as positive psychology (PP) in foreign language education is flowering (Dewaele et al. 2019; MacIntyre/Ayers-Glassey 2022). In short, PP does not deny that negative emotions and problems exist but “emphasises the importance of moving away from a problem-oriented approach which mostly focused on negative emotions and feelings towards a more positive and appreciative per‐ spective” (Sambanis/Ludwig 2023: 90). In other words, it moves away from solely focusing on negative emotions such as anxiety and shifts our attention towards positive topics such as resilience, flow, optimism, creativity, grit, happiness, and mindfulness. According to Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2000: 5), PP is based on “positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions”. In order for foreign language learners to experience the kind of positive emotions that individuals need to grow, they

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need to have positive learning experiences and engage in activities that promote self-confidence, self-efficacy, well-being, and a feeling of being recognised by others (Sambanis/Ludwig 2023). 4 Mental Health Literacy: Goals of English Language Education

English language education can help foster mental health literacy and destig‐ matise mental health as a taboo topic. It can do so because its curricular framework combines elements of cultural, literary, and linguistic learning which allow teachers to explore the topic from versatile perspectives (see Becker, this volume). The EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom, therefore, can initiate a holistic discussion about mental health-related issues and can support learners in comprehending the different facets of what constitutes mental health. More precisely, although several other school subjects such as German, Biology, Ethics, and Religion can also deal with this topic and foster various competencies, we see the role of English within the following goals: ●

to increase students’ knowledge about specific mental disorders and their cultural and/or literary negotiation, as well as possible prevention, self-care, and coping strategies, e.g., related to foreign language learning anxiety or bullying, ● to foster students’ ability to understand and participate in global discourses on mental health (discourse competence), including – developing the communicative competencies necessary to appro‐ priately address the topics related to mental health (i.e., vocabu‐ lary/chunks, functional communicative competencies), – raising awareness of pragmatic conventions and speech acts in the discussion of tabooed and/or difficult topics, – understanding how language(s), privilege, and power relate to each other, – critically discussing reconstructions of mental health in texts such as children’s literature and popular culture as well as their (stigmatising or trivialising) portrayals of mental health, ● to sensitise and reflect students’ attitudes towards mental illness by discus‐ sing stereotypes and stigmas, including – offering insights into what it is like to live with low mental health or a mental illness in different inter-/transcultural, global, and social contexts, – exploring how mental health and mental health conditions intertwine with different social and cultural norms of societies and groups,

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●

to explore gender differences (gender competence) (cf., e.g., Ludwig/Sam‐ banis, this volume), ● to learn more about stereotypes and prejudices toward plurilingualism, understanding plurilingualism not as a deficit but an asset helpful to address mental health in different linguistic contexts (plurilingual competence) as well as learning to value plurilingual identities as a resource, ● to understand how digital media can help to increase mental health but why and how digital culture can also be a threat to mental health (digital competence), ● to understand why global crises such as pandemics or climate change pose a threat to mental health (environmental literacy) (cf., e.g., Bartosch/Fuchs, this volume) and how mental health is a critical component of the global (health) agenda, e.g. expressed through the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, English language education could not be more apt to address the struc‐ tural, social, cultural, political, and environmental but also individual factors (e.g. gender, religion, ethnicity, and political principles) that influence or protect our mental health; determinants that can be tied in with the competences, skills, and topics outlined in curricula for English as a foreign language. As the overview of learning goals related to mental health illustrates, the topic matters greatly and has the potential to empower adolescents to become not only better users of English but also healthier individuals. In particular, adolescents need to learn to regulate their (positive and negative) emotions, especially if they lack supportive environments in their families or peer communities while adapting to a changing global world. Moreover, it is important for them to understand that good mental health is not something that happens to us and that we cannot control. Quite the contrary, a solid knowledge of risk and protective factors as well as being able to detect and assess mental health concerns can help to protect and improve our mental health. To conclude, mental health can be promoted through prevention and treatment, and English as a school subject can also play a central role here. 5 The Contributions to this Volume

The present volume takes this context as a starting point to discuss to what extent English language education can support the integration of mental health education in the school curriculum in general and the English as a foreign

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language curriculum in particular.2 For that purpose, the volume brings together researchers and practitioners from various fields of language education, who examine the relationship between mental health issues and English as a foreign language learning from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives. Paying tribute to the fact that mental health is a multi- and interdisciplinary topic, this edited volume deliberately begins with two interviews conducted by Nadine Krüger. The first is with a mental health professional, who has worked in the field of children’s and young adults’ mental health for a number of years. She discusses potential ways in which education and the school system might be improved to cater to learners’ individual needs, which would allow them to develop an awareness of their own mental and physical well-being strategies for dealing with the increasing demands to which they are exposed. Many of her suggestions are in keeping with the concept of mental health literacy discussed above. The other interview features the perspective of an experienced EFL teacher who has been advocating a stronger focus on issues of learners’ mental health throughout her career. Through her second job as a coach and supervisor working with the theme-centered interaction (TCI) approach, she is able to offer a unique perspective on the role that issues of mental health play in the school context, the particular challenges that they pose for both learners and educators and how they might be addressed in future. The remaining part of the volume is then divided into four major sections, each of them focusing on a major area of foreign language education. Each section commences with a short introduction to the main themes of the section by the editors. Section 1 Curriculum and Competences looks at how mental health-related topics can be linked to core competencies and learning objectives in English language education. Ever since the ‛PISA shock’ in 2000, language education, and school education more generally, has taken a turn towards competence orientation – meaning that all teaching is directed towards the achievement of pre-determined competence expectations, as stated in curricular guidelines such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages on a European level (Council of Europe 2001) and the various curricular standards on a national level. This orientation towards competence achievement also influences the choice of topics in the EFL classroom: Since the turn, only topics are to be

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As the materials may be potentially disturbing to some learners, all lessons should come with a trigger warning, allowing learners to prepare emotionally. If learners decide not to engage with the topic, for example, because they are personally affected, they should be given the opportunity to attend parallel lessons or work with other contents.

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used in language teaching that allow the development of language-related competencies, meaning that the topic becomes valuable only in connection to its competence potential. This is also true of the topic of mental health; a transversal project which needs to be fostered in all school subjects alike. Yet, depending on the specific curricular framework and its competence expectations, every subject offers its own potential as well as barriers for discussing mental health-related topics and, thus, can make an individual contribution to the overall goal of educating citizens who are aware of mental health issues in contemporary society. This also includes the subject of English: While the topic of mental health is not explicitly mentioned in the current curricular guidelines, the topic can still be connected to some areas of language-related competence development. The papers in this section examine some of these vantage points and competence areas to connect mental health education and language teaching. The first paper by Daniel Becker, We Got a Match! Examining Potential Connections between English Language Teaching and Mental Health Education, provides a broader perspective on the topic by analysing different dimensions of English language teaching in order to identify potential points of departure for incorporating mental health issues into the EFL classroom. Following this, The Worst is Yet to Come: Theoretical and Empirical Findings on Mental Health in a Climate-Changed World by Roman Bartosch and Stefanie Fuchs explores climate change as a threat to both students’ and teachers’ mental health and well-being. Taking this as a starting point, this contribution presents the results of a questionnaire of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards climate change as a (tabooed) health issue. The contribution by Christian Ludwig and Michaela Sambanis entitled Gender and Adolescent Mental Health: Building Students’ Resilience through Authentic Media and Drama Activities concentrates on the intersections between mental health and gender education, including aspects such as the gender gap in mental health, gender-specific mental risk factors, and gendered responses to mental health problems. It particularly focuses on the mental health of members of the LGBTQI+ community who generally have a higher risk of suffering from mental health conditions. The chapter concludes by making concrete suggestions for openly addressing the topic through methods and activities from drama pedagogy. In Music and Mental Health in ELT: A Focus on Emotional Self-Regulation with Insights from Psychotherapy, Theresa Summer and Valentin Werner discuss the role of music and songs in fostering learners’ well-being and emotional self-regulation. By drawing on the findings from an expert interview with a psychotherapist, the authors develop research-based teaching suggestions for ELT.

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Section 2 Texts and Materials focuses on how authentic texts and materials can be included in English language education to integrate mental health topics in the classroom. These include non-fictional texts such as newspaper articles or blog entries but even more so fictional texts such as literary texts, songs, and multimodal texts including comics and graphic novels. Furthermore, films and TV series as well as born-digital texts, i.e., posts and videos on social media or hashtags become relevant in this context. Dealing with these texts and media that touch on mental health can raise awareness about its importance and reduce stigma surrounding mental health issues. In the case of fictional texts, it can also help students to identify and empathise with characters who experience mental health challenges. By understanding the experiences and feelings of characters in literary works and other materials, students can learn to appreciate the complexity of mental health issues and the impact they have on people’s lives. By discussing mental health topics in the context of these (literary) texts, students may feel more comfortable talking about their own experiences with mental health. This can encourage open and honest dialogues in the classroom, which can help to reduce stigma and promote mental health awareness. Furthermore, the use of authentic materials can help students develop critical thinking skills and engage in discussions around mental health topics. By analysing and discussing real-life examples of mental health issues, students can learn to formulate informed opinions on these important topics as well as identify and manage misinformation related to mental health on social media. Beyond that, integrating mental health topics into English language education can provide an opportunity for students to learn new vocabulary related to mental health and mental illness, which enables them to become communicative participants in mental health discourses who can express their opinions and perspectives appropriately. The section starts with Sally Nicholls’ Multimodal Novel Ways to Live Forever in the EFL Classroom – A Case Study by Maria Eisenmann, which focuses on approaches that make multimodal theories usable for teaching mental health issues through literature in the EFL classroom. Connected to a teaching unit, a questionnaire was developed to find out pupils’ motivation through multimodality and also students’ attitudes towards the difficult themes of the novel like illness and death. Following this, the contribution by Caroline Zehne Addressing Mental Health (Representation) in and with Video Games – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and its Potential Use in the EFL Classroom discusses video games as an integral part of youth culture. More specifically, it argues that while commercial video games have depicted mental illnesses in a stereotypical way, they now take a more realistic approach. Taking Hellblade – Senua’s Sacrifice and its portrayal of an embodied experience of mental illness as an

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example, it outlines how video games can help to critically discuss stereotypical depictions of mental health issues and develop students’ empathy. The ensuing contribution Lighter Than My Shadow: Graphic Memoirs about Eating Disorders in the Multimodal EFL Classroom by Christian Ludwig and Veronika Martinez also concentrates on a multimodal medium, the graphic novel. Katie Green’s memoir depicts the journey of an anorexic teenager, illustrating the unseen faces of eating disorders. It is argued that graphic memoirs are particularly apt for discussing critical issues, especially in educational contexts, as authors can not only write about personal stories and events but also show them. Section 3 (Digital) Culture and Communication focuses on the influences digital media have on young users. Today’s young adults grow up in an age which is characterised by the fact that technology and digital media have become an integral part of our life (Kerres 2018a, b). Felix Stalder refers to this era in human history as the digital condition, “a wide-ranging and irreversible cultural transformation” (2018: 4), in which cultural practices, social activity, and communication are increasingly intertwined with more and more complex technologies (ibid.). With already the youngest owning a smartphone and having access to the internet, it seems about time to openly address the effects and consequences of digital media use in general and social media in particular among young adults, also in foreign language education. However, to demonise digital technology and assume that its use automatically leads to an increased prevalence of mental (and also physical) health issues may not adequately reveal the topic in its full complexity. Reports on the positive and negative effects of digital technology on our mental health are conflicting. For example, teenagers with mental health issues may spend more time on social media but may well do so to connect with friends, share their thoughts with others, or seek social or medical support. Closely related to this, technology, for example, also allows mental health counsellors to reach younger patients. However, all of this can become detrimental if already vulnerable adolescents receive negative advice (Memon et al. 2018) or make gloomy experiences. The associations between mental health and digital media use, so much seems clear, are bidirectional in that digital technology and mental health can mutually influence each other. Moreover, multiple factors such as adolescents’ integration in their social and family environment, previous mental health conditions, and their awareness of the dangers of digital tools and platforms also need to be taken into account (Nikken/Opree 2018: 33). Thus, addressing the topic of digital media and mental health can also train students’ digital responsibility and help them become digital citizens as they learn how to ethically act online, manage digital rela‐ tionships, and protect themselves from potentially harmful online behaviours

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such as cyberbullying and stalking. This shows that English language teaching, as any other subject, should work towards “maximising the protection against online risks without restricting the opportunities and benefits, or undermining the child’s ability to explore, learn and express themselves” (OECD 2018: 10). Taking this as a starting point, the contributions to Section 3 focus on selected aspects of adolescents’ mental health and digital media use in more detail. To begin with, “Down at the End of Lonely Street”: Social Isolation, Loneliness, Stress and Boredom – A NeuroDidactic View by Michaela Sambanis discusses isolation, loneliness, stress, and boredom as risk factors of digital media use in the context of education. Following this, Peter Schildhauer’s contribution (Mental) Challenges of a Post-Truth Society: Tackling Conspiracy Theories in the English Language Classroom concentrates on the mental health implications of conspiracy theories, a widely spread phenomenon in the digital age. Cyberbul‐ lying is becoming the most common type of bullying, making it vital to equip students with strategies to respond to and prevent different forms of digital bullying. In Promoting Digital Media Competences By Addressing Cyberbullying in the EFL Classroom, Ben Opitz tackles exactly this issue by providing an introduction to this multifaceted topic and showing how it can be integrated into English language education. It reviews empirical research findings on the topic of cyberbullying and provides practical lesson plans that have been designed and implemented in the context of a digital teaching and learning lab seminar at the Department of English Didactics at the Freie Universität Berlin. The volume concludes with Section 4 Teachers and Teacher Education, discus‐ sing not only the fact that teachers can suffer from mental health problems as much as students but also that teachers need training to enable them to competently address mental health issues in their classrooms. Closely related to this, the section also highlights that teachers should not be alone in dealing with students’ mental health concerns and that, where possible, they should share tasks with care providers as well as specialists such as psychiatrists, psycholo‐ gists, social workers, nurses, and support workers. First, Sonja Babic and Sarah Mercer focus on Understanding the Ecology of Language Teacher Well-Being: Theory and Practice. With their notion of ecology, Babic and Mercer argue for a more contextualized and situated understanding of teachers’ well-being. Within this framework, they approach this understanding from the perspective of Positive Psychology and suggest Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs) as a way to maintain teachers’ well-being. Following this, the contribution by Eva Seidl and Jelena Petrović reports on Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in the University Language Classroom. The authors present their own mental health teaching project conducted at both the University of Graz and the University

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of Applied Sciences in Graz. Starting out from the issue of social distancing and isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, the project aims at developing future teachers’ well-being competences. Finally, the contribution “But, Are You Really Fine?”: Reconstructing Mental Health through a Critical Literacy Lesson Developed by Pre-Service Teachers of English by Eleni Louloudi focuses on teacher education. It discusses how ELT student teachers have worked towards deconstructing the fear of mental health matters in language teaching and, furthermore, reconstructing new ways of dealing with the topic in the classroom using a critical literacy framework.

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References American Psychiatric Association (2022a). What is mental illness? https://psychiatry.or g/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness (last accessed: 10.03.2023) American Psychological Association (2022b). Emotional disorder. In: APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/emotional-disorder (last accessed: 10.03.2023) Becker, Daniel (2021). Let’s (Not) Address the Monster: Zum Thema der Depression im Englischunterricht – Eine curriculare Perspektive. Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 46, 139-157. Calmbach, Marc/Flaig, Bodo/Edwards, James/Möller-Slawinski, Heide/Borchard, Inga/ Schleer, Christoph (2020). Wie ticken Jugendliche? SINUS-Jugendstudie 2020: Leb‐ enswelten von Jugendlichen im Alter von 14 bis 17 Jahren in Deutschland. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Council of Europe (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. www.coe .int/lang-cefr (last accessed: 21.09.2023) Dewaele, Jean-Marc/Chen, Xinjie, Padilla, Amado M., Lake, J. (2019): The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Front. Psychol., 10. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02128/full (last accessed: 21.09.2023) Dodge, Rachel/Daly, Annette P./Huyton, Jan/Sanders, Lalage D. (2012). The challenge of defining well-being. International Journal of Wellbeing 2 (3), 222-235. Farley, Holly R (2020). Assessing mental health in vulnerable adolescents. Nursing, 50 (10), 48–53. Gravelmann, Reinhold (2022). Jugend in der Krise: Die Pandemie und ihre Auswirkungen. Weinheim: Beltz. Heyes, Stephanie Burnett/Hiu, Chii Fen (2015). The adolescent brain: Vulnerability and opportunity. https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/1149-the-adolescent-brain-vulnerabil ity-and-opportunity.html (last accessed: 02.02.2023) Horwitz, Allan V. (2009). An overview of sociological perspectives on the definitions, causes, and responses to mental health and illness. In: Scheid, Teresa L./Brown, Tony N. (Eds.). A handbook for the study of mental health: Social contexts, theories, and systems. Cambridge: CUP, 6–19. Hurrelmann, Klaus/Quenzel, Gudrun (2015). Lost in transition: Status insecurity and in‐ consistency as hallmarks of modern adolescence. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 20 (3), 261–270. Jorm, Anthony F./Korten, Ailsa E./Jacomb, Patricia A./Christensen Helen/Rodgers Bryan/ Pollitt Penelope (1997). Mental health literacy: A survey of the public's ability to

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recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. Medical Journal of Australia 166 (4), 182–186. Jorm, Anthony F. (2000). Mental health literacy: Public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry 177 (5), 396–401. Jorm, Anthony F. (2020). Einführung in das Konzept Mental Health Literacy. In: Bollweg, Thorsten M./Bröder, Janine/Pinheiro, Paulo (Eds.). Health Literacy im Kindes- und Jugendalter. Wiesbaden: Springer, 145–160. Jorm, Anthony F./Korten, Ailsa E./Jacomb, Patricia A./Christensen, Helen/Rodgers, Bryan/Pollitt, Penelope (1997). Mental health literacy: A survey of the public's ability to recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. Medical Journal of Australia 166 (4), 182–186. Kerres, Michael (2018a). Bildung in der digitalen Welt: Wir haben die Wahl. https:/ /learninglab.uni-due.de/sites/default/files/Kerres_denk-doch-mal.pdf (last accessed: 02.02.2023) Kerres, Michael (2018b). Mediendidaktik: Konzeption und Entwicklung mediengestützter Lernangebote. 5th Ed. Berlin: de Gruyter. Klipker, Kathrin/Baumgarten, Franz/Göbel, Kristin/Lampert, Thomas/Hölling, Heike (2018). Psychische Auffälligkeiten bei Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland – Querschnittergebnisse aus KiGGS Welle 2 und Trends. Journal of Health Monitoring 3 (3), 37–44. Lueke, Adam/Lueke, Niloufar (2019): Mindfulness improves verbal learning and memory through enhanced encoding. Memory and Cognition 47, 1531–1545. Ludwig, Christian/Martinez, Veronika (2022). #mentalhealthmatters – Addressing mental health and mental disorders in ELT. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. London: Routledge. Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (2022). Approaching taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. In Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. London: Routledge, 3–20. MacIntyre, Peter D./Ayers-Glassey, Samantha (2022). Positive psychology. In: Gregersen, Tammy/Mercer, Sarah (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of the psychology of language learning and teaching. London: Routledge, 61–73. Madsen, Ole Jacob (2021). Deconstructing Scandinavia’s “achievement generation”: A youth mental health crisis? Transl. by Diane Oatley. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. McCance-Katz, Elinore/Lynch, Calder (2019). Guidance to states and school systems on addressing mental health and substance use issues in schools. https://store.samhsa.g ov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/pep19-school-guide.pdf (last accessed: 02.02.2023) Mechanic, D. (2006). The truth about health care: Why reform is not working in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

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Memon, Aksha M./Sharma, Shiva G./Mohite, Satyajit S./Jain, Shailesh (2018). The role of online social networking on deliberate self-harm and suicidality in adolescents: A systematized review of literature. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 60 (4), 384–392. Mentalhealth.gov (2022). Behavioural disorders in children. https://www.mentalhealth. gov/what-to-look-for/behavioral-disorders (last accessed: 10.03.2023) Mentalhealthliteracy.org (2021). Language matters: The importance of using the right word when we’re talking about mental health. https://mentalhealthliteracy.org/prod uct/using-the-right-words/ (last accessed 19.09.2022) Miles, Rona/Rabin, Laura/Krishnan, Anjali/Grandoit, Evan/Kloskowski, Kamil (2020). Mental health literacy in a diverse sample of undergraduate students: Demographic, psychological, and academic correlates. BMC Public Health, 20, Article 1699. Mills, Melinda/Blossfeld, Hans-Peter (2005). Globalization, uncertainty and the early life course: A theoretical framework. In: Blossfeld, Hans-Peter/Klijzing, Erik/Mills, Me‐ linda/Kurz, Karin (Eds.). Globalization, uncertainty and youth in society. Abingdon: Routledge, 1-24. Nicholas Ray (Dir.) (1955). Rebel without a cause. Warner Bros. Nikken, Peter/Opree, Suzanna J. (2018). Guiding young children’s digital media use: SES-Differences in mediation concerns and competence. Journal of Child and Family Studies 27, 1844–1857. Norris, Charlotte (2021). Mental health remains a “closet” topic. https://www.linkedin .com/pulse/mental-health-remains-closet-topic-charlotte-norris?trk=articles_directo ry (last accessed: 02.02.2023) Nutbeam, Don (2015). Defining, measuring and improving health literacy. Health Eval‐ uation and Promotion 42 (4), 450–455. O’Connell, Mary Ellen/Boat, Thomas/Warner, Kenneth E. (2009). Preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders among young people: Progress and possibilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. OECD (2018). Children & young people’s mental health in the digital age: Shaping the future. https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Children-and-Young-People-Menta l-Health-in-the-Digital-Age.pdf (last accessed: 02.02.2023) OECD (2019). OECD future of education and skills 2030. OECD learning compass 2030: A series of concept notes. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/education/2 030-project/contact/OECD_Learning_Compass_2030_ Concept_Note_Series.pdf (last accessed: 27.06.2022) Packer, Sharon (2017). Introduction. In: Packer, Sharon (Ed.). Mental illness in popular culture. Santa Barbara, Cal.: Praeger, ix-xxiv. Peterson, Christopher (2009). Psychological approaches to mental illness. In: Scheid, Theresa/Brown, Tony N. (Eds.). A handbook for the study of mental health: Social contexts, theories, and systems. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: CUP, 89-105.

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Robert Bosch Stiftung (2023). Das Deutsche Schulbarometer: Aktuelle Herausforder‐ ungen aus Sicht der Lehrkräfte. Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Lehrkräften allge‐ mein- und berufsbildender Schulen. Stuttgart: Robert Bosch Stiftung. Robert Koch Institut (2018). Journal of Health Monitoring. https://www.rki.de/DE/Co ntent/Gesundheitsmonitoring/Gesundheitsberichterstattung/GBEDownloadsJ/Journ al-of-Health-Monitoring_01_2018_KiGGS-Welle2_erste_Ergebnisse.pdf?__blob=pub licationFile (last accessed: 02.02.2023) Salovey, Peter/ Mayer, John D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. In: Imagination, Cognition, Personality 9 (3), 185-211. Sambanis, Michaela/Ludwig, Christian (2023). Mind needs body! Practicing positive psychology in English language teaching. Scenario 17 (1), 88-97. Sambanis, Michaela/Ludwig, Christian (2024). Happy Learning: Glücklich und erfol‐ greich Sprachen lernen. München: Hueber. Scheid, Theresa/Brown, Tony N. (2009). Approaches to mental health and illness: Conflicting definitions and emphases. In: Scheid, Theresa/Brown, Tony N. (Eds.). A handbook for the study of mental health: Social contexts, theories, and systems. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: CUP, 1-5. Schwartz, Sharon/Corcoran, Cheryl (2009). Biological theories of psychiatric disorders: A sociological approach. In: Scheid, Theresa/Brown, Tony N. (Eds.). A handbook for the study of mental health: Social contexts, theories, and systems. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: CUP, 64-88. Seligman, Martin E. P./Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2000). Positive psychology: An intro‐ duction. Am. Psychol. 55, 5–14. Simkiss, Nicola J./Gray, Nicola S./Malone, Greg/Kemp, Andrew/Snowden, Robert J. (2020). Improving mental health literacy in year 9 high school children across Wales: A protocol for a randomised control treatment trial (RCT) of a mental health literacy programme across an entire country. BMC Public Health 20 (1), 727. Stalder, Felix (2018). The digital condition. Translated by Valentine A. Pakis. Cambridge: Polity Press. Swain, Merrill (2013). The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning. Language Teaching 46 (2), 195–207. UK Department of Health (2014). The relationship between wellbeing and health. https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_d ata/file/295474/The_relationship_between_wellbeing_and_health.pdf (last accessed: 02.02.2023) World Health Organization (2021a). Mental health: Strengthening our response. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengtheningour-response (last accessed 02.02.2023)

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World Health Organization (2021b). Frequently asked questions. https://www.who.int/a bout/frequently-asked-questions (last accessed: 10.03.2023) World Health Organization (2023). Mental, behavioural, and neurodevelopmental dis‐ orders. In: ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics. https://icd.who.int/brow se11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f334423054 (last accessed: 10.03.2023) Zeilhofer, Luisa (2020). Mindfulness in the foreign language classroom: Influence on academic achievement and awareness. In: Language Teaching Research 27 (1), 96–114.

Mental Health in the School Context: Interviews with a Psychotherapist and an English Teacher

Nadine Krüger

1 Introduction

The following section includes interviews with experts from two different professional backgrounds related to mental health and English language educa‐ tion: Kerstin Ochs is a psychotherapist for children and adolescents; Christel Beck-Zangenberg is a secondary school teacher for English. Given the scope and interdisciplinary nature of the topic of mental health, it is essential to consider not only different topical aspects but also different professional perspectives. Both experts were asked similar questions about the challenges children and adolescents face today concerning mental health and the role that schools might play in this regard, and they also address similar issues at times. At the same time, however, they open up different perspectives on the topic informed by their respective professional background and experiences. These interviews provide an interesting first insight into teaching practice and the therapeutic context while further demonstrating the importance of considering mental health issues in educational settings. Kerstin Ochs, in her interview, sheds light on the importance of equipping learners with the essential skills and abilities necessary to not only become aware of their own mental well-being, but also offer them strategies and techniques of self-care and self-regulation, which help them to better cope with the challenges they face in and outside of schools. This complies with the idea of supporting learners to develop mental health literacy from an early age, as also proposed by the authors of this volume. Although she takes a broader view of schools as a whole, interestingly, her suggestions are consistent with contemporary constructivist notions of (EFL) education, such as learner-centered, experiential, and action-oriented learning, as well as the idea of fostering learner autonomy, the learners’ methodological competencies and their ability to reflect and organize their own learning processes (see e.g., Eisenmann 2019; Bonnet 2018).

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She also quite candidly addresses educational policy and school organization issues, which can only be solved at the administrative and political level but are nonetheless worthy of consideration. These include, among other aspects, the less-than-ideal student-teacher ratio in schools, the traditional 45-minute structure of German classrooms not necessarily conducive to learning, and the pressure to perform well despite individual learners’ needs or inhibitions. She also repeatedly stresses the importance of working in multi-professional teams. Here, as in several other places, a connection can be drawn to some of the issues raised by Christel Beck-Zangenberg in her interview. Bringing years of teaching and coaching experience to the table, she identifies similar shortcom‐ ings in the current school system as Kerstin Ochs does, raising questions of how teachers can best address these sensitive issues in an environment which is in many ways detrimental to both learners’ and teachers’ mental health. Like Ms Ochs, however, Ms Beck-Zangenberg does not limit herself to lamenting the status quo but offers constructive ideas and suggestions for how this might be done, both at the level of the individual classroom and the broader school context. If read alongside each other, both interviewees manage to paint an image of a school environment which is compassionate towards learners and helps them to develop mental health literacy while truly taking into account contemporary research of how learning processes should be organized and in which both teachers’ and learners’ individual needs are taken into consideration. 2 Expert Interview: Psychotherapist

Kerstin Ochs is a psychologist and psychotherapist for children and adolescents who has worked in this field for over ten years. In her current position, one of her foci is working with primary school children diagnosed with attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder. However, from her experience as a therapist, she can also offer broader insights into learning processes and the challenges learners face in the school environment. NK: First, tell me a little about yourself and your work. What are your experiences in the field of mental health? KO: I am a psychotherapist for children and adolescents, and I have been working in this field for ten years. During this time, I gained experience in both clinical and outpatient settings. Since 2019, I have been working at the Psychotherapeutic Outpatient Clinic at the University of Heidelberg. My job includes both the diagnosis and therapy of children, teenagers, and young adults. My work focuses on intensive therapy for children of primary school

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age who display symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), or conduct disorder. In addition to developing the concept of the program, I am also involved in organizing it and offering group sessions myself. NK: Thank you for this insight into your professional background and develop‐ ment. From this perspective, what do you think are some of the main issues facing learners and teachers today regarding mental health? KO: From what I’ve been observing, it is an enormous challenge for children and adolescents to find an appropriate way of dealing with the different demands they face in their everyday lives. For example, even if they are considered “digital natives”, they hardly have any helpful models for dealing with digital, especially social media. Most parents and teachers did not grow up with digital media themselves and, thus, are still trying to figure out how to handle them appropriately. It is important to train children and adolescents to get to know the potential and benefits of digital media (such as acquiring knowledge in an individually suitable manner). At the same time, however, it is necessary that from a young age, children also develop an awareness of the dangers and problems related to digital media so that they can make sensible, independent and well-informed decisions about how to handle digital media as they grow older. In connection with this, I also experience that children and young learners have little opportunity to develop a healthy perception of the appropriate balance between exertion and regeneration. This is important so they are not overwhelmed in the long run and, more specifically, are able to learn successfully. The right balance between physically and mentally challenging activities and phases of recreation is essential for long-term physical and mental well-being. It is crucial to train and encourage children’s perception of when they need a break and what to do to relax mentally and physically. This is important concerning their use of digital media as well as learning processes and homework activities. In my job, I often encounter parents of primary school learners who spend two hours studying or doing homework with their children without a break. However, from a developmental perspective, it is barely possible for a six- or seven-year-old to focus on new content for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, especially if the material is not particularly interesting for the child. From the very beginning, I would like schools to be able to afford the necessary time, space, and materials for learners to encourage them to autonomously take breaks when they need them since I believe this to be a crucial resource when dealing with increasing demands in their later school as well as professional careers. The human brain is not designed to remain fully

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focused and work continuously for eight hours without a break. It would be essential to teach primary school learners – in an appropriate manner – how our brain works and, ideally, to also consider this when planning the school day or individual lessons. This is not only important for those children who display conspicuous behaviour and are clearly unable to remain focused any longer. Especially children who, on the surface, seem well-adjusted but may, at worst, be unable to perceive their boundaries or frequently push beyond them, need additional guidance and support in this respect. It is an essential competence for them to not only follow guidelines and schedules set for them from outside but also develop an awareness of the right balance between exertion and breaks, allowing them to learn effectively and retain sufficient energy for recreational activities at the end of the school day. Another critical issue is the constructive, appropriate handling of mistakes, failure, and individual boundaries in a way which does not negatively affect the learners’ self-confidence. Teachers can be great resources and role models for learners in this respect since schools are also places where assessment takes place. I do not believe that grading and assessment are generally negative, but they help develop a realistic and healthy concept of self. However, this can only be achieved if an empathic, constructive handling of individual boundaries and more generally of mistakes and failure is promoted. Teachers and learners should interact positively and respectfully, regardless of individual mental or cognitive resources. NK: Thank you, these are undoubtedly many valuable insights to consider for teachers, school administrators, and parents. Which role do you think schools in particular play – or should play – when it comes to students’ and teachers’ mental health? KO: In my view, schools play a central role regarding mental health since children and adolescents spend so much of their time there. Because of this, more political effort and resources should be put into addressing mental health issues. These should be used to allow children to experience school as a space in which they can grow and develop in different domains and skills. That would mean, for example, that in addition to reading, writing and maths, another focus would be on teaching learners strategies that enable them to build a “healthy basis” regarding their physical and mental well-being. These issues should not be simply addressed in a theoretical way. Instead, learners should develop valuable strategies through practical, applied knowl‐ edge. This can include basics like nutrition, sleep hygiene, general strategies such as self-management, self-compassion when dealing with personal boun‐ daries and mistakes, adequate organisation of breaks when completing tasks,

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emotional self-regulation, and social competencies. I know that many dedicated teachers already include this in their teaching. However, I believe it is important that neither teachers nor learners are expected to simply do this “incidentally” and in addition to everything else that is required of them during the school day, especially with a student-teacher ratio of thirty to one. What we need is for the topics mentioned above to become a central, meaningful part of school curricula so that time can be set apart to learn about them in a playful manner and establish them through regular practice. To do this successfully, at least three adult professionals should work together in a classroom of 25 to 30 learners. That would allow them to help learners gradually develop appropriate behaviours and coping mechanisms and support individual learners with specific challenges. It would be particularly beneficial if this could be done in multi-professional teams consisting of teachers, psychologists, and special needs educators, depending on the needs of the class. A setting like this would allow educators to convey knowledge to different types of learners in a more beneficial way. This includes, for example, children with ADHD, anxiety disorder or developmental learning disorders. Children with these types of disorders often report that they can barely learn properly during class time because they cannot follow or comprehend what is taught. For example, children with disorders in reading or mathematics, which often co-occur in combination with ADHD, need different types of materials such as checklists or visualisations, rather than verbal input, to learn successfully. It is very challenging for an individual teacher to create these highly differentiated materials regularly, in addition to everything else they do. At worst, a lack of these kinds of scaffolds and supporting tools results in learners feeling overwhelmed during the school day and then having to work through the learning material with their parents or a tutor after school during what should be their recreational time. This often results in both learners and their parents feeling frustrated. Since modelling behaviour is much more memorable than what adults teach verbally, teachers need a framework to model appropriate behaviour. Children whose primary caregivers lack sufficient resources benefit enormously from sympathetic, appreciative, respectful, committed, straightforward, and engaging teachers who can take their individual needs, resources, and deficits into consideration. That is often impossible if one teacher is responsible for 30 learners, especially in highly diverse primary school classrooms. Considering these aspects takes time, resources, and a suitable ratio between teachers and learners. If these are sufficiently available, school can be a place where children and adolescents can be enabled and empowered regarding their mental health.

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NK: Very interesting, and certainly lots of food for thought… You have already provided many valuable ideas and suggestions – many of which I think teachers would agree with – and indicated that these issues should have a place in classrooms and be directly addressed there. But if I may ask even more explicitly: How could this be achieved? What exactly could teachers do, in your opinion? KO: The focus should not be on theoretical instruction or knowledge transfer. Instead, learning about mental health issues should be action-oriented, experi‐ ential, and individualized. Starting in grade 1, teachers should frequently give learners opportunities for breaks and try out different forms and activities with them (e.g. breathing exercises, settling or stirring activities). If children are merely told theoretically that it is essential to take breaks, but then required to remain fully focused for 45 minutes at a time without being able to put this into practice, that sends a contradictory message to them. At the same time, teachers themselves must be able to take “real” breaks during the school day. This can only be achieved if the ratio of teachers to students is adjusted. Teachers can then act as models for their learners in this respect, rather than constantly being required to chaperone children during their “free” time or using it for a quick impromptu meeting with a colleague between classes. This would have the effect that teachers had regular timeslots during the school day to recharge, rather than constantly being forced into an “autopilot” mode in which they simply react to the different requests made of them. It is impossible for children and adolescents to do justice to the different demands placed on them. On the one hand, they are expected to perform at a high level both at school and in their spare time. On the other hand, they are supposed to be happy about the number of opportunities and choices available to them without considering that these may often be overwhelming. It would be helpful for learners if the focus at school was not exclusively on achievement, performing well and acquiring expert knowledge. Instead, discovery learning based on the children’s interests and curiosity could be more beneficial. Physical education and art classes may serve as good examples to illustrate this. In physical education, it would be beneficial for children if the focus was not on performing an exercise in a particular way (e.g. long jumps) or winning in competitive games. Instead, the goal should be to have fun when exercising and to develop an awareness of which types of physical activities can help to unwind or distance oneself from stressful thoughts and worries. This would be an excellent opportunity for learners to realize which activities can compensate for more demanding tasks. They can learn to remain in balance and notice their body’s needs.

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In art lessons, joy and enthusiasm for creative work can be as important as the final product. It would be desirable if schools found ways of fostering both and offered opportunities for learners to discover their enjoyment of creativity. From a psychological stance, physical exercise, painting, writing or making music can be essential resources for physical and mental well-being – regardless of whether people have a particular talent for these activities. It would be very beneficial if this played a more critical role in schools. In addition to assessment and grades, which serve an important purpose, children should be able to expe‐ rience that these kinds of activities can be fun or help them relax, no matter how well they perform compared to their classmates. Those in charge should reflect on whether the focus should be on teaching learners preconceived knowledge and whether the importance of assessment through grades should remain as it is. In my experience, grades play a central role for learners, especially in secondary schools. Teachers, on the other hand, have little flexibility because of the demands of the curriculum. I notice that very few children and adolescents can develop more general skills and competencies, such as categorizing content into basic and more advanced knowledge. Structuring materials in this way means they can be stored much more systematically and sustainably in the mind. It can also allow learners to study much more efficiently and with less anxiety if they are not intent on always covering every little detail about a topic. It will hardly be possible for them to do so later in their professional lives. Thus, it is vital to be able to make this distinction between what is important and what might be less relevant. To sum up, it is crucial to allow for a better student-teacher ratio and form multi-professional teams in schools. If that was the case, it would be realistic to engage with learners individually and to teach mental health not simply as a theoretical construct but to allow learners to experience it first-hand in schools. NK: Thank you for your time and valuable personal and professional insights! 3 Expert Interview: EFL Teacher

Christel Beck-Zangenberg is a teacher of English and History who has been working at German public schools for thirty years. After participating in the symposium “Mental Health in Foreign Language Education” in November 2021, she kindly agreed to this interview on her personal and professional perspective on mental health issues in the school context. NK: First, tell me a little about yourself and your work. How long have you been a teacher, what kind of school do you teach at, which subjects do you teach?

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CBZ: I have been teaching English and History at German grammar schools for thirty years. I am the Head of the English department. For many years, I was also active as a staff councillor and staff council chairperson. NK: You also have a second job with a connection to the field of mental health. Could you tell me a little bit about that as well? CBZ: I would like to elaborate a little here… My first job directly after my traineeship was at the Friedrich-Rückert-Gymnasium in Ebern. A colleague, who at that time was about to complete his training in theme-centered inter‐ action (TCI)1, noticed that I seemed to be missing something as a young professional. He drew my attention to TCI courses offered at the Academy for Teacher Training and Personnel Management (ALP) in Dillingen. These courses dealt with a wide range of topics, e.g. the design of lively learning processes, communication skills or strategies for conflict management. This was the entry into my second professional field. From that time onward, I attended further TCI courses regularly and quickly realized that they were assessment-free opportunities for my personal and professional development not available in my first training. I experienced the four-factor model of TCI as highly significant to establishing meaningful relationships at school, dealing with conflicts, and designing and reflecting on teaching and learning processes in school. Following the model, group situations can be reduced to four factors, namely the individual persons involved (I), the relationship and interaction of individuals (WE), the task at hand (IT) and the context (GLOBE). No matter how complex it might be, any class situation can be understood more comprehensively and become manageable. Ideally, all four factors receive equal attention in a living-learning process2 and are thus in “dynamic balance” with each other. It was good to reflect on myself and on my professional practice regularly, and it has undoubtedly contributed to maintaining my mental health as well as my professional satisfaction. As I am convinced of this and want to pass it on, I trained over the years as a TCI coach, took the TCI diploma, completed training as a supervisor and coach following the Gestalt approach, and subsequently, the advanced training Gestalt therapeutic bodywork. Through an MBSR course (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), I discovered mindfulness and this school year – with a colleague – I participated in a course called “Learning with Mindfulness and Silence at Secondary Schools” with the goal of implementing 1 2

RCI international. Since the 1970s, TCI was promoted by the “Workshop Institute for Living Learning” (WILL), which has since been restructured as “Ruth Cohn Institute for TCI” (RCI Österreich).

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it at our school. In my other profession, I work with individuals, but also with groups and teams from different professional fields, helping them to reflect on, work through and clarify issues arising from their professional activities. The clients always determine the topic and goal of the consultation and – with my support – develop options for action. NK: Thank you for this insight into your professional background and develop‐ ment. From this perspective, what do you think are some of the main mental health issues facing learners and teachers today? CBZ: I suspect that almost all mental health disorders in our society are also naturally found in schools. Teachers, for example, repeatedly come in contact with adolescents who are depressed, who exhibit self-injurious behavior, have eating or anxiety disorders or suffer from addictions. The number of unreported cases is undoubtedly higher because as a teacher, I only find out about a student’s illness if it is obvious or if the person affected or his or her parents want to tell me about it. Among the school staff, the number of teachers who are permanently ill is increasing – and not just since the Coronavirus pandemic. In this context, the results of a nationwide survey of 1,300 school principals commissioned by the Verband Bildung und Erziehung (VBE) by Forsa, published in January 2022, are particularly alarming.3 Half of the respondents stated that there had been more frequent long-term absences of teachers in their schools due to mental illness in recent years. That compares to 37 % in the last survey in 2019. For me, dealing with mental illness is challenging for both groups of people – learners and faculty. So, on the one hand, how do those affected deal with the illness themselves? Do they actively tackle it or do they repress it? Do they seek therapeutic help? And, at the same time, how can I, as a teacher, provide support for sick adolescents in a school environment where there are few multi-professional teams as backup? How do I accompany an increasing number of ill young people in a school system that, even before the pandemic, had to cope with a wealth of demands such as inclusion, the integration of children and young people from other cultural backgrounds, digitalization and medialization, to name just a few topics? For me, however, the biggest challenge for both groups is the question: How do I stay healthy in this school system? It has been proven that mutual support within the teaching staff plays a major role, as well as the workplace atmosphere. A significant contribution can be made by school administrations

3

VBE 2021.

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that enable genuine participation and delegate responsibility, which in turn promotes teachers’ independence and self-efficacy.4 And how do children and young people stay healthy? That’s where we adults – parents and teachers – have a responsibility. The state has made health promotion an integral part of the curriculum. In Bavaria, it is included in the current LehrplanPLUS curriculum among the general and interdisciplinary educational goals. Health is named here as the first of six fields of action regarding essential life skills. Thus, the importance of health promotion is undisputed, but how much of it actually reaches and is permanently embedded in the school day? I worry when I think about the Forsa survey. How do we, as teachers, guide the children and young people here? How do we model healthy behaviour for them in a school environment in which numerous colleagues can no longer work due to mental illness? NK: These are essential questions you raise, none of which have easy answers. This leads me to my next question: Which role do you think schools play – or should play – when it comes to students’ and teachers’ mental health? CBZ: In my experience, the topic of mental health plays a minor role at school. It reminds me of the metaphor of the “elephant in the room,” so it’s hard to miss, but it’s not really talked about either. The topic certainly doesn’t get the attention it should receive, which could be due in part to the fact that traditional schools don’t have the space or time for it. On the other hand, it also has to “fit,” which means that as a teacher, I should feel confident that I can support adolescents appropriately on rather sensitive, personal issues. Nevertheless, for me, school is where young people should always have the opportunity to learn about themselves and their health – physically and mentally – carefully, step by step, according to their respective developmental stage. “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”5 states Goal Three of the SDGs, and this includes mental health. When, if not in childhood and adolescence, do young people lay the foundation for their future, hopefully healthy, lives? NK: Do these issues affect your teaching at all? How? CBZ: Topics related to mental health have always been part of my classroom work and teaching. If students want to address and elaborate on something on their own initiative in class, then I provide the space. With the class situation in mind, I also decide whether it is in the student’s best interest to talk after class or whether it is appropriate to call in the school psychologist as an expert.

4 5

Schoch et al. (2019). United Nations.

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It’s always a balancing act. As I said, in many classes and courses, students are wrestling with mental health issues, but the student file often provides only a few scant lines, if any at all. This is understandable, as it is a matter of protecting the learner’s privacy, but it also admittedly makes it more challenging to deal with mental health issues. As a teacher, I also have to weigh up whether, for example, a trigger warning might be appropriate for specific content in the lessons. The issue of self-direction or self-leadership, which I place among the life skills, has been increasingly influential in my teaching over the past few years. I consistently provide students – mainly those in higher grades – with stimuli for reflection and self-reflection. They are encouraged and guided to keep a journal, a kind of learner’s diary, and to reflect on themselves and their learning process. At least once a semester, I talk with the learners more about their studies, goals, and experiences in my classes. What and how much they want to tell me is, of course, up to them. NK: Do these issues also play a role in your English classes? Do you think they should be explicitly addressed in class? How could this be done? CBZ: Health promotion is part of the Bavarian curriculum and modern foreign languages, including English, are obliged to contribute to the interdis‐ ciplinary educational goals.6 This means that there is a place for topics in English lessons that deal with a healthy lifestyle and the development of the corresponding life skills. Material for the lessons can be found, for example, in the regular English textbooks. As a teacher, I then decide, depending on the interest and the situation in my class or course, whether and how we will delve into the topic in greater depth. When it comes to mental health, this can sometimes be tricky. You should, therefore, know your students well so that you don’t unknowingly trigger something there. Teaching units explicitly on depression, eating disorders or self-injurious behavior are certainly possible. Personally, however, I am rather cautious about this for the reasons already mentioned. Nevertheless, some topics are very present in real life and in the media, and are therefore always addressed in the classroom. I’m thinking of current political events, such as the war in Europe or global warming, for example. It is difficult to ignore one’s emotional involvement in such topics. This should always be an opportunity for students to give space to their feelings and to explore a healthy way of dealing with them. Regarding concrete implementation in the classroom, I consider a more traditional setting to be less suitable. I prefer individualized learning arrange‐

6

ISB.

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ments such as project work or learning circles. It is important to me that the students take notes in their journals, thereby accompanying themselves and their learning process and – if possible – also noting down their emotions, their physical experience. What they want to share of this in conversation with me or in the class discussion is up to them. If I want to collect and read reflections or feedback, I communicate this clearly in advance. In any case, I stay in contact with the learners via the work journal. Considering how the German grammar school is organized, there is hardly any other possibility given the number of students I teach per school year. NK: These are very interesting ideas, thank you. I have one last question: As a teacher who has had some experience with these issues for some years now, what do you hope or wish for in the future? CBZ: I want schools to be vibrant learning places where young people’s healthy physical and psychological development is the focus. Furthermore, they should be centres of communal engagement and thus not only be available to school children, but also to people of all ages from the surrounding political community. In these places, adolescents are individually accompanied in their learning by multi-professional teams with broad personal and professional qualifications. Regular supervision during working hours by external staff is provided. From the very beginning, young people learn as independently as possible. In this way, they take on part of the responsibility for their learning path, their goals and thus also their lives at an early age. In addition, they gain experience with the practice of mindfulness and are guided to acquire knowledge and understanding of themselves, their fellow human beings and the world around them. There are schools in the Federal Republic of Germany that have already successfully implemented much of this. Some have won the German School Award.7 A school I find particularly inspiring is the Alemannenschule in Wutöschingen.8 I would like to see an education policy that has the courage to rethink and redesign school as a place of learning. I am aware that this is a Herculean task in the current situation. Support for this must come from a society that realizes how crucial a holistic education and upbringing is for its young generation, especially given the challenges we face now and in the future. Mental health is central to this.

7 8

Robert Bosch Stiftung. Alemannenschule Wutöschingen.

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NK: Thank you very much for your time and your valuable personal and professional insights! References Alemannenschule Wutöschingen (Eds.). Alemannenschule Wutöschingen. https://www.alemannenschule-wutoeschingen.de (last accessed 6.11.2022). Bonnet, Andreas (2018). Language learners – From learning styles to identity. In: Surkamp, Carola/Viebrock, Britta (Eds.). Teaching English as a foreign language: An introduction, 57–72. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler. Eisenmann, Maria (2019). Teaching English: Differentiation and individualisation. Pader‐ born: Schönigh. Robert Bosch Stiftung (Eds.). Deutscher Schulpreis: Preisträger. https://www.deutscherschulpreis.de/preistraeger (last accessed 6.11.2022). Ruth Cohn Institute (RCI) for TCI – international (Eds.). Ruth Cohn Institute for TCI In‐ ternational. https://www.ruth-cohn-institute.org/start.html (last accessed 4.11.2022). Ruth Cohn Institut (RCI) Österreich (Eds.). Ruth Cohn Institut für TZI Österreich: Vereinsgeschichte. https://www.rci.at/verband/österreich/geschichte/ (last accessed 4.11.2022). Schoch, Simone/Maas, Jasper/Rackow, Pamela/Scholz, Urte/Schüler, Julia/Wegner, Mirko/Keller, Roger (2019). Forschungsprojekt “Führung, Zusammenarbeit und Lehr‐ personengesundheit” – Projektbericht. Zürich: Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich, Zentrum Inklusion und Gesundheit in der Schule. https://phzh.ch/globalassets/ phzh.ch/forschung/forschungszentren/iugids/projektbericht_juni.pdf (last accessed 6.11.2022). Staatsinstitut für Schulqualität und Bildungsforschung (ISB) (Eds.). LehrplanPLUS Gym‐ nasium. Fachprofil Moderne Fremdsprachen. https://www.lehrplanplus.bayern.de/ fachprofil/gymnasium/englisch/auspraegung/moderne_fremdsprachen (last accessed 4.11.2022). United Nations (Eds.). Sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3 (last accessed 17.11.2022). Verband Bildung und Erziehung (VBE) (Eds.) (2021). Die Schule aus Sicht der Schulleiter‐ innen und Schulleiter – Gesundheitsvorsorge und Gesundheitsförderung Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten Repräsentativbefragung. https://www.vbe.de/fileadmin/ user_upload/VBE/Service/Meinungsumfragen/2022-01-21_Bericht-Bund_ Gesundheit.pdf (last accessed 4.11.2022)

Section 1: Curriculum and Competencies

We Got a Match!1 Examining Potential Connections between English Language Teaching and Mental Health Education

Daniel Becker

1 Introduction

Mental health issues represent one of the global challenges of the 21st century (United Nations 2016; WHO 2019), especially among children and teenagers. As the World Health Organisation points out, by now one out of seven young people between the age of 10 and 19 are afflicted by a form of mental disorder, which accounts for “13% of the global burden of disease in this age group” (WHO 2021). Among these disorders, depression and anxiety present the most prevalent ailments in many teenagers’ lives, as they are increasingly becoming “the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents” worldwide (WHO 2021). In light of these alarming developments, it is not surprising that both researchers and educators have recently started to highlight the importance of mental health education for children and teenagers. More precisely, they call for the development of adolescents’ mental health literacy (cf. Jorm 2012) which is supposed to enable them to become aware of and better cope with current mental health stressors, challenges, and misconceptions in their everyday surroundings. In this educational endeavor, schools play a most pivotal role. As Alexa Bagnell and Darcy Santor (2015: 50) state, schools are “the one natural setting” among public institutions which accompany adolescents throughout their puberty as a time of fundamental physiological, cognitive, and emotional change – and a time in which most mental disorders first take shape. As such, schools provide an essential institutional framework for guiding teenagers through “a time of significant vulnerability to life stress” (Weist et al. 2015: 1). 1

The following article is an abbreviated and altered version of an article published in Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 34 (1), 2023, with kind permission by the editors.

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According to official guidelines for health education in German schools (e.g. KMK 2012a), this mission concerns all school subjects alike: In order to prepare young people for their mental health challenges and disorders, every subject is required to address the topic from its own specific thematic and curricular perspective, which makes mental health education in schools an inherently interdisciplinary project. The present paper will explore this shared project in more detail by theoret‐ ically inquiring to what extent the core subject of English can contribute to adolescents’ mental health education. It will be argued that the EFL curricular framework provides specific conceptual potentials and points of departure that allow the inclusion of mental health-related topics and mental health literacy on a linguistic, textual, cultural, and discursive level. In exploring these potentials in the German EFL context, the paper provides a first short overview over a possible relationship between English language teaching and mental health education and, thus, addresses a current gap in foreign language research. Although studies have recognized diverse global challenges and approaches for language education – e.g. global education (e.g. Lütge 2015), critical literacy (e.g. Gerlach 2020), or ecocriticism (e.g. Bartosch 2021) – the globally relevant topic of mental disorders has been mostly neglected so far. The paper consists of two steps: First, the paper will elaborate on the concepts of mental health education and mental health literacy as a theoretical background to the subsequent analysis. In the second step, the paper will examine different curricular and conceptual elements of English language teaching as points of departure for making a contribution to mental health education. 2 Mental Health Education and Mental Health Literacy

Mental health education is a rather recent phenomenon which only gradually came into existence over the past two decades. Conceptually, it derives from the more general notion of health education (Kutcher et al. 2016) and can be viewed as a direct response to the lack of mental health discussions in the public health sector: [f]or major physical diseases, it is widely accepted that members of the public will benefit by knowing what actions they can take for prevention, early intervention, and treatment. However, this type of public knowledge about mental disorders […] has received much less attention. (Jorm 2012: 231)

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According to David Días Neto et al. (2020) this lack of attention and knowledge primarily results from an on-going public stigmatisation of mental disorders. They point out that “communities will not discuss or convey information on mental health issues” due to its taboo nature, which ultimately “reduce[s] individual awareness and help-seeking behaviours” regarding any mental health concern (2020: 65). Thus, there is a strong imbalance between what people know about physical and mental health problems. Despite rising numbers of mental disorders worldwide, there still exist some major misconceptions among adults and teenagers alike about what constitutes different disorders or how they can be treated effectively. In this context, mental health education describes any (institutional) learning process by which individuals are meant to achieve a more profound under‐ standing of mental health2 and by which existing misconceptions can be critically re-negotiated. The overarching goal of any such learning endeavour is the development of individuals’ mental health literacy. The concept was first introduced by Anthony Jorm et al. in 1997, who defined it as any “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management, and prevention” (Jorm et al. 1997: 182). Since then, mental health literacy has been conceptually expanded: More recent studies move beyond the notion of “knowledge and beliefs” to include a whole “range of cognitive and social skills and capacities that support mental health promotion” (CAMIMH 2007: 36). According to Stan Kutcher et al. (2016: 155) for example, mental health literacy presents a most complex concept which entails a variety of components, including “understanding how to obtain and maintain positive mental health” and “decreasing stigma related to mental disorders”, as well as “knowing when and where to seek help and developing competencies designed to improve one’s mental health care”. Similarly, in his more recent studies, Anthony Jorm (2012: 231) refers to five intersecting aspects at the core of mental health literacy: (a) the public’s knowledge of how to prevent mental disorders, (b) recognition of when a disorder is developing, (c) knowledge of help-seeking options and treatments available, (d) knowledge of effective self-help strategies for milder problems, and (e) first aid skills to support others affected by mental health problems.

In comparison to his earlier work, therefore, Anthony Jorm acknowledges the inherent complexity and multidimensional processes involved in the concept. 2

In line with the mental health literacy pyramid as suggested by the international initiative mentalhealthliteracy.org, the term mental health is used throughout the paper as an umbrella term which includes both mental disorders as well as minor mental distresses and general mental health awareness.

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This complex understanding, finally, is also mirrored by Matt O’Connor et al. (2014) who adapt and comprise several recent conceptualisations into a more holistic mental health literacy framework. They perceive mental health literacy as a “multifaceted concept” (2014: 197) which, in their opinion, is constituted in the interplay between three major dimensions:

Fig. 1: The mental health literacy framework (O’Connor et al. 2014: 198)

First, mental health literacy involves the ability to identify disorders in one’s per‐ sonal environment (recognition). This ability is closely linked to an individual’s knowledge about specific disorders, which ranges from knowing different causes and risk factors to comprehending how and where to find information and help in pressing situations. Finally, both recognition and knowledge can only thrive on personal attitudes of openness and tolerance towards the phenomenon of mental disorders, which allow individuals to not only reflect their own fears and biases but also generate the personal willingness to engage with mental health concerns in the first place. This openness thus ultimately refers back to the promotion of recognition and knowledge, which shows once more that mental health literacy needs to be perceived as a complex and multidimensional interaction of different abilities and actions and that individuals who want to become literate need to be able to coordinate a multitude of cognitive, affective, and social operations at once. 3 Developing Mental Health Literacy in the EFL Classroom: Four Levels

With this complexity of the concept in mind, it appears reasonable to assume that an individual school subject cannot fully foster mental health literacy on its own. Rather, adolescents’ comprehensive understanding of the concept and

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all its components rely on a joined effort of all school subjects, with each utilising its specific potentials to contribute to the overall complexity of mental health literacy. This also includes the subject of English. The following section discusses four interrelated levels on which the EFL classroom can potentially contribute to mental health education and mental health literacy (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Four potentials of English language teaching for mental health education

  3.1 Linguistic Level

The first potential of English language teaching to support mental health education can be found on a linguistic level and lies in the fact that in the EFL classroom interaction takes place in a foreign language. According to the German curriculum, EFL learning in schools is based on the principle of functional monolingualism (funktionale Einsprachigkeit; MSB NRW 2019: 8). This means that teachers and learners are supposed to make use of the L2 as much as possible in class – in order to create versatile opportunities for developing communicative competence – while only using the L1 where necessary. The EFL classroom, therefore, rests upon a clear hierarchy between the L2 and the L1 and, as such, the English language is both the object and the medium of classroom instruction (Wessel 2018). It is this prevalent and important role of the L2 that already provides a most productive setting for addressing mental health related issues. This is the case because learners have a substantially different relationship to the L2 than to the L1. Boaz Keysar et al. (2012), for example, argue that learners connect to their first language mostly on an emotional level – as a language that has been acquired rather than learned – while the L2 is predominantly accessed through a more cognitive perspective, as a language that is consciously processed. Consequently, as Lela Ivaz et al. (2016: 489) point out, “foreign language processing may elicit a reduced emotional response as compared with native language processing”, so that “people […] feel less emotionally

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reactive when using a foreign language”. This argument is also underlined by Catherina Caldwell-Harris (2014) who explains the reduced emotionality with the different contexts in which individuals encounter the L1 and the L2, which leads to different bonds being formed between the two languages and a person’s autobiographical memory. In the EFL classroom, this reduced emotionality means that the shift from the L1 to the L2 potentially allows learners to create a safe distance from the sensitive and emotionally ‛heavy’ topic of mental disorders. Through the English language, learners can achieve at least a partial disconnect from talking about something that might affect them personally, since they can approach the topic from the more reflective and cognitive point of view of the L2. The EFL classroom, thus, has the potential to provide learners with a protective space in which the very use of a foreign language can become the catalyst for learning to dissect the phenomenon of mental disorders without getting too close in the process. In this position, English language teaching can make an important contribu‐ tion to teenagers’ mental health literacy: Based on Matt O’Connor et al.’s (2014) terminology and dimensions (see section 2), by using the English language learners can not only generate knowledge concerning how to communicate about mental health in the global lingua franca – as a prerequisite for partici‐ pating in international discourses (see section 3.4) – but also work on their own attitudes and openness towards mental disorders: The safe distance of the L2 can be beneficial to initiate a careful contact with a potentially uncomfortable topic, as learners might use the more detached and emotionally less reactive realm of EFL communication to negotiate and better cope with their own biases, fears, and emotional reservations towards a more reflective personal stance in the future.   3.2 Textual Level

These linguistic benefits are directly related to potentials on the textual level of English language teaching. Learners do not encounter the English language in a cultural vacuum but predominantly in the realm of English language texts. Language learning, therefore, necessarily encompasses the notion of textual learning which, according to the German curricular guidelines, means working with a whole range of both analogue and digital, as well as factual and literary texts (KMK 2012b: 20). Ultimately, this process of textual work in the EFL classroom guides learners towards the development of text- and media competence, as well as literary competence (see e.g. Lütge 2012), which

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both entail the ability to understand, critically reflect, and produce texts (in the broadest sense) in their own everyday environment. The primary preoccupation with texts and textual competence in the EFL classroom provides another helpful scenario to support learners’ mental health literacy – especially in the realm of learning with literary texts. More precisely, literature in the EFL classroom can offer insights into experiences and events learners otherwise would not be able to experience (cf. Steinbrügge 2016). They provide a medium for engaging with the unfamiliar, the unknown, and even the socially stigmatized (Becker 2023), and, thus, show the potential to also get learners in contact with the taboo topic of mental illness. This potential can be particularly achieved with young adult literature in which the challenge of teenage mental disorders has been more prominently addressed over the past few years. Novels such as Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007), Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia (2017), or Adib Khorram’s Darius The Great Is Not Okay (2018) present intimate portraits of young people’s mental ailments and, therefore, can be used in the EFL classroom to generate new perspectives on an otherwise stigmatised topic. In doing so, young adult literary texts, which have been more prominently integrated in English language teaching in recent years (cf. Surkamp 2017), can make a most holistic contribution to learners’ mental health literacy. First, the novels can assist learners in terms of their recognition and knowledge processes. As Lothar Bredella (2008: 14) points out, literature dramatises social phenomena, as it takes complex aspects from the ‛real’ world and puts them on a literary stage where they become more clearly visible and accessible for readers. The aforementioned novels do the same thing with complex mental disorders: They allow concise firsthand insights into characters’ feelings and behaviours that usually accompany a specific mental disorder (e.g. Darius Kellner in Darius the Great Is Not Okay feels downtrodden due to his depression and isolates himself from others). Furthermore, they address various triggers of mental disorders that are not so easily observable in learners’ everyday environments (e.g. the importance of bullying and a lack of self-worth for the development of Hannah’s harmful behaviour in Thirteen Reasons Why). In addition, using young adult literature in the EFL classroom can support learners’ attitudinal development towards mental illness. By presenting teenage protagonists and their everyday struggles with growing up, young adult novels facilitate teenage readers’ identification with the fictional world (Matz/Stieger 2015), which might ultimately also make readers more sympathetic towards characters’ mental constitution. As Ariane Manutscheri (2021: 33) states,

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engagement with such literature could help foster empathy in those who have not previously had any frame of reference of what it is like to have a mental illness by being invited to take on the perspective of a character dealing with this condition.

Due to their relatability, young adult novels can offer an immersive reading experience for learners, so they can suspend their disbelief (Diehr/Surkamp 2015: 25) to be drawn closer to the mental challenges in characters’ story arches. Yet, by only perceiving mental disorder through the lens of fictional characters, they do not need to reveal potential struggles of their own and, thus, can once more keep a safe distance from getting too involved personally. Overall, therefore, literary texts in the EFL classroom can make a most important contribution to mental health education. Literature has the power of lifting existing stigmata and granting access to the complex phenomenon underneath, so that the EFL classroom as a literature classroom can become an emancipatory setting for learners in which they can more openly address mental disorders through the lens of fictional worlds. Seen from a textual perspective, English language teaching has the potential to offer learners firsthand insights and a literary gateway into the emotional and cognitive foundations of mental health issues and thus might play a significant role in better understanding the phenomenon.   3.3 Cultural Level

In addition, the EFL classroom has the potential to let learners explore mental disorders and mental health from a cultural perspective. English language teaching not only deals with texts (see 3.2) but also with the cultural and social contexts in which texts are produced, so that cultural learning and the development of (inter-)cultural competence are another important objective of foreign language education (KMK 2012b: 11). Thus, according to the German curricular guidelines, learners are to be enabled to compare values and norms of different cultures in the context of their own cultural position (KMK 2012b: 19 f.), in order to develop a respectful and open demeanor towards the cultural other. Ultimately, this cultural learning process rests upon learners’ awareness that their knowledge, thoughts, and actions towards any cultural phenomenon or event are socially conditioned and constructed (KMK 2002: 16). As such, the EFL classroom guides learners towards comprehending culture as a dynamic practice of meaning-making (Hallet 2002). It is in this capacity that English language teaching can support learners to uncover and understand the cultural dimension of mental health and illness. Thus, from the perspective of intercultural learning, for example, the phenom‐

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enon of mental health can be observed in different cultural contexts, so that learners recognize that different cultures represent mental disorders differently: In some contexts, for instance, mental disorders can be openly discussed, while in others they are strictly taboo. By examining how mental disorders are represented in these different cultural contexts – e.g. via newspapers, blogs or other media reports from different cultures – the EFL classroom can guide learners towards understanding that the notion of mental health and mental disorders is a highly context-sensitive and dynamic phenomenon (Bracken and Thomas 2018). Through its cultural lens, language teaching has the potential to let learners decipher the cultural mechanisms and semiotics behind these different contexts and, as such, they can learn to perceive mental disorders not only as a psychological but also as a representational phenomenon which only becomes meaningful in the “social construction of what constitutes health and illness” (van Beveren et al. 2020: 1363). Furthermore, the EFL classroom can also cast a transcultural and global perspective (cf. Lütge 2015; Matz et al. 2015) on mental health. Seen from this perspective, learners are less concerned with finding cultural differences than rather examining ways of representing mental health topics that transcend individual cultural constellations – e.g. learners can encounter many social media posts from all over the world, which often show stylized black and white photographs or specific gestures when talking about mental disorders. In that way, the EFL classroom can make learners aware of mental disorders as a global phenomenon. It becomes a third space and “contact zon[e]” for representations (Matz et al. 2015: 8), in which learners can recognize the world-wide significance of mental disorders in today’s societal and youth cultural debates. As such, the subject of English makes another valuable contribution to the development of learners’ mental health literacy. More precisely, they can gain knowledge about the cultural construction of mental disorders in public discussions and also recognize different forms of representation in different cultural constellations, as well as in its global scale. Furthermore, on that basis, learners can work on their own attitudes towards mental health, as they learn to sensibly and respectfully adapt their manner of addressing the topic to different addressees and their respective cultural contexts. Finally, on the cultural level learners can also establish a most important meta-awareness of how their own recognition, knowledge and attitudes are culturally coded. The EFL classroom becomes a reflective environment in which learners can critically engage with their own understanding and cultural conceptualisation of mental health literacy, as a prerequisite for realising that what they know and think about mental disorders is necessarily also a cultural question.

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3.4 Discursive Level

Finally, English language teaching can support mental health education through the development of foreign language discourse competence (fremdsprachige Diskursfähigkeit). Discourse competence establishes the highest goal of English language teaching and refers to a learner’s ability to understand existing cultural discourses (in a Foucaultian sense), as well as to use one’s communicative capacities in the English language to actively shape these discourses (Hallet 2012). English language teaching thus culminates in preparing learners as communicative co-constructors of cultural realities who perceive their language learning as an act of empowerment for cultural participation. The discursive orientation of the EFL framework provides an ideal foundation for fostering learners’ ability to understand and shape contemporary mental health discourses. For example, by focusing on the interplay between commu‐ nication, discourse and participation, the EFL classroom offers an important opportunity to address the discursive formation of taboos that still surround dis‐ courses of mental disorders today. As pointed out in section 2, the stigmatisation of mental disorders in public often stands in the way of mental health literacy. In the EFL classroom, learners can learn to recognise and communicatively counteract these discursive barriers: Building on their understanding of cultural semiotics (see section 3.3), learners can become aware of the discursive dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of mental health debates and they can learn to use their communicative abilities to transform these dynamics and create more open debates in the future. Consequently, the development of discourse competence in English language teaching becomes a means of letting learners perceive themselves as co-constructors of present and future mental health debates, as they can notice that their own voices and utterances matter and that English as a global lingua franca is a powerful tool to take communicative action. This action component on the discursive level of English language teaching also offers a valuable addition to the current concept of mental health literacy. Learners are enabled to not only engage with the symptoms and causes of mental disorders, but they can also realise that shaping knowledge about mental health is a matter of active participation. In the EFL classroom, therefore, the term literacy can be understood in the way of multiliteracies pedagogy (Kalantzis and Cope 2015): Literacy is not only recognition, knowledge, and attitudes but it is also social practice. Hence, through the development of discourse competence learners can understand both what mental disorders are and how to participate in their negotiation.

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4 Conclusion and Research Implications

The goal of this paper was to provide an overview over some points of departure of how English language education can be connected to mental health education; and how the subject can contribute to mental health literacy. As the analysis has shown, the EFL classroom lends itself rather well to the discussion of mental disorders, since, within its own framework and objectives, it can make specific contributions to all dimensions of mental health literacy – and can even add some new elements to the conceptual mix. More to the point, in the EFL classroom, learners find a linguistic safe space to address the topic in the first place (linguistic level), are invited to closely examine aspects of mental disorders in literary texts (textual level), can explore the representational nature of mental illness in cultural learning processes (cultural level) and are empowered to use their communicative abilities to participate in mental health discourses (discursive level). As such, English language education offers many opportunities for including mental-health related issues and allows learners to develop a broad understanding of what constitutes the phenomenon of mental disorders. While focusing on potential points of departure, one must not forget that there are also some EFL-specific challenges and barriers in the way of mental health education. Thus, for example, a recent study by Christian Ludwig and Theresa Summer (2022) shows that EFL teachers might not feel comfortable with teaching such a sensitive topic, claiming that they do not have the education and/or methodologies to do so. Furthermore, teachers’ own well-being (Mercer and Gregersen 2020) and the lack of EFL materials on the topic of mental health in the German context might additionally render the implementation of mental health topics difficult. It thus seems inevitable to address these issues in future research, because in order to transform the theoretical potentials discussed above into actual classroom practice, such barriers need to be considered; and the present volume is a first step in that direction.

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References Asher, Jay (2007). Thirteen reasons why. New York: Razor Bill. Bagnell, Alexa/Santor, Darcy (2015). The future of teaching mental health literacy in schools. In: Weist, Marc D./Kutscher, Stan/ Wei, Yifend (Eds.). School mental health: Global challenges and opportunities. Cambridge: CUP, 46–60. Bartosch, Roman (2021). Cultivating sustainability in language and literature pedagogy: Steps to an educational ecology. London: Routledge. Becker, Daniel (2023). Facing the invisible – Taboos as texts and cultural learning in English language education. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education: Critical language pedagogy in theory, research and practice. London: Routledge, 31–39. Bracken, Pat/Thomas, Phil (2018). Reflections on critical psychiatry. In: Cohen, Bruce M.Z. (Ed.). Routledge international handbook of critical mental health. London: Routledge, 98–106. Bredella, Lothar (2008). What makes reading literary texts pleasurable and educationally significant? Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen 37, 12–26. Caldwell-Harris, Catherine L. (2014). Emotionality differences between a native and a foreign language: Theoretical implications. Frontiers in Psychology 5, 1–5. CAMIMH = Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (2007). Mental health literacy in Canada: Phase one report mental health literacy project. Ottawa: CAMIMH. Diehr, Bärbel/Surkamp, Carola (2015). Die Entwicklung literaturbezogener Kompetenzen in der Sekundarstufe I: Modellierung, Abschlussprofil und Evaluation. In: Hallet, Wolfgang/Surkamp, Carola/Krämer, Ulrich (Eds.). Literaturkompetenzen Englisch: Modellierung, Curriculum, Unterrichtsbeispiele. Seelze–Velber: Kallmeyer/Klett, 21– 40. Gerlach, David (Ed.) (2020). Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik: Grundlagen, Ziele, Beis‐ piele. Tübingen: Narr. Hallet, Wolfgang (2002). Fremdsprachenunterricht als Spiel der Texte und Kulturen: Intertextualität als Paradigma einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Didaktik. Trier: WVT. Hallet, Wolfgang (2012). Die komplexe Kompetenzaufgabe: Fremdsprachige Diskursfä‐ higkeit als kulturelle Teilhabe und Unterrichtspraxis. In: Hallet, Wolfgang/Krämer, Ulrich (Eds.). Kompetenzaufgaben im Englischunterricht: Grundlagen und Unter‐ richtsbeispiele. Seelze: Kallmeyer, 8–19. Ivaz, Lela/Costa, Albert/Adoni Dunabeitia, Jon (2016). The emotional impact of being my‐ self: Emotion and foreign-language processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 42 (3), 489–496. Jorm, Anthony F./Korten, Alisa E./Jacomb, Patricia A./Christensen, Helen/Rodgers, Bryan/Pollitt, Penelope (1997). Mental health literacy: A survey of the public’s ability

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to recognize mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. The Medical Journal of Australia 166, 182–186. Jorm, Anthony F. (2012). Mental health literacy: Empowering the community to take action for better mental health. American Psychologist 67 (3), 231–243. Kalantzis, Mary/Cope, Bill (2015). Literacies. Cambridge: CUP. Keysar, Boaz/Hayakawa, Sayuri L./Gyu An, Sun (2012). The foreign-language effect: Thinking in a foreign tongue reduces decision biases. Psychological Science 23 (6), 661–668. Khorram, Adib (2018). Darius the great is not okay. New York: Penguin. KMK = Kultusministerkonferenz (2002). Bildungsstandards für die erste Fremdsprache (Englisch/Französisch) für den Mittleren Schulabschluss. https://www.kmk.org/ fileadmin/Dateien/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse/2003/2003_12_04-BS-erste-Fre mdsprache.pdf (last accessed: 20.01.2022). Kultusministerkonferenz (2012a). Empfehlung zur Gesundheitsförderung und Präven‐ tion in der Schule. https://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse /2012/ 2012_11_15-Gesundheitsempfehlung.pdf (last accessed: 25.01.2022). Kultusministerkonferenz (2012b). Bildungsstandards für die fortgeführte Fremdsprache (Englisch/Französisch) für die Allgemeine Hochschulreife. https://www.kmk.org/fi leadmin/Dateien/veroeffentlichungen_beschlesse/2012/2012_10_18-Bildungsstandar ds-Fortgef-FS-Abi.pdf (last accessed: 02.02.2022). Kutcher, Stan/Wei, Yifeng/Coniglio, Connie (2016). Mental health literacy: Past, present, and future. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 61 (3), 154–158. Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (2022). Integrating taboo topics into ELT: Investi‐ gating future english teachers’s point of view. TDAJ 2 (2), 42–48. Lütge, Christiane (2012). Developing ‛Literary Literacy’? – Towards a progression of literary learning. In: Eisenmann, Maria/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Basic issues in EFL teaching and learning. Heidelberg: Winter, 191–202. Lütge, Christiane (Ed.) (2015). Global education: Perspectives for english language teaching. Münster: LIT Verlag. Manutscheri, Ariane (2021). ‛Your now is not your forever’ – destigmatizing mental health through young adult literature. Children’s literature in english language education 9 (2), 30–51. Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Siepmann, Philipp (2015). Einleitung. In: Matz, Frauke/ Rogge, Michael/Siepmann, Philipp (Eds.). Transkulturelles Lernen im Englischunter‐ richt: Theorie und Praxis. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 7–18. Matz, Frauke/Stieger, Anne (2015). Teaching young adult fiction. In: Delanoy, Werner/ Eisenmann, Maria/Matz, Frauke (Eds.). Learning with literature in the EFL classroom. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 121–140.

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Mental health literacy. Language matters: The importance of when we’re talking about mental health. Mentalhealthliteracy.org. https://mentalhealthliteracy.org/product/ using-the-right-words/ (last accessed: 25.02.2022). Mercer, Sarah/Gregersen, Tammy (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford: OUP. MSB NRW = Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (2019). Kernlehrplan für die Sekundarstufe I Gymnasium in Nordrhein-Westfalen. https:// www.schulentwicklung.nrw.de/lehrplaene/lehrplan/199/g9_e_klp_%203417_2019_06 _23.pdf (last accessed: 01.10.2022). Neto, David Días/Rocha, Ines/Figueiras, Joao/Nunes da Silva, Ana (2020). Measuring mental health literacy: Adaptation and validation of the Portuguese version of the mental health literacy scale (MHLS). European Journal of Mental Health 16, 64–77. O’Connor, Matt/Casey, Leanne/Clough, Bonnie (2014). Measuring mental health literacy – a review of scale-based measures. Journal of Mental Health 23 (4), 197–204. Steinbrügge, Lieselotte (2016). Fremdsprache literatur: Literarische Texte im Fremdspra‐ chenunterricht. Tübingen: Narr. Surkamp, Carola (2017). On the history of the canons of English literature at German schools. In: Barbara Schaff/Schlegel, Johannes/Surkamp, Carola (Eds.). The institution of English literature: Formation and mediation. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 257–271. United Nations (2016). Putting mental health at centre of development agenda. https://news.un.org/en/audio/2016/04/611332 (last accessed: 21.02.2022). Van Beveren, Laura/Rutten, Kris/Hensing, Gunnel (2020). A critical perspective on mental health news in six european countries: How are ‛Mental Health/Illness’ and ‛Mental Health Literacy’ rhetorically constructed? Quality Health Research 30 (9), 1362–1378. Weist, Marc D.Kutcher, Stan/ Wei, Yifeng (2015). The global advancement of school mental health for adolescents. In: Weist, Marc D./Kutcher, Stan/Wei, Yifeng (Eds.). School mental health: Global challenges and opportunities. Cambridge: CUP, 1–5. Wessel, Frank (2018). Nur Englisch sprechen? In: Böttger, Helmut (Ed.). Englisch: Didaktik für die Grundschule. 4th ed. Berlin: Cornelsen Verlag, 49–59. WHO = World Health Organisation (2019). The WHO special initiative for mental health (2019-2023): Universal Health Coverage for Mental Health. https://apps.who.int/ iris/bitstream/handle/10665/310981/WHO-MSD-19.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowe d=y (last accessed: 19.01.2022). World Health Organisation (2021). Adolescent mental health. https://www.who.int/ news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health (last accessed: 22.02.2022). Zappia, Francesca (2017). Eliza and her monsters. New York: Greenwillow Books.

The Worst is Yet to Come: Theoretical and Empirical Findings on Mental Health in a Climate-Changed World

Roman Bartosch & Stefanie Fuchs

1 Introduction: The Coming Crisis

Research has rightly identified mental health as “one of the global challenges of the 21st century” (Becker, 2023). This pertains not only to the general and to the more systemic dimensions of what we are calling ‛future stress’ – the adverse conditions of late modernity for individual and community well-being as well as the increasing pressures digitalisation, polarisation and global inequality exert on societies. Increasingly, problems of student and teacher mental health are also exacerbated by looming and palpable climate catastrophes (including global heating and mass extinction) and their effects as ‛disenfranchised grief’ (Doka 2002). This contribution sets out to unpack some implications of this development and presents theoretical and empirical findings that we hope can help to better prepare teachers and teacher educators for these coming crises. It is hardly surprising that future scenarios of frequent extreme weather events and climate-related migration in a world of runaway anthropogenic climate change and the large-scale collapse of animal populations and ecosys‐ tems are frightening. What is surprising, however, is the present mismatch between the degree and severity of anxiety in young people and the relative ignorance – indeed the denial and tabooing – of decision-makers and educators in this regard (see Bartosch 2023 and discussion of findings below). A recent and much-cited study notes that “[s]ubstantial levels of climate-related distress are reported globally” and that this exposure to stress and resulting anxiety “has a long-lasting impact and increases the risk of developing mental health problems” (Hickman et al. 2021: e864). The authors acknowledge they were “disturbed by the scale of emotional and psychological effects of climate change upon the children of the world” (2021: e872), and their demand for “greater responsiveness to children’s and young people’s concerns, more in-depth-re‐

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search, and immediate action on climate change” (ibid.) is underlined by the conclusion from a recent review of current literature on negative feelings and hopelessness in the face of escalating climate crises. The review concludes that “climate pessimism is only likely to become more prevalent and powerful” in the future, “particularly among young people” (Higgins 2022: 1/129). And yet, despite what seem to us unequivocal implications for teacher education and pedagogical research, awareness and pedagogical knowledge are still rudimentary (Bartosch/Fuchs 2022). With this contribution, we are pursuing three aims: (1) We present find‐ ings from the research literature on climate-related mental health issues, in English Language Teaching (ELT) and beyond, and complement those with (2) a presentation and critical discussion of findings from our own empirical research on climate anxiety, mental health and professional knowledge in future teachers of English. This will lead us to (3) reasoned speculation about future developments of both English and sustainability education and the demand for more appropriate and innovative ELT methodologies that better tackle the daunting demands of a climate-changed future. Our contribution is thus one step in the direction of serious and engaged research for disaster preparedness and resilience in pupils, students and teachers in the context of a “crisis education [that] is able to address the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for people in precarious times” (Kidman/Chang 2020: 107). 2 Theoretical and Empirical Background: Climate, Mental Health and Future Literacies

While the adverse effects of climate-related crises on mental health are undeni‐ able, it is nonetheless necessary to conceptually distinguish between current and future climate-related distress, on the one hand, and helpful suggestions from mental health education more generally, on the other. This is because “climate anxiety is rational and does not imply mental illness” (Hickman et al. 2021: e863). It is with this caveat in mind that we demand a better understanding of prevalent and emerging phenomena relating to climate crises and distress as well as a more conscientious modelling of appropriate future literacies. This implies that future literacies must be understood in the double sense of a specific literacy for future-making imaginaries and practices as demanded by UNESCO (2021; see also Bartosch et al., 2023) and in terms of an acknowledgment that in future, all literacy research as well as educational practice more generally must consider the impacts of climate change and its related crises if it wants to empower learners in a thoroughly altered and likely more uncertain world. The

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following sections present a selection of key concepts that can serve as stepping stones towards such an awareness.   2.1 Future Stress and its Medicalisation

There is no shortage of research that considers adverse effects of future crises and pertaining educational innovations – but on this admittedly general level, it is almost impossible to systematically assess each contribution and its conceptual set-up. This is because most of these approaches, including demands for education for sustainability or sustainable development, environ‐ mental and global learning (e.g., Beach et al. 2017; Misiaszek 2018), future and multi-literacies (e.g., Sippl et al. 2023; Cope/Kalantzis 2000), and research on transformative and ecocritical education (e.g., Bartosch 2021a; Matthewman 2011) are wide-ranging and complex in their concern for the challenges and conflicts of late modernity. In addition, they are often formulated in the more upbeat register of global citizenship and the optimistic vision of a sustainable society on the planetary level. It can in fact be shown that this educational optimism has been in the way of more robust analyses of the challenges and vulnerabilities of educational systems when it comes to mental health and student resilience (Bartosch 2021b). This is problematic especially in light of the projected impacts of what has been dubbed ‛polycrises’ (Lawrence 2022), that is, critical developments that correlate and mutually reinforce each other. The recent years have given a first glimpse of what happens when the systemic financial overstrain of educational institutions meets disruptive digital technologies, is confronted with a global pandemic and its societal and health costs, challenged by a learner heterogeneity boosted by climate and war migration and intensified by shortages of professional staff. Polycrises challenge us because they demand a focus on individual health and resilience without neglecting root causes and the systemic level. As Samantha Walton puts it, “we may be all in the same ocean, but we are definitely not in the same boat, and we are not equally equipped to weather these storms mentally, physically or financially” (Walton 2021: 270). We therefore suggest the frame of ‛future stress’ to help make better sense of the entangled scales of individual, community and systemic stressors and vulnerabilities and acknowledge that related mental health phenomena cannot simply be medicalised but must be seen as indicators of unhealthy societal or socioecological conditions. Future stress describes a diffuse sense of foreboding and dread about the future and might well show in symptoms that might appear pathological, including anxiety and intense grief. But it merely reflects the diffuse and exhaustive nature

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of polycrises that affect individuals, communities and systems or institutions alike and can therefore not be understood right if seen as symptomatic of an individual’s mental health ‛problem’. This is why Walton cautions against “environmental gaslighting”: “These experiences might drive us mad, but they don’t make us delusional” (Walton 2021: 274). Her reminder that “[r]epugnance, suffering and anxiety are the sane outcomes of a broken system” (2021: 275) applies to the educational system as well and should therefore challenge tendencies to medicalise climate-related student mental health issues, if they are perceived at all, as abnormal or pathological.   2.2 Anxiety, Grief and Despair

It goes without saying that being wary of medicalisation or pathologisation tendencies does not imply diminishing the very real mental-health effects of prevailing negative emotions related to climate emergencies. A huge body of research has so far concentrated on phenomena of anxiety, grief and despair (Gislason et al. 2021; Hickman et al. 2021). In order to grasp the nature of the empirical evidence, research from the environmental humanities provides helpful concepts. Ashlee Cunsolo and Neville R. Ellis (2018: 274), for instance, speak of ‛ecological grief’ to subsume a broad range of empirical findings on a variety of “strong emotional responses” to ecological loss and environmental damage, including sadness, distress, despair, anger, fear, helplessness, hopelessness and stress; elevated rates of mood disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and pre- and post-traumatic stress; increased drug and alcohol usage; increased suicide ideation, attempts and death by suicide; threats and disruptions to sense of place and place attachment; and loss of personal or cultural identity and ways of knowing . (Cunsolo/Ellis 2018: 274)

Their research takes its cue from findings pertaining to the mental health of climate and biodiversity researchers as well as indigenous peoples but can also be and has been employed in the context of mental health in children and youth as well (Bartosch/Fuchs 2022). The literature and film scholar E. Ann Kaplan has coined the terms ‛pre‐ traumatic stress’ and ‛Pre-Traumatic Stress Syndrome’ (PreTSS) to indicate a prevailing tendency in contemporary cultural imaginaries to dreading the future and anticipating catastrophe (2020; see also Mayer/Weik von Mossner 2014). She notes that empirical research on the proposed concepts so far is scarce and crafts her argument mostly on the basis of filmic analyses and references from psychoanalysis and programmatic articles in cognitive psychology. It

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might be advisable to be cautious about the clinical connotations of the term. What we find helpful, however, is the very fact that her empirical basis is the “increasing number of futurist dystopian worlds in film and literature” (Kaplan 2015: 1). This not only serves as an indicator of societal imaginaries of the aforementioned notion of polycrisis more broadly but also points to contemporary media ecologies in which students are being socialised and thus offers inroads into literary and cultural learning in ELT contexts (Ahlberg 2021).   2.3 Moral Injury

While research on anxiety, grief and despair is slowly gaining foothold in academic discourse and educational practice alike, less attention has been paid to other concerns, such as “how people might feel guilty […] or feel shame” (Hickman et al. 2021, e864) or the question of moral injury (Marks et al. 2021). Because of its relevance for educational purposes and contexts, we focus here on moral injury and the stakes of schools within frameworks of intergenerational justice. Like the work on ecological grief and eco-anxiety, research on moral injury did not originate in the fields of pedagogy but was transferred from interdisciplinary contexts, especially those concerned with post-traumatic stress in the military but extending into general psychology, social work, philosophy and religious studies (Griffin et al. 2019). As Brandon Griffin et al. note, while there exists “no consensus definition” of the term yet, moral injury usually refers to “severe distress and functional impairments” (2019: 350) that are “generally assumed to result from exposure to events that involve either perpetrating or witnessing actions that violate one’s core beliefs […] or betrayal by a leader or trusted authority” (Griffin et al. 2019: 350–1, emphasis added). The former part of the definition underlines the term’s origin in military research and trauma studies; the latter part indicates its significance for edu‐ cational contexts: the role of trusted communicators is pivotal and includes teachers and educators (Corner et al. 2015: 528). As climate and biodiversity crises intensify and societal and political action remains insignificant, the foundation of trust that explains the impact of teachers and educators is at risk of eroding. The intergenerational dilemma of young people being asked to change themselves and their societies by people of a different age, who are generally identified as bearing the real responsibility for larger-scale change, will thus be likely to become more prevalent since young people “are […] the most vulnerable to the legacy of decisions made by the older generations” (2015: 523). It therefore appears important to consider the detrimental effects

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of feelings of being let-down, faced with indifference or even with betrayal by teachers engaging in insufficiently conceptualised or narrowly conceived sustainability education. It is essential to note that engaging with sustainability transformations within an overall unjust school system and unsustainable society that relegate responsibilities for transition and transformation to young learners can result in moral injury in educators, too (Levinson 2015). In our view, this underlines the importance of collaborative and participatory methodologies and their potentially positive effects on both learners and educators. 3 Teaching English in a Climate-Changed World? An Empirical Exploration of Climate Anxiety and Mental Health in Future Teachers of English

The previous overview is not meant to be exhaustive and has omitted other cen‐ tral terms in the debate – such as ‛solastalgia’ (Albrecht et al. 2007; Albrecht 2017) – as well as proposed forms of amelioration, including mourning and witnessing practices (see Cunsolo/Landman 2017), ‛slow hope’ (Mauch 2019) or ‛active hope’ (Macy/Johnstone 2012), although we will return to some of these ideas below. Before, we present and discuss findings from a mixed-methods empirical project that sought to investigate climate change- and mental health-related knowledge and competence dimensions of pre-service teachers of English (see Bartosch/Fuchs 2022) by way of a digital survey distributed among students in ELT Master’s programmes at two of the largest teacher training institutions in Germany, the Universities of Munich and Cologne. The survey included six questions with pre-defined answer options organized on a five-point Likert scale and fit for quantitative analyses (discussed in Bartosch/Fuchs 2022). In addition, a set of six open questions for qualitative analysis were added that allowed for individual responses and suggestions, especially with an eye on ELT-/TESOL-specific potentials. Two questions were a combination of both, closed and open questions, with a selection of answering options based on Edward Maibach et al. (2009) as well as a box for individual answers. A total number of 212 students from Munich and Cologne participated in the survey, resulting in 200 completed surveys subsequently used for analysis and interpretation. In addition to the results published in Roman Bartosch and Stefanie Fuchs (2022), we highlight some findings of the qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2015; 2020) against the backdrop of the aforementioned developments in research on pupil and student mental health. According to our data, participants showed an awareness of the importance of sustainability education across the board – but found it either difficult or

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impossible to make a case for their own professional expertise with regard to ELT/TESOL contexts or refuted the idea of such a link altogether. Hence, in one of the open questions, participants suggested general topics or project work, not methods or tasks, as appropriate focus areas: the use of cars, dealing with waste, tourism, animal welfare and industrial capitalism were mentioned. The answers of the follow-up question showed that neither topic was approached from the vantage of core competences in English, learners’ needs, or established methodologies. Instead, the topics were also claimed to be “too complex” or even “already outworn” (TN 12, 63, 94), suggesting that while ecological crises are making the news and are being discussed as future educational content, little so far has been understood about one’s disciplinary expertise and professional obligation for engagement. Topics and thematic areas were mostly scientific in nature and less linked to ELT content; hardly any of the participants considered mental health and well-being an issue of sustainability. To us, this is surprising both because of the ongoing societal debates and public appearance of Fridays for Future and other movements and because of the levels of concern in those partaking in the survey: Our pre-structured, closed questions aiming at segmentation analysis revealed that 31 % of participants described themselves as ‛concerned’; 22 % said global warming frightens them; 18 % stated they are concerned with biodiversity and conservation decline; 11 % are concerned with pollution and the threat of plastics, and 8 % dread social inequity, poverty as well as climate-related war and migration. Powerlessness, guilt and responsibility are noted by only 5 %, while the responsibility of economic and political stakeholders ranks at 9 %. This is interesting for two reasons. First, in a prior assessment of levels of concern and feelings of responsibility, participants on average ranked themselves on 4.15 out of 5 points; their perceived concern thus differs significantly from their responses in the survey, hinting at social desirability and a lack of knowledge when it comes to their own professional responsibilities as future teachers. Second, and substantiating this latter interpretation, only 17 out of 200 commented on mental health and other stressors at all in one of the open questions (Q6: ‛What thoughts does the keyword climate change trigger in you?’ [question originally in German and translated for the purpose of this publication]). Out of these, 7 stated they reflect their own behaviour and 10 reported feelings of helplessness and guilt in the follow-up question. We cannot draw any conclusions about the potential causality or correlation between mental distress and apathy or infer that these results are directly linked with insufficient knowledge and expertise. What strikes us as remarkable, however, is the mismatch between concern and perceived professional agency as well as the

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fact that not a single answer or suggestion reflected the mental health dimension of future pupils, although the open questions explicitly inquired into potential threats and strains (e.g., Q5: ‛Please name up to three topics that that you think are the most demanding/distressing.’ [originally in German and translated for the purpose of this publication]). Teaching suggestions, elicited in an open question about topics and method‐ ology (Q3), often included the transfer of more scientific knowledge or the emotionalization of specific topics (“emotionalizing teachiing [sic] methods to motivate change in pupils’ attitudes” (TN37) or “scarring [Abschrecken] by way of extreme cases” (TN170)). At the same time, numerous participants quoted the Beutelsbach consensus as an argument for impartiality, claiming that teachers cannot impose political or ideological concerns on learners. This is striking because in sum, this attitude dilutes agency and responsibility at the same time that it seeks to mobilise cognitive or emotional appraisal in ways that can be considered manipulative (Hoydis et al. 2023). In conclusion and with regard to the theoretical overview discussed above, we can infer the following: Levels of concern are indeed high (or: a high level of concern is perceived as socially desirable). The fact that future stress is a reaction to polycrises that are discussed in many subject areas can lead to crisis fatigue rather than mobilise subject-specific forms of engagement, partly due to a lack of knowledge and expertise about disciplinary potentials. Anxiety and other mental health issues do play a part, if only a minor one and not yet with regard to expected pupils’ needs. The phenomenon of moral injury hardly plays any role at all. This suggests a dire need for an ELT/TESOL theory and practice that meaningfully connects climate-related mental health research and subject-specific methodologies and potentials. 4 Implications of Research for Future Developments

While it would be premature to jump to definite conclusions without further substantiating our work empirically and across different demographics, it seems fair to conclude by summarising our findings as ‛lessons learned’ and stepping stones for more in-depth investigations in the future: 1.

2.

We could see that neither pre-service teachers’ nor their imagined pupils’ mental health seem to play any major role in educational modelling and learning objectives; It is apparent that climate change is seen primarily as a scientific and engineering problem rather than a cultural challenge for language and

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literature teaching which suggests that more knowledge is needed and that attitudes have to change; It implies that on the level of methodology, task design is needed that fruitfully aligns cognition- and affect-based elements, as recognized on one side of the spectrum, and specific language- and literature-based avenues for educational progress in order to mobilize the full potential of ELT/TESOL approaches. (see Bartosch/Fuchs 2022: 80)

With regard to lessons 1 and 2, academic teacher training and pre-service training need to provide more knowledge on the connection of issues of climate, mental health and ELT theories and methodologies. In order to better learn from lesson 3, we suggest to engage more with complex tasks designs and the as yet largely unrecognised potential of creativity in ELT when it comes to mental health and climate crises. Relevant suggestions do not only come from within the research community of English language and literature teaching (Beach et al. 2017), but can be found in resilience and therapeutic research that encourages practitioners to confront and articulate disenfranchised grief in order to move beyond paralysis and distress, by way of paying active tribute to losses and “re‐ storing and ‛restorying’ connectedness” with a world in peril (Macy/Johnstone 2012: 93). The notion of restorying, in turn, provides links with scholarship in the environmental humanities, such as on ‛slow hope’ and narratives (Mauch 2019), on cultivating ‛arts of attentiveness’ through observation, reflection and storytelling (Sadokierski et al. no date) or through performance and acting (Bilodeau 2018). These approaches do not focus solely on scientific articulations of climate change, as so many suggestions in sustainability education do, but mobilise the role of narrative, performance and creativity in order to foster student agency and flourishing. While this tentative list in no way utilises all potentials and established creativity methodologies in ELT, it thus hints at the comprehensive toolkit at the disposal of teachers seeking to approach climate and mental health crises in ways that can empower pupils and students over and against a situation and reality that suggests powerlessness rather than agency. This links with Gillian Kidman and Chew-Hung Chang’s suggestion that teachers in future increasingly engage with these catastrophic times “via pedagogies involving inquiry-based practices (critical, pedagogical and action oriented)” (2020: 110). And it ties in with Adam Corner et al.’s 2015 assessment that a “substantial amount of international research […] demonstrates that children and young people are more likely to understand, care, and act on climate change if they can engage with it directly and experientially, through some form of educational, outreach, or social activity” (2015: 528).

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Cue Box: Where do we go from here in ELT? It is apparent that (pre-service) teachers tend to focus on scientific dimensions of climate change when asked about sustainability education in English. Instead of attempts at fostering scientific literacy, however, a better avenue for mobilising the unique potentials of ELT would be one that deliberately considers the linguistic, cultural and literary dimensions of climate and related crises. In the context of mental health in particular, this implies instigating cooperative and complex learning processes with task designs that cater to learner diversity and agency, including perform‐ ative and creative activities. Examples can be found in Bartosch (2021c, 2022). It must be noted that while our findings might seem discouraging because they point to a substantial lack of professional expertise and knowledge, even in advanced students of ELT theory and methodology, they can also be read in terms of an opportunity to tackle a crisis that is looming large but not manifest yet. It therefore seems reasonable to advance research activities and advisable to engage more decidedly with catastrophic climate scenarios and their potential and manifest impact on the mental health of young learners. As a group of climate and risk researchers around Luke Kemp have put it: There is ample evidence that climate change could become catastrophic. […] Under‐ standing extreme risks is important for robust decision-making, from preparation to consideration of emergency responses. […] Facing a future of accelerating climate change while blind to worst-case scenarios is naïve risk management at best and fatally foolish at worst. (Kemp et al. 2022: 8)

For us, it seems safe to say the same of pedagogical intervention: Understanding extreme risk and its implications for learning processes as well as student mental health is paramount for future ELT practices and requires rethinking the role and potential of English in a climate-changed world, even and especially with regard to student flourishing in these precarious times. Everything else would be naïve or, at worst, fatally foolish.

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Cunsolo, Ashlee/Ellis, Neville R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change 8, 275–281. Cunsolo, Ashlee/Landman, Karen (Eds.) (2017). Mourning nature: Hope at the heart of ecological loss and grief. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Doka, Kenneth J. (Ed.) (2002). Disenfranchised grief: New directions, challenges, and strategies for practice. Champaign: Research Press. Gislason, Maya K./Kennedy, Angel M./Witham, Stephanie M. (2021). The interplay between social and ecological determinants of mental health for children and youth in the climate crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (9), 4573. Griffin, Brandon J./Purcell, Natalie/Burkman, Kristine/Litz, Brett T./Bryan, Craig J./ Schmitz, Martha/Villierme, Claudia/Walsh, Jessica/Maguen, Shira (2019). Moral in‐ jury: An integrative review. Journal of Traumatic Stress 32, 350–362. Hickman, Caroline/Marks, Elizabeth/Pihkala, Panu/Clayton, Susan/Lewandowski R. Eric/Mayall, Elouise E./Wray, Britt/Mellor, Catriona/van Susteren, Lise (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health 5 (12), e863–e873. Higgins, David (2022). Climate pessimism and human nature. Humanities 11, 129. Hoydis, Julia/Bartosch, Roman/Gurr, Jens Martin (2023). Climate change literacy. Cam‐ bridge: CUP. Kaplan, E. Ann (2015). Climate trauma: Foreseeing the future in dystopian film and fiction. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Kaplan, E. Ann (2020). Is climate related pre traumatic stress a real condition? American Imago 77 (1), 81–104. Kemp, Luke/Xu, Chi/Depledge, Joanna/Ebi, Kristie L./Gibbins, Goodwin/Kohler, Timothy A./Rockström, Johan/Scheffer, Marten/Schellnhuber, Joachim/Steffen, Will/Lenton, Timothy M. (2022). Climate endgame exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios. PNAS 119 (34). Kidman, Gillian/Chang, Chew-Hung (2020). What does ‘Crisis Education’ look like? International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 29 (2), 107–111. Lawrence, Michael (2022). ‘Polycrisis’ may be a buzzword, but it could help us tackle the world’s woes. The Conversation 11.12.2022. (last accessed: 28.12.2022) Levinson, Meira (2015). Moral injury and the ethics of educational injustice. Harvard Educational Review 85 (2), 203–228. Macy, Joanna/Johnstone, Chris (2012). Active hope: How to face the mess we are in without going crazy? Novato: New World Library. Maibach, Edward, Roser-Renouf, Connie, and Leiserowitz, Anthony (2009). Global warming’s six Americas 2009. An audience segmentation analysis. New Haven et al:

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Gender and Adolescent Mental Health: Building Students’ Resilience through Authentic Media and Drama Activities

Christian Ludwig & Michaela Sambanis

1 Introduction

Every year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Associ‐ ation (ALA) releases data on challenged/restricted/banned/removed books in the US. As the majority of cases remains unreported, these lists only provide a snapshot of the real number of controversial books. Yet, they illustrate clearly that books for children and young adults with diverse content by or about people of colour, with disabilities, and with a LGBTQIA+ background have seen a growing national trend of (attempted) censorship. A look into the Top 10 most challenged books of 2021 shows that five of the books were in fact challenged for promoting LGBTQIA+ content (American Library Association n.d.). The top 1 on the list is Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir (2019) in which the non-binary queer author tells the story of her journey of self-discovery. This example epitomises that gender has become one of the new political battlegrounds for populist far right networks and other ultra-conservative groups (Graff/Korolczuk 2022). These attacks on liberal values make the commitment to gender equality and diversity even more important as our ‛gendered experiences’ may positively or also negatively affect our mental health (Rood et al. 2016). Many frequently challenged books – as other media and pop-cultural artifacts – explore issues of gender, challenging the fixed nature of the hegemonic gender binary (Eisenmann/Ludwig 2018). Engaging with such texts can help adolescents better understand and critically question gender-related norms and values, traditional gender role beliefs, or gender stereotypes and encourage them to explore their own gender identities as they not only transition from adolescence to adulthood but also between different genders.

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Taking this as a starting point, this contribution focuses on gender as a critical determinant of (adolescents’) mental health (Srivastava/Anand 2020: 7), arguing that ‛gender trouble’ and even more so experiences of discrimination and violence can lead to serious mental health struggles such as stress, anxiety, and depression and that English language education can support learners in counteracting these experiences. The first section discusses selected associa‐ tions between gender and adolescents’ mental health, emphasising the fact that biology is only one piece of the adolescent mental health puzzle as cultural and social factors can also lead to poor mental health outcomes. Following this, it looks at how gender and mental health can be addressed in the secondary English as a foreign language classroom going beyond a ‛the two sexes are different’ approach. It then argues that building resilience in the EFL classroom is a key component in protecting young adults’ mental health as they learn to embrace positive emotions and feelings and adapt to potentially difficult and challenging (gender-related) experiences in life. In the concluding section, this contribution builds a bridge between theory and practice by proposing selected drama activities used as a tool to address relevant topics in the EFL classroom and foster language learning while training resilience factors. On the one hand, drama interventions have been used to promote health in adolescents for many years (Joronen et al. 2008), and, on the other hand, for language teaching purposes as well as an enhancer of interactional quality in the classroom (Sambanis/Walter 2022). 2 Gender and Mental Health

With two biological sexes, two sexualities, and two genders, most of the world has for a long time been binary (Morgenroth/Ryan 2021: 1113). This traditional division between a male and female gender – as the still very popular nursery rhyme “What are little boys made of?” shows – comes with powerful stereotypes that perpetuate the male worldview of the sweet, docile, and emotionally sensitive girl and the strong, assertive, and emotionally restrained man (Siegel/ Meunier 2019: 333). Yet, not everyone feels included in a binary world in which heterosexuality is the sexuality by default. Today, much has been achieved regarding gender equality. Traditional attrib‐ utes that are thought to be possessed by a certain gender slowly disappear and different sexual orientations are becoming increasingly visible as different variations of the evolving acronym LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans‐ gender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual with the ‛+’ representing other gender sexual identities which cannot yet be fully described) illustrate

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(Timmermanns/Böhm 2020: 9). An increasing number of people are defying ex‐ isting gender norms and thus help to break an often lifelong cycle of inequality. Nevertheless, gender identity and sexual orientation, often in combination with other ‛stressors’ such as social class or ethnicity, still operate as social determinants of (mental) health among adolescents. Gender stereotyping can be particularly harmful to adolescents who, as Holly Farley (2020: 48) emphasises, “are a vulnerable population and are susceptible to mental health issues by nature” as they go through a period of fundamental psychological and physical change (Bilsen 2018: 540). As Alice Jones notes, “[t]he peak age of onset for many psychiatric disorders is, in fact, during adolescence” (Jones 2014: 311). Different pathological fears, such as injury or blood phobias or phobic fear of dental treatment frequently have their origin in early adolescence. Social phobias have a tendency to occur for the first time in puberty and adolescence, as do eating disorders (Böttger/Sambanis 2021: 85). Also, teenagers show “greater levels of anxiety in response to social exclusion than do adults” (Fuhrmann et al. 2015: 562). In addition to that, adolescents “do not always act in ways that serve their own best interest” as they engage in risky behaviour and “underestimate the risks of particular actions or behaviors” (Fischhoff et al. 2001: 1). The acceptance or even active search of potential risks is, in parts, due to the fact that the adolescent brain is an experience-seeker: Experiences, especially new ones, allow for further development and reorganisation. However, there is an imbalance between the not yet mature control system in the adolescent brain and their hunger for new experiences and reward, which explains the underestimation of risk-taking behaviour. Providing a comprehensive overview of the relationship between adoles‐ cents’ mental health and gender would go far beyond the scope of this contri‐ bution due to the complexity of the topic and the distinctness of adolescents’ gender experiences and perceptions. Generally, gender differences are observ‐ able in relation to a large number of biological and developmental factors as well as social inequalities such as social class, ethnicity, disability (Hamblin 2016: 4). During adolescence, gender becomes a more salient socialising factor as young people develop their sexuality/sexual orientation and identify with people of their gender (cf. Greene/Patton 2020). Yet, although adolescence confers vulnerability to mental health problems, there are significant gender differences in the mental health situation of adolescents, including gender-specific risk and protective factors such as genetic and biological factors or lifestyle (cf., e.g., Otten et al. 2021), symptoms, coping strategies, and the usage of mental health services. For example, children and adolescents who identify as female overall show poorer mental health than those who identify as male and are

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more concerned about mental health problems (Hamblin 2016: 6). Furthermore, girls talk about their feelings more openly and are prepared to seek help more readily than boys. In their large-scale study on adolescents’ mental health, Olympia Campbell et al. (2021) found that the described gender gap is ubiquitous across cultures. Interestingly, however, the gap is larger in more gender equal countries, which may be due to the fact that girls in gender-equal countries are more aware of existing gender disparities (ibid.). Expectations and reality simply do not match. Some adolescents are disproportionately burdened by poor mental health outcomes due to stigma and discrimination related to their gender identity and sexual orientation, which may also limit their access to healthcare or willingness to seek help in the first place. Queer rights have evolved significantly in many countries over the past decades (Belmonte 2021). For example, in South Africa same-sex marriage and adoption are possible, while the recently passed self-identification law in New Zealand allows people to update their sex on their birth certificates. However, as legislation is making progress in ensuring that individuals of different gender identities can live openly and without legal discrimination, some dubious practices such as conversion therapy (‛gay cure’) (Shidlo et al. 2001) continue to be (partly) legal in many countries including Germany and China, and social attitudes towards gender equality remain ambivalent (Bosia et al. 2020). Although traditional forms of homophobia seem to disappear, indirect forms of homophobia are still much alive. For example, in a study published by the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (FADA), approximately 40 % of the 2000 participants said that they would reject a gay son or lesbian daughter and about 20 % of the respondents reported to have derogatory attitudes towards trans people (Küpper et al. 2017: 57). On the one hand, our society is becoming more pluralistic and diverse but, on the other hand, this also triggers resistance. To some degree, members of the LGBTQIA+ community have similar mental health experiences as heterosexual adolescents, while the experience of ac‐ cepting oneself or belonging to a community can also positively influence the mental health of queer adolescents. Yet, they are more likely to experience poor mental health and mental illnesses in a society that still considers itself heterosexual by default (Goldman 2014). As Linda Goldman states: [Queer] people are more at risk for major depression, anxiety [and sleep] disorder, [suicidal thoughts and attempts,] drug and alcohol dependency, low self-esteem, being harmed by a weapon, being abused or rejected, becoming homeless, or dropping out of school. (2015: 214)

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The reasons for this are manifold but clearly, a supportive legal landscape does not necessarily protect LGBTQIA+ youth from adverse experiences such as social isolation or hate crimes. Stress has been identified as a major cause of mental health struggles especially of members of the LGBTQIA+ community as discrimination and internalised homophobia (Leufke 2016: 74) interact with a lack of coping mechanisms and the fear to experience disrespect or discrimination from health care providers.

Fig. 1: A simplified gender minority stress framework (based on Meyer 2003; Turban/ Ehrensaft 2018; Dolotina/Turban 2022)

Moreover, trans (gender does not match the assigned sex at birth) and gender-di‐ verse (gender does not conform with societal expectations in a bi-gender society) individuals have a significantly higher risk of suffering from mental health conditions than people who identify as cis-gender (Dolotina/Turban 2022). They are, as Emily Hamblin (2016: 6) emphasises, “disproportionately affected by depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidality; their mental health is significantly undermined by transphobic victimisation”. This is largely due to the fact that they experience a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity (body dysphoria). Furthermore, they may also be subject to increased discrimination and stigma (Tordoff et al. 2022) as they do not conform to perceived expectations of gender such as appearance, names, or gender

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markers, which can lead to additional barriers in accessing mental health services. They experience minority stress, the “excess stress to which individuals from stigmatised social categories are exposed as a result of their social, often a minority, position” (Meyer 2003: 675). The simplified (gender) minority stress model displayed in Figure 1 illustrates some of the minority stressors that trans and gender-diverse individuals are exposed to. 3 Addressing Gender and Mental Health in English Language Teaching

As the brief overview in Section 2 shows, gender inequality and discrimination can lead to adverse mental health outcomes such as depression or anxiety, espe‐ cially during adolescence. Thus, it seems vital to address critical gender-related issues and raise learners’ awareness of the barriers that some people experience in terms of gender in all subjects, including English language teaching (ELT). Gender, queer, and transgender studies are slowly finding their way into ELT covering a broad range of gender-related topics and (non-binary) gender identities and experiences (cf., e.g. Merse 2020). Meanwhile, the relevance of addressing gender in English language education has been recognised (Elsner/ Lohe 2016). Gender is an every-day topic close to the learners’ lived experiences and central elements of ELT such as language, literature, and culture are suitable for critical discussions of gender and gender reflection (König 2018: 236). How‐ ever, much still needs to be done with regard to including diverse gender iden‐ tities in mainstream classroom materials as gays and lesbians “are still firmly in the coursebook closet” (Thornbury 1999: 15). Making different gender identities more visible is not only an important element of putting inclusive English language teaching into practice but also opens up opportunities to help learners understand the relationships between gender and mental health and how gender is reconstructed in and through discourse. This is particularly vital as “a mul‐ tipronged approach inclusive of medical, social, educational, and policy-level interventions is crucial in combatting the mental health disparities that we see among TDG [transgender and gender-diverse] youth” (Dolotina/Turban 2022: 2). More specifically, ELT can help raise learners’ awareness of the fact that gender is without doubt a critical determinant of mental (ill-)health, especially together with other social and cultural factors also relevant to ELT, including the lived experiences of different gender identities, gender role conflicts and stereotypes, and the intersections of gender with other social inequalities such as ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status (Hamblin 2016: 4). Here, critical pedagogy (Gerlach 2020) with its aim to encourage learners to critique existing

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power structures and systems of oppression, including gender-related aspects such as sexism, transphobia, and heteronormativity, offers a suitable framework to challenge systemic forms of discrimination and improve the mental health outcomes of individuals. This means that students should be equipped with the knowledge and analytical skills they need in order to be more critical about values and norms they are confronted with (Giroux 2010: 717), listen to different conflicting voices, and use a more gender-oriented approach to everyday activities and objects. As Gal Harmat emphasises: The goal of learning is to refine the learners’ ability to think with a critical view of reality, to doubt, to ask questions, and develop an empowering consciousness of their subjective position. At the same time, critical pedagogy is meant to develop the learners’ love of knowledge and their natural curiosity, often oppressed by society’s view of underprivileged groups – typically the lower classes, racial and ethnic minorities, and women – as intellectually inferior. In other words, learning itself is intended to be an empowering experience. (2019: 27)

In order to explore the topic of gender and mental health with adolescents, there is now a wealth of popular culture texts available, some of which are listed in Table 1. Incorporating these resources can not only help adolescent learners to explore the subject of gender and mental health but even more so to develop the critical thinking and literacy skills they need to better understand how texts reconstruct gender and sexual identities. Furthermore, adolescents can find out more about how individuals use texts, films, or songs to express themselves and share their experiences with their mental health conditions and their journeys of recovery. In order to foster reflection among learners, these texts should be used in a learner-centred and interactive way that allows students to engage with these texts, have critical discussions, and formulate questions of their own. In addition to raising learners’ awareness of the relationship between gender and mental health, it is also vital to help prevent mental disorders by promoting protective factors associated with positive mental health. One way of doing that is to equip learners with behavioural and cognitive strategies that can function as a protective buffer to manage stressful and challenging situations as is discussed in more detail in the ensuing section.

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Examples Heimann, Addison (2022). Hypochondriac. (Age rating: unrated)

Films

Stolakis, Kristine (2020). Pray Away. (Age rating: PG-13) Berlanti, Greg (2018). Love, Simon. (Age rating: PG-13) Fortune, Rebekah (2017). Just Charlie. (Age rating: PG-13)

Hashtags

#genderdysphoria, #genderidentity, #nonbinary, #protecttranslives, #transmentalhealth, #transrights, #transrightsarehumanrights Holnes, Darrel A. (2020). Black Parade.

Poems

Tolbert, TC (2018). Dear Melissa: [I wish you]. Ladin, Joy (2017). Survival Guide.

Social media groups or accounts

@gay_agenda_seen (Instagram account). Girls For Gender Equity (GGE) (@ggenyc) (Instagram account). Teen Emotional & Mental Health Support Group (Facebook Group). Cameron, Dove (2022). Boyfriend.

Songs

Turner, Frank (2022). Miranda. Poppy (2018). Am I A Girl? SOPHIE (2018). Immaterial. Lyn, Euros (2022–current). Heartstopper. (Age rating: TV-14)

TV series

Robinson, Nick (2020–2022). Love, Victor. (Age rating: TV-12) Levinson, Sam (2019–current). Euphoria. (Age rating: TV-MA) Quindlen, Kelly (2022). She Drives Me Crazy. (Reading age: 12-17 yr.) Oseman, Alice (2019-2021). Heartstopper (Volume 1–4). (Reading age: 13 yr. and up)

Young adult novels/ comics

Deaver, Mason (2019). I Wish You All the Best. (Reading age: 14 yr. and up) Tamaki, Mariko (2019). Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me. (Reading age: 14 yr. and up) Silvera, Adam (2017). They Both Die at the End. (Reading age: 14 yr. and up)

Tab. 1: Selected texts to address gender and mental health in ELT with official age ratings

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4 Resilience

Resilience is not an entirely new concept but has been researched in psychology since the 1970s with the basic idea dating back even further (Willems 2023). People are not born resilient but may develop resilience in the course of their lives. In other words, resilience is not a static personality trait or something that can simply be tied to certain personality characteristics (Masten/Wright 2010). It rather describes “a set of competences which reflect a person’s ability to successfully manage routine challenges and stressors as well as to cope with more severe negative experiences or adversity” (Williams et al. 2021: 162). Resilience should not be reduced to an individual’s ability to overcome adversity but should rather be understood as an ongoing process of adapting to the challenges that occur in daily life situations (ibid.). Elements of resilience (protective factors) include, among others, being self-aware, having a secure attachment behaviour, practicing self-care, being able to recognise one’s limits (of control), viewing change as an opportunity, and being able to adapt to change. As discussed in the introduction to this edited volume, mental health is more than the absence of illnesses but also, for example, means the presence of positive habits and thoughts and strategies to cope with direct threat or long-term adversity, often referred to as resilience. High resilience cannot only help prevent mental disorders but also be a target in treating depression, anxiety, and stress reactions (Connor/Davidson 2003: 76). Thus, “resilience is an important set of competences for everyone to develop” (Williams 2021: 162), not only for members of minority groups such as individuals with gender dysphoria who show poor resilience (Başar/Öz 2016). Education in general and foreign language teaching in particular can play an important role in helping learners cope with the demands of everyday life. As Emily Hamblin points out: Children and young people spend a large proportion of their time at school, and participation in education can expose them to risk factors for mental health (e.g. bullying, academic pressure); and resilience factors (e.g. positive social relationships, educational achievement, opportunities to explore talents and interests) affecting mental health. (2016: 28)

In order to expose learners to positive learning experiences, teachers can create a positive atmosphere in the classroom, which promotes constructive interactions between students and encourages them to ask questions. Furthermore, they can model behaviours and attitudes that characterise resilience and, by doing that, also strengthen individual traits of resilience in their learners. With

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regard to ELT, the promotion of resilience can be achieved without much extra effort (Willems 2023: 57–67) if current principles of teaching English as a foreign language such as learner-centredness, interaction, and engagement are implemented. Marion Williams et al. (2021: 164–165) provide a detailed overview of how resilience can be addressed in the foreign language classroom, illustrating that building learners’ resilience can be brought into the classroom by combining learning more about resilience (protective factors/resources) and language items (e.g. “It’s ok to say no” + negative feeling words/talking about negative feelings, “Coping with stress” + yes/no questions/stress-related vocabulary, or “I’ve moved on” + stories in the past tense/writing a story). The following section suggests that drama activities offer ample opportunity for exploring different concepts of gender, also understanding better the rela‐ tionship between gender and adverse mental health outcomes. More specifically, it provides selected resilience-building interventions. 5 Drama as a Tool

On a basic level, simple performative activities inspired by theater or, in particular, improvisational theater (improv) are defined as a form of theater where characters, dialogues and plot are developed spontaneously. Improv can help to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom, which forms the basis for good and strengthening interactions (Schwenke et al. 2021). As eye-contact has been identified as a key factor and an enhancer of interaction (Sambanis/Walter 2022), it is useful to start lessons with an activity that, in a relaxed field and a playful atmosphere, allows eye-contact between the learners and the teacher. A classic (that can come in many variations) is the passing on of a verbal or non-verbal impulse from one person to another with all students and the teacher standing in a circle (Sambanis/Walter 2021–2022). One possible physical impulse activity is presented in the cue box below. Cue Box: Swish! Student 1 calls out swish! signaling the person to their left to pass swish! further on, going clockwise. After a while of passing on the impulse, a student might want to change the direction and, instead of saying swish! uses the onomatopoeic sound boing! communicating through eye contact to the person standing to their right to take over the new sound and pass it on counter-clockwise. This goes on until yet another student in the circle comes back to swish! or the teacher introduces a third impulse that can

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be addressed at any person in the circle, allowing for more dynamics and more eye contact (for a video of this activity see “Impulskreis” on www.did actx.org/performativedidactx/baukasten-der-performativen-techniken/). On a more elaborate level, interactive drama activities can be used to raise awareness, inspire empathy and changes of perspective in the learners. A promising form of interactive theater that has already been applied to foreign language classrooms is the Playback Theater, developed in the 1970s in the US (cf. Feldhendler 2009: 54). The focus lies on the representation of social interactions, communication situations as well as conflict situations. Playback Theater, which is presented in the cue box below, is an improvisational theatre activity “in which a personal story told by a group member is transformed […] by other group members” (Moran/Alon 2011: 318). Cue Box: Playback Theater After a brief warm-up, variations of the aforementioned impulse circle for example, a volunteer shares a personal experience in the form of a brief structured interview. The questions can be asked by the teacher or any other person willing to take on the role of conductor. Right after the interview, the conductor hands over the “story” to the actors. As put by Feldhendler (2009: 56), the story is then acted out spontaneously with movements, mime, gestures, words (props and music may be used as well) so that the essence of the story can be experienced in an aesthetic and sensory way. In doing so, the story is played back to the narrator, hence the name Playback Theater. By the end of the representation and as a gesture of appreciation, the actors symbolically hand the story back to the narrator who is welcome to comment on the spontaneously created scenic realization. Playback Theater can be used to learn more about fellow students, to validate their personal experiences, to use physical activity and bodily representation as a tool to support good mental health (Hamblin 2016: 33), to generate a better understanding of the perspectives of others and to initiate a dialogue between different perspectives. Preliminary results of interventions based on Playback Theater show significant enhancement of self-esteem, relaxation, and better connection with others (Moran/Alon 2011: 318). In light of this, Playback

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Theater can be regarded as a tool to enhance resilience and, according to the researchers, also “recovery processes from serious mental illness” (ibid.). 6 Conclusion

Gender remains one of the most profound social divisions that we make in our culture (Rosenfield/Smith 2012: 256). At the same time, adolescents’ mental health and mental struggles have become a topic of relevance as the numbers of mental illnesses among adolescents continue to rise. This contribution discussed the relationship between adolescent mental health, gender, particu‐ larly focusing on what foreign language education can do to unravel gender inequalities, gender discrimination, and the intersections between gender and their inequalities that can have an adverse effect on adolescent mental health. Taking a “hopeful stories” (Hamblin 2016: 33) approach may not be enough to promote gender equality and equity and help learners understand the complex relationship between gender and mental (ill-)health. Instead, learners should be encouraged to critically engage with media representations of gendered mental health experiences and learn to dismantle systemic barriers and stereotypes. Closely related to this, improv activities encourage students to explore different gender perspectives, understand the performative dimension of gender, and become more gender-conscious. Last but not least, foreign language education should also contribute to building learners’ resilience to protect them from mental health conditions, shifting their perspective from weakness to strength and from fixing to empowering. References American Library Association (n.d.). Top 10 most challenged book lists. https://www. ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 (last accessed: 27.01.2023) Başar, Koray/Öz, Gökhan (2016). Cinsiyetinden Hoşnutsuzluğu Olan Bireylerde Psiko‐ lojik Dayanıklılık. Algılanan Sosyal Destek ve Ayrımcılık ile İlişkisi. Turk psikiyatri dergisi = Turkish Journal of Psychiatry 27 (4), 225–234. Belmonte, Laura A. (2021). The international LGBT rights movement: A history. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Bilsen, Johan (2018). Suicide and youth: Risk factors. Frontiers in Psychiatry 9, 540. Bosia, Michael J./McEvoy, Sandra M./Rahman, Momin (Eds.) (2020). The Oxford Hand‐ book of global LGBT and sexual diversity politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Böttger, Heiner/Sambanis, Michaela (2021). Sprachen lernen in der Pubertät. 2nd Ed. Tübingen: Narr. Campbell, Olympia L. K./Bann, David/Patalay, Praveetha (2021). The gender gap in adolescent mental health. A cross-national investigation of 566,829 adolescents across 73 countries. SSM – population health 13, Article 100742. Connor, Kathryn M./Davidson, Jonathan R. T. (2003). Development of a new resilience scale: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and anxiety 18 (2), 76–82. Dolotina, Brett/Turban, Jack L. (2022). A multipronged, evidence-based approach to im‐ proving mental health among transgender and gender-diverse youth. JAMA Network Open 5 (2), Article e220926. Eisenmann, Maria/Ludwig, Christian (Eds.) (2018). Queer beats. Gender and literature in the EFL classroom. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang. Elsner, Daniela/Lohe, Viviane (Eds.) (2016). Gender and language learning. Research and practice. Tübingen: Narr. Farley, Holly R. (2020). Assessing mental health in vulnerable adolescents. Nursing 50 (10), 48–53. Feldhendler, Daniel (2009). Das Leben in Szene setzen. Wege zu einer relationellen Sprachdramaturgie. Scenario 1, 50–69. Fischhoff, Baruch/Nightingale, Elena O./Iannotta, Joah G. (Eds.) (2001). Adolescent risk and vulnerability: Concepts and measurement. Washington (DC): National Academies Press. Fuhrmann, Delia/Knoll, Lisa J./Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne (2015). Adolescence as a sensitive period of brain development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19 (10), 558–566. Gerlach, David (2020). Einführung in eine kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Ger‐ lach, David (Ed.). Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik. Grundlagen, Ziele, Beispiele. Tübingen: Narr, 7–31. Giroux, Henry A. (2010). Rethinking education as the practice of freedom: Paulo Freire and the promise of critical pedagogy. Policy Futures in Education 8 (6), 715–721. Goldman, Linda (2014). Integrating expressive arts and research-supported play-based interventions with LGBTQI adolescents. In: Green, Eric J./Myrick, Amie (Eds.). Play therapy with vulnerable populations. No child forgotten. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 211–230. Graff, Agnieszka/Korolczuk, Elżbieta (2022). Anti-gender politics in the populist moment. Abingdon, New York: Routledge. Greene, Margaret E./Patton, George (2020). Adolescence and gender equality in health. The Journal of Adolescent Health: Official Publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine 66 (1S), S1–S2.

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Hamblin, Emily (2016). Gender and children and young people’s emotional and mental health: Manifestations and responses. A rapid review of the evidence. https://www.ncb.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/NCB%2520evidence%2520re view%2520-%2520gender%2520and%2520CYP%2520mental%2520health%2520-%2520 Aug%25202017.pdf (last accessed: 01.11.2022) Harmat, Gal (2019). Practical gender in critical pedagogy. In: Harmat, Gal (Ed.). Inter‐ sectional pedagogy: Creative education practices for gender and peace work. 1st ed. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 23–49. Jones, Alice (2014). Emotional development. In: Mareschal, Denis/Butterworth, Brian/ Tolmie, Andy (Eds.). Educational neuroscience. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 297–324. Joronen, Katja/Rankin, Sally H./Åstedt-Kurki, Päivi (2008). School-based drama inter‐ ventions in health promotion for children and adolescents: Systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 63 (2), 116–131. Kobabe, Maia (2019). Gender queer. A memoir. St. Louis: Lion Forge Comics. König, Lotta (2018). Gender-Reflexion mit Literatur im Englischunterricht. Fremdspra‐ chendidaktische Theorie und Unterrichtsbeispiele. Wiesbaden: J.B. Metzler. Küppers, Beate/Klocke, Ulrich/Hoffmann, Lena-Carlotta (2017). Einstellungen gegenüber schwulen, lesbischen und bisexuellen Menschen in Deutschland. Ergebnisse einer bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Umfrage. Baden-Baden: Nomos. Leufke, Sarah (2016). Normalität, Toleranz, Vorurteil. Wie wichtig sexuelle Vielfalt im Unterricht wirklich ist. Marburg: Tectum. Masten, Ann S./Wright, Margaret O’Dougherty (2010). Resilience over the lifespan: Developmental perspectives on resistance, recovery, and transformation. In: Reich, John W./Zautra, Alex J./Hall, John Stuart (Eds.). Handbook of adult resilience. New York, London: The Guilford Press, 213–237. Merse, Thorsten (2020). Sam: Confronting gender identity. Am Beispiel einer Geschichte über geschlechtliche Vielfalt reflektieren und eine Position dazu einnehmen. Englisch 5-10 52, 24–27. Meyer, Ilan H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin 129 (5), 674–697. Moran, Galia S./Alon, Uri (2011). Playback theatre and recovery in mental health: preliminary evidence. Arts in Psychotherapy 38 (5), 318–324. Morgenroth, Thekla/Ryan, Michelle K. (2021). The effects of gender trouble. An integra‐ tive theoretical framework of the perpetuation and disruption of the gender/sex binary. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science 16 (6), 1113–1142. Otten, Daniëlle/Tibubos, Ana N./Schomerus, Georg/Brähler, Elmar/Binder, Harald/ Kruse, Johannes/Ladwig, Karl-Heinz/Wild, Philipp S./Grabe, Hans J./Beutl, Manfred E.

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(2021). Similarities and differences of mental health in women and men. A systematic review of findings in three large German cohorts. Frontiers in public health 9, Article 553071. Rood, Brian A./Reisner, Sari L./Surace, Francisco I./Puckett, Jae A./Maroney, Meredith R./Pantalone, David W. (2016). Expecting rejection: Understanding the minority stress experiences of transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. Transgender Health 1 (1), 151–164. Rosenfield, Sarah/Smith, Dena (2012). Gender and mental Health: Do men and women have different amounts or types of problems? In: Scheid, Teresa L./Brown, Tony N. (Eds.). A handbook for the study of mental health. Cambridge: CUP, 256–267. Sambanis, Michaela/Walter, Maik (2021–2022). Baukasten der performativen Techniken – performativeDidactX | DidactX. https://www.didactx.org/ performativedidactx/baukasten-der-performativen-techniken/ (last accessed: 30.01.2023) Sambanis, Michaela/Walter, Maik (2022). Make it work! Interaktive Impulse zum Spra‐ chenlernen: Von neuesten Befunden der Neurowissenschaft zu konkreten Unterricht‐ simpulsen. Berlin: Cornelsen. Shidlo, Ariel/Schroeder, Michael/Drescher, Jack (Eds.) (2001). Sexual conversion therapy: Ethical, clinical and research perspectives (= Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy 5 (3/4)). New York: Haworth Press. Schwenke, Diana/Dshemuchadse, Maja/Rasehorn, Lisa/Klarhölter, Dominik/Scherbaum, Stefan (2021). Improv to improve: The impact of improvisational theater on creativity, acceptance, and psychological well-being. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health 16 (1), 31–48. Siegel, Karolynn/Meunier, Étienne (2019). Traditional sex and gender stereotypes in the relationships of non-disclosing behaviorally bisexual men. Archives of sexual behavior 48 (1), 333–345. Srivastava, Nilima/Anand, Meenu (2020). Understanding gender and mental health. In: Anand, Meenu (Ed.). Gender and mental health. Combining theory and practice. Singapore: Springer, 3–17. Thornbury, Scott (1999). Window-dressing vs cross-dressing in the EFL sub-culture. Folio 2 (5), 15–17. Timmermanns, Stefan/Böhm, Maika (2020). Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft und Praxis auf sexuelle und geschlechtliche Vielfalt: Eine Einleitung. In: Timmermanns, Stefan/ Böhm, Maika (Eds.). Sexuelle und geschlechtliche Vielfalt. Interdisziplinäre Perspek‐ tiven aus Wissenschaft und Praxis. Weinheim: Beltz, 9–20. Tordoff, Diana M./Wanta, Jonathon W./Collin, Arin/Stepney, Cesalie/Inwards-Breland, David J./Ahrens, Kym (2022). Mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youths receiving gender-affirming care. JAMA Network Open 5 (2), Article e2229031.

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Turban, Jack L./Ehrensaft, Diane (2018). Research review: Gender identity in youth: Treatment paradigms and controversies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 59 (12), 1228–1243. Willems, Aline (2023). Promoting resilience in the foreign language classroom. A basic requirement for working with taboo topics. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. Critical language pedagogy in theory, research and practice. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 57–67. Williams, Marion/Puchta, Herbert/Mercer, Sarah (2021). Psychology in practice. A wealth of practical ideas to put students in the best frame of mind of learning (Helbling Languages). Innsbruck, Esslingen: Helbling.

Music and Mental Health in ELT: A Focus on Emotional Self-Regulation with Insights from Psychotherapy

Theresa Summer & Valentin Werner

1 Introduction

Music and mental health are potential allies. According to a recent review of studies investigating the link between mental health and music, music engagement in general (both passive and active) can, for instance, provide an outlet for individuals suffering from anxiety or depression and it can support emotional regulation (Gustavson et al. 2021). As concerns adolescent mental health in particular, the review also revealed a link between the mental health of this age group and music: Listening to music can, on the one hand, result in disengagement and (combined with a high interest in music celebrities) low self-esteem. On the other hand, listening to music can lower depression levels and have a positive impact on emotion regulation skills (ibid.). Given the empirical evidence for the potential of music for helping young people to regulate their emotions, school education can play a key role in making use of this resource. The question this contribution aims to address is how English as a school subject can help adolescents regulate their emotions through the use of music and songs. To answer this question, it offers insights from the findings of an expert interview. In this interview, a psychologist reflects on the importance of adolescent mental health and suggests what English teachers could do to support learners in their ability to handle their emotions. As such, after an overview of the concept of emotional self-regulation (Mercer et al. 2019) as the theoretical basis of this contribution, we describe the interview procedure and key findings. This is followed by research-based practical suggestions for English language teaching (ELT) that aim to outline teaching steps for using songs in connection to the topic of mental health.

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2 Theoretical Background: Emotional Self-Regulation and Communicative Competence in Music-Based ELT

The model of Positive Language Education (Mercer et al. 2018; Babic et al. 2022) highlights the need for 21st-century language education to not only address linguistic skills or competencies but also those that can fundamentally influence our lives and well-being (see also Babic/Mercer in this volume). Within this overarching concept of language education, the framework of “global skills” provides a theoretical basis of this contribution (Mercer et al. 2019), one of which comprises “emotional self-regulation and wellbeing”. Its definition is as follows: Emotional self-regulation is the ability to recognize, identify, and understand one’s emotions and their functions. It includes an awareness of regulation strategies for managing emotions appropriately and it is a basis for wellbeing. (Mercer et al. 2019: 8)

Emotional self-regulation therefore requires communicative competence in that learners need to be able to name and describe their emotions in a differentiated manner. This is reflected in the special role of the subject English, which can develop learners’ communicative and discourse competences so that they can appropriately handle issues related to mental health and well-being (see Introduction in this volume). Furthermore, Oxford’s model of EMPATHICS underlines the importance of emotions (in reference to the “E” in the aforemen‐ tioned acronym), which includes emotions and empathy in the first dimension (Oxford 2016). Her hypothesis, for which she provides ample research evidence, is that “[l]anguage learners with high well-being recognize their emotions, manage them effectively and show empathy for others” (Oxford 2016: 69, italics in original). For the establishment of well-being, which comprises a part of the global skill outlined above, learners need “to find supportive social connections and a sense of purpose” and develop “awareness of and engagement in positive physical and mental health practices” (Mercer et al. 2019: 8). A brief glimpse into two textbooks used in Germany shows that the devel‐ opment of emotional self-regulation and well-being are evident themes in ELT, as becomes apparent in some activities and texts. First, descriptions of people’s feelings are included in English textbooks, for instance, in the sixth grade in the German Gymnasium (e.g., Green Line 2 by Carleton-Gertsch et al. 2018). One matching activity focusing on adjectives includes the following instruction: “How do you feel in these situations? Match the feelings with the sentences” (Carleton-Gertsch et al. 2018: 120). Second, the topic of well-being, which requires more advanced communicative competences due to its complexity, is

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in focus in the eleventh grade at German vocational schools (e.g., Crossover 1 by Grussendorf/Hine 2021). Here, the thematic focus is on stress and the section introduces various lexical items (e.g. “suffering”, “to feel run down”, “to trigger sth.”) through an article on “Living with stress” (Grussendorf/Hine 2021: 12–13). These two examples indicate that emotional self-regulation and well-being are integrated with the development of functional communicative competences in ELT across different proficiency levels. Our interest is to identify the role that music in general and song lyrics in particular can play in fostering learners’ positive mental health and, more specifically, their abilities for emotional self-regulation. This research interest originates from the consensus that music and songs can positively influence the classroom atmosphere, learner motivation and foreign language competencies (Fonesca-Mora/Machancoses 2016; Bennett 2019; Werner 2020; Werner/Tegge 2021; Mannarelli/Serrano 2022). In addition, there is tentative evidence that using songs may lower learners’ foreign language anxiety (see, e.g. Dolean 2016). For this project, we aim to identify how the use of music and songs can facilitate emotional self-regulation through an interdisciplinary perspective, for which we apply the findings from an expert interview with a psychotherapist. 3 Insights from Psychotherapy

  3.1 Research Methodology: Expert Interview

This project sheds light on the insights from a psychologist/psychotherapist collected through a semi-structured expert interview, tackling the following guiding research questions: 1. 2.

How important is the topic of mental health among adolescents today? What potential do psychotherapists see in the use of music and songs for foreign language learning among adolescents?

The interview is a semi-structured one-to-one research interview (Denscombe 2021), which can be classified as a systematic expert interview that considers the expert as “an advisor and holder of specific valid knowledge and information” (Bogner et al. 2009: 65, own transl.). The expert is a female psychologist from Berlin holding a Ph.D. in psychology and the official qualification for psychotherapy in Germany, which includes additional 4,200 hours of training. Furthermore, she has extensive experience in psychotherapy with both adults, many of whom work as teachers, and adolescents. Interviewing a person holding these qualifications and having extensive experience allowed us to identify

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pedagogic affordances that our expert saw in the use of music and songs in the context of fostering mental health in ELT. Following standard procedures in research ethics, we obtained informed consent from and ensured anonymity to the interviewee (Cohen et al. 2018: 540– 541). The interview was divided into three main sections and included questions about (i) the role and importance of mental health among adolescents, (ii) the role of school education (focusing on ELT), and (iii) the potential affordances of music and songs for promoting adolescents’ mental health. The questions were mostly open and included items such as (see Appendix for the full list): ●

How would you explain the term mental health and why is it so important, especially for adolescents? ● Which advice would you give to teachers in secondary schools about promoting their learners’ mental health?

Song lyrics were mentioned as a type of “stimulus” (Denscombe 2021: 238) to refer to a more concrete example for ELT and to determine what affordances the interviewee saw in that regard. The interview took place online and the transcription was analysed qualitatively by classifying and categorising units of meaning and identifying key themes (Cohen et al. 2018: 662) with regard to their relevance and implications for ELT. The following section discusses music-related themes for which references to relevant literature and studies are included to provide additional impulses for the issues discussed from an ELT perspective. These findings provide the basis for the subsequent section (4), which presents teaching suggestions based on the interview findings.   3.2 Key Finding: The Use of Music as a Catalyst

In response to the question on the use of music and songs, the interviewee saw a clear link between mental health, well-being, and music. When asked about the potential of music and songs, she first noted that “[m]usic can be a catalyst because it can touch our emotions” (interview 2021). She sees a central affordance of songs in helping learners understand their emotions due to the metaphors used in song lyrics and textual analytic procedures that would enable them to analyse feelings portrayed by a text or music. Adolescents, she further noted, are flooded by emotions and she pointed out that “[o]nly when I know how one feels, I can react to it” (ibid.) – hence, stressing the need for people to identify their emotions – a crucial component of emotional self-regulation and well-being (Mercer et al. 2019), as outlined above.

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By analysing lyrical texts and asking questions such as: ‛Why is the lyrical I in pain/in a dark place/feeling so high?’, the interviewee suggested that “songs can help us learn how we feel” (interview 2021). Related to this function, she suggested using music and songs not only to investigate how they make individuals feel, but also to identify the physiological effect of our emotions on our bodies, which is investigated in research on the embodiment of emotions (Lackner 2021). During her therapy sessions, the interviewee reportedly often heard phrases such as ‛I feel bad’ or ‛I feel good’ in response to how her patients are feeling. She noted, however, that “good and bad are not feelings but states” and people need to learn how to label and differentiate their emotions (interview 2021). This is where (foreign) language learning, according to the psychotherapist, plays a vital role. Learning adjectives such as sad, downcast, humiliated, embarrassed, or committed, provides a fundamental first step in understanding and regulating one’s emotions. In other words, “[t]he goal ultimately is for children and adolescents to know what they feel” (interview 2021). Hence, by learning more accurate and differentiated linguistic represen‐ tations of emotions, this can potentially contribute to learners’ awareness of their own well-being and contribute to a more positive mental health. As the interviewee noted, this can for instance include embarrassment, an emotion that is frequently tabooed in society (interview 2021). As concerns the tabooed nature of mental health (Ludwig/Martinez 2023), the interviewee mentioned that songs often address issues we would not dare to address in everyday life (interview 2021). As such, explicitly looking into mental health-related themes in songs can provide learners with insights into the sufferings of others, so that they can better understand mental health-related struggles. In this regard, related corpus-based work on mental health songs (Werner/Summer 2023) can provide a valuable starting point for exploring the linguistic representation of mental health issues in songs and may provide an empirical basis for establishing a repertoire of relevant lexical items, among other things. To sum up, the interview findings suggest that music can act as a catalyst in three main ways: It can (i) encourage an accurate and differentiated linguistic engagement with taboos, (ii) invite learners to explore mental health-related issues in song lyrics to gain an insight into other people’s proactive attempts to overcome mental health struggles, and (iii) allow learners to understand mental health struggles of others and possibly also discuss related issues without openly stating that they might be affected personally. These aspects provide a foundation for the development of teaching suggestions outlined in the subsequent section.

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4 Research-based Suggestions for Practice: A Focus on Emotions

The following suggestions combine the insights from the expert interview with ELT principles and practices. A central theme that emerged during the interview, as outlined above, is the importance for adolescents to handle their emotions in a way that contributes to their mental health and well-being. Scholars agree that emotional well-being, as a part of positive mental health, is critical for our health and everyday lives (Burns/Gottschalk 2019: 54). Learning objectives listed for developing “emotional self-regulation and wellbeing” as a global skill include four key aspects: Learners should be able to 1. 2. 3. 4.

recognize, identify, and understand their own emotions select healthy strategies for managing their own emotions demonstrate awareness of strategies to promote well-being take actions that contribute to a physically, mentally, and socially healthy lifestyle (Mercer et al. 2019: 14)

These aspects closely relate to central components of emotional intelligence. Initially described as a psychological construct by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990 (Schütz et al. 2016: 168), their ability model of emotional intelligence includes four connected factors: perceiving, using, understanding, and regulating emotions. Research conducted on the development of emotional intelligence has shown that it can be improved through training, for instance, concerning individuals’ ability to regulate their own as well as others’ emotions (Schütz et al. 2016: 173–4). Against this background, our stance is that music and songs provide learner-centred and potentially effective resources for the development of emotional self-regulation and well-being. We apply the aforementioned aspects to English language education and suggest a sequence of three learning steps that can contribute to learners’ positive mental health and well-being. Figure 1 presents these three steps: Learners should (1) develop their lexical competence to accurately express feelings in the target language, (2) recognise emotions of others and themselves, and (3) learn to regulate their own emotions.

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Fig. 1: Focusing on emotions through music and songs in ELT: Learning steps

Through the interdisciplinary perspective of this investigation, we are able to offer teaching suggestions informed by psychotherapeutic expertise aimed at combining the teaching and learning of the English language with fostering learner well-being. Beforehand, it is crucial to note, however, that evidently “everyone is different and […] what works for one student or teacher in a particular context may not work for another” (Williams et al. 2015: 96). Hence, the suggestions below combine some rather general advice with some more specific activities that may need to be adapted to suit specific educational settings and contexts.   4.1 Describing Emotions

The ability to describe emotions is not only central for (foreign) language learning and the development of communicative competence, but it also com‐ prises a part of emotional intelligence (Glasenapp 2021: 53). Hence, for the initial step of describing feelings, Cue Box 1 provides a suggestion for teaching practice: Cue Box (Step 1): Talking about feelings When talking about feelings, a critical reflection of everyday language use is required. “I feel good” or “I feel bad” do not express feelings; they express states. Hence, teachers are well advised to introduce a variety of

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adjectives for feelings in their (foreign) language classes, so that learners are given the linguistic means to express their feelings (rather than states) in a differentiated manner. The star of emotions (see Fig. 2) provides a basis for this. Highlighting the difference between feelings and states to learners is one key aspect. In addition, the need for children and adolescents to learn how to express their emotions was repeatedly stressed in the interview. An essential statement by the psychotherapist indicated that recognising one’s feelings is a central ability that needs to be trained. She specified that “[p]eople need to learn (and this has been lost) that feelings are not simply a by-product. Feelings have a referential function, are neurobiologically controlled; they are meaningful” (interview 2021). From a pedagogic perspective, scholars also attribute a key role to emotions in the context of school education, demanding a stronger consideration of the role emotions play among children’s and adolescents’ needs – thus requiring continuous support on the part of teachers (Gläser-Zikuda/Hofmann 2022: 25). A useful tool from psychology is the “star of emotions” shown in Fig. 2 (based on Stavemann 2010: 20, own translation). It shows potential labels for a large variety of feelings, which do not simply classify as positive or negative, but encompass eight main categories of emotions including fear, anger, dislike, depression, affection, joy, shame, and grief. From the “neutral” feeling of indifference represented in the core of the figure, the level of intensity rises incrementally (as indicated in the expanding circles), thus showing that emotions can also vary within each category. The star of emotions can (i) provide teachers and materials writers with a guideline for a more accurate introduction to lexical items that describe feelings than by mere intuition alone and (ii) be used by (more advanced) learners as scaffolding for activities that ask them to describe different feelings. Hence, awareness can be raised of both the wide range of different feelings as well as their varying intensity. A remarkable comment from the psychotherapist in our interview is that patients seem to sometimes misinterpret their feelings saying that they are “depressed” although they are often not clinically depressed but rather sad and “in difficult situations of life” (interview 2021). Making such a distinction is not the task of English educators, but they can raise learners’ awareness of different types and levels of intensities of emotions.

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Fig. 2: Star of emotions (based on Stavemann 2010: 20; own transl., partly simplified)

The second suggestion involves a reflection on how emotions feature in different song lyrics. The selection of ten mental health songs presented in Tab. 1 (part of the corpus analysed in Werner/Summer 2023) includes songs in which emotions are expressed in a variety of ways – for instance, through colours (“Paint it black” by the Rolling Stones) and similes (“One day you will” by Lady Antebellum), illustrating the use of figurative language discussed in Werner and Summer (2023). Learners can raise their language awareness of how emotions are expressed linguistically in song lyrics, also involving means of expression related to positive affirmation (e.g. as featuring in “Everybody hurts” by R.E.M. or “Hero” by Mariah Carey; see also Section 4.2). Hence, through working with song lyrics (or some excerpts), learners can expand their linguistic repertoire

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by identifying metaphors and similes used in songs. Note that the list provided in Tab. 1 is highly selective and meant to illustrate that relevant mental health topics have persistently featured in lyrics. The actual choice of individual lyrics may be guided by factors such as connection to topics demanded in curricula, themes in textbook units, and the learners’ current musical interests (which may naturally be highly variable). Cue Box (Step 1): How song lyrics address feelings Learners can critically examine how feelings are expressed in song lyrics (Tab. 1). This could enhance learners’ language awareness in terms of how emotions can be described through relevant nouns and adjectives by relating expressions in song lyrics to the star of emotions (Fig. 2). Learners further become aware of the fact that emotions in lyrics are often expressed through metaphors and similes.

Artists & song title

Content (focus on emotions)

Lyrics excerpt

1. The Rolling Stones: Paint it black (1966)

→ how a person with depression “I want it painted black; can’t be cheered up; colours as met‐ my heart is black” aphors for emotions

2. R.E.M.: Every‐ body hurts (1992)

→ how everybody feels sad and hopeless at times

3. Mariah Carey: Hero (1993)

→ how everyone is strong, it is “And you know you can normal to be afraid or feel alone, but survive; Look inside you we shouldn’t give up hope and stay and be strong” strong

4. Linkin Park: Numb (2003)

→ about being yourself, feelings of “I’ve become so numb, I exhaustion, numbness, disappoint‐ can’t feel you there” ment

“Don’t let yourself go, ’cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes”

5. Sara Groves: It’s → about believing in hope, over‐ going to be alright coming a difficult situation (2005)

“sinking in too deep; the courage in your soul”

6. System of a → about overcoming loneliness Down: Lonely day (2005)

“most loneliest”

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7. Lady Ante‐ bellum: One day you will (2008)

→ about overcoming difficult times, “You feel like you’re staying optimistic, supporting each falling backwards, like other you’re slippin’ through the cracks”

8. Demi Lovato: Skyscraper (2011)

→ about being torn down but staying optimistic

“All my windows still are broken, But I’m standing on my feet”

9. Bruce Springs‐ teen: This depres‐ sion (2012)

→ about feeling sad

“I’ve been down; lost; felt weak”

10. Arlo Parks: Hope (2021)

→ a song about a friend feeling sad “I’ve been feeling like something inside me wants to scream”

Tab. 1: Selected mental health songs that address different emotions

  4.2 Recognising Emotions

Taking an accurate and precise linguistic description of emotions ranging from feeling “quite blue” to “very glad” as well as an analysis thereof in song lyrics as the basis, the second step includes the recognition of emotions – in others and in oneself. As the recognition of one’s own emotions can, depending on learners’ current psychological condition, be very personal and evoke negative experiences of, for instance, bullying or abuse, we would suggest an approach that begins with an analysis of others’ feelings rather than one’s own. This complies with the concept of handling taboo and controversial issues in which the topic as such, that is, emotions rather than learners’ personal situations and concerns in this case, should be in the centre of attention (Ludwig/Summer 2023: 14). What is more, this approach can initiate a change in perspective and contribute to learners’ development of empathy. The subsequent Cue Box (2) suggests treating songs as cases – that is, an instance of a particular mental health issue or struggle – an idea that emerged during the discussion of adolescent mental health and the role of ELT during the expert interview (interview 2021). Given their diverse range of application possibilities in terms of teaching foci across various skills and competence domains (e.g., Arnold/Herrick 2017), songs can be integrated into ELT from a thematic perspective – for instance, by identifying how mental health is addressed in song lyrics. The idea behind treating songs as cases can be applied to the four core themes identified in songs through a corpus-linguistic and content-based analysis (Werner/Summer 2023). These themes include (i)

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overcoming hardship, (ii) positive affirmation, (iii) loneliness/loss, and (iv) guilt. By asking questions and making speculations about the origin of mental health struggles or suggestions within the domain of positive affirmation (i.e., offering support), learners can look into which emotions are transported through the song lyrics, music, and accompanying music video clips, and how this is done. Cue Box (Step 2): Treating songs as cases When working with mental health songs (see Tab. 1), these can be treated as cases by examining questions such as: How is the lyrical I feeling? Which parts of the song include references to feelings? What do we know about the situation and experiences of the lyrical I? What would you say to the lyrical I? What kind of support is needed and could be offered? lt might be interesting to relate the song to the artist’s own reflection or interpretation of the song by doing online research and analysing interviews (in online magazines, podcasts, videos on YouTube, etc.) to identify what the artist or other listeners say about the song. Further, when reflecting on potential suggestions and actions for the lyrical I, this would be an opportunity for learners to find out where they or people in general could get help from if this may be required. In addition, it might be interesting for more advanced learners to look into the representation of mental health disorders in song lyrics. Songs with an indicated diagnosis such as ADHD (e.g., in “Sophie” by Arlo Parks) or anxiety (e.g., in “Breathin” by Ariana Grande or “Fear is a liar” by Zach Williams), can provide a starting point for this. As Daniel Becker notes, within particular cultures, their “representation, stigmatisation and belief about mental health are the result of every single text” (Becker 2023: 32). Working with different song lyrics, that is, different cases (or possibly also other text types), can thus encourage learners to identify the plurality of different stories portrayed within songs, many of which are autobiographical – for instance, as in “Sophie” by Arlo Parks, which refers to her own mental health struggles. At the same time, such activities may familiarize learners with relevant technical terms (Werner/Summer 2023), fostering their ability to distinguish between states and feelings/emotions (see Section 3.1). By examining emotions in songs, learners can, furthermore, identify the universality of emotions while looking into how song lyrics offer help and empathy and suggest for listeners to stand together in difficult times. These songs, which fall into the category of “external perception: supporting someone”

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as determined in Valentin Werner and Theresa Summer (2023), offer opportu‐ nities for encouraging listeners to get active in supporting others. An example is the song “Bridge over troubled water” by Simon and Garfunkel (1970), of which Simon Cowell initiated a cover version as a tribute to the fire victims in the Grenfell Tower in London in 2017 (Artists for Grenfell 2017). The artists involved, including singers such as Stormzy, Robbie Williams, and Emeli Sandé, raised funds for survivors and the bereaved; hence, this song is an example of how music can help in offering a universal remedy for challenging times as people stand together to support people in deep sorrow. While treating this song as a case, emotions represented in lyrics such as “When you’re weary, feeling small” or “When you’re down and out” can be explored, interpreted, and used as a starting point for taking action to support people in overcoming sorrow. Learners can reflect (possibly on a smaller scale) on how they could support their classmates, relatives, and friends when they are in difficult situations. Further songs that provide impulses for this are, for instance, “Get up” by Shinedown and “Dare you to move” by Switchfoot.   4.3 Regulating Emotions

The third step aims to help learners regulate their emotions, which is also mentioned in the global skill of “emotional self-regulation and wellbeing” (Mercer et al. 2019: 14). Self-regulation is “the ability to manage our internal feelings, thoughts and emotions, and to abide by our individual, self-chosen value system”, which includes making choices as an individual and managing our emotions effectively (Purushothaman 2021: 67). In our interview, the psy‐ chotherapist suggested for learners to take enough time for this and ask friends for help to develop strategies of coping with stress – a type of self-management that some children and adolescents are not equipped with (interview 2021). This closely relates to the interviewee’s emphasis on the importance of empowering learners, as discussed above, and ties in with the observation that we are responsible for our emotions (Stavemann 2010: 26). An interesting and highly relevant investigation here is an intervention study that used song journals as a tool for monitoring the emotional well-being of young learners of English, focusing on the application of emotional regulation strategies (Bitmann/Uhl 2022). Its results indicate that learners are aware of the expressive function of songs and had established a toolkit of some emotional regulatory strategies, although some struggled in applying these, possibly due to the cognitive complexity of the task (Bitmann/Uhl 2022: 66). This indicates that activities

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aimed at supporting learners in regulating their emotions are not an easy undertaking and they require time, patience, and practice. The first activity, which is grounded in the interviewee’s suggestion to ask learners to “find a song that moves them and ask them how it makes them feel” (interview 2021), provides a starting point for encouraging learners to regulate their emotions by choosing two or more songs and reflecting on their emotions (see Cue Box below). Crucially, one goal of this activity is for learners to realise that their choice of music can have an impact on their mood. This has been confirmed by recent studies (e.g. Stewart et al. 2019) and, therefore, learners should be encouraged to make proactive choices for when they experience ups and downs by, for example, listening to uplifting music when they are feeling melancholic. Cue Box (Step 3): Songs that move you Teachers can encourage learners to reflect on how different songs make them feel. Subsequently, they should raise their learners’ awareness of the fact that their listening choices can help them manage their emotions. Find two songs that move you. 1. Find two or more songs and listen to them. At least one song should make you feel happy or put you into a good mood. ● ● ●

How do the songs make you feel? (see also the star of emotions) And how often ... ? (always, often, sometimes ... ) How much ... ? (extremely, very, quite, a bit ... )

2. Prepare a presentation in which you tell listeners about the two (or more) songs that move you, how they make you feel and why you think that is. To highlight different emotional regulation strategies to learners, these can be made explicit to learners, for example, when reflecting on their emotional reactions to certain songs. The following accessible questions can be presented to learners (formulated by Bitmann/Uhl 2022: 62, based on Jazaieri et al. 2020): ● ● ● ● ●

Do I stay or escape the situation? (situation selection) Do I change something about the situation? (situation modification) Do I focus on something else? (attentional development) Do I change what the situation means for me? (cognitive change) Do I use tactics to change my reaction to the emotion? (response modula‐ tion)

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When learners encounter different types of songs, they can use these ques‐ tions as a basis for practising different regulation strategies. Depending on how a song makes them feel, these guiding questions can provide a first step in identifying their own power in regulating their emotions. As a follow-up or additional task, learners could be given the opportunity to recognise their own emotions physically – an idea presented by the psycho‐ therapist (interview 2021). It is crucial to note in this context that scholars have critically assessed the ways in which we conceptualize and talk about emotions in everyday language. Despite their wide range of different types of feelings, emotions are often simplistically rated as either positive or negative (Glasenapp 2021: 20), but as Fig. 2 shows, emotions are far more varied. A further point of criticism, as Harlich Stavemann emphasises (2010: 19), is that the term feelings is often used for other things (e.g., distrust – a thought rather than a feeling) that cannot really be classified as emotions. To illustrate this, Harlich Stavemann (2010) provides an overview of different types of feelings, accompanying symptoms, thoughts, and bodily sensations (see Tab. 2). Interestingly, selected items from this table (e.g. hunger) also featured among the salient lexical items in a corpus study (Werner/Summer 2023: Section 4.1), even though in the corpus data they are used in contexts related to suffering. Feelings

Symptoms

Thoughts

Bodily sensations

  joy affection indifference hatred contentment shame worry disappointment fear sorrow dejection grief discontent panic rage love anger antipathy

  blushing vertigo tinnitus heart palpitations chest pain perspiration trembling trouble breathing urge to urinate nausea circulatory prob‐ lems paling muscular tension fainting

  uncertainty distrust being at some‐ body’s mercy freedom trust loneliness safety attachment dependency being mocked being obligated incredibility being liked being powerless being rejected being laughed at

  hunger body pain headache cold thirst pressure fatigue warmth constipation

Tab. 2: Additional domains related to emotions (based on Stavemann 2010: 21; own transl.)

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Categorising the nouns listed accordingly could help learners link feelings to thoughts or bodily sensations, for instance, and this could be a further step in helping them recognise their feelings. Instead of discussing individual cases, which is usually not something English teachers are qualified to do, our suggestion would be to work with receptive language activities (e.g., assigning nouns to the four categories listed in Tab. 2) and invite learners to discuss how different feelings may show different symptoms or result in similar bodily sensations among people. Such reflective activities can be an important step in identifying and regulating learners’ emotions. The second task suggestion involves a more explicit focus on mental health through songwriting. As it is crucial for learners to remain “respectful of physical diversity” and avoid “prescriptive or judgemental attitudes” (Mercer et al. 2019: 14), creative activities in which learners write a text from someone else’s perspective may provide an opportunity for learners to change their attitudes by stepping into others’ shoes. Equally, for learners who have suffered from mental health-related challenges or stress at school, songwriting activities may help them regulate their own emotions. Songwriting strategies are used in music therapy and involve clients creating their own song lyrics and possibly also performing the songs – a process considered meaningful because songs are a common form of expression, they can be performed repeatedly, they can be shared, and they can be kept and stored away (Rolvsjord 2005: 98). Songwriting techniques can include three steps: (1) selecting words from a list, (2) self-generating words, and (3) writing a poem (Rolvsjord 2005: 101). Similarly, in developing an adaptable framework for the use of songwriting in therapy, called FAST (Flexible Approach to Songwriting in Therapy), Tony Wigram (2005) lists methods for six different stages ranging from an introduc‐ tion to songwriting, formulation of lyrics, development of music, writing down a song, performing a song to recording a song (Wigram 2005: 262–263). Thera‐ peutic songwriting intervention studies have included a range of individual or cooperative activities (e.g., Gee et al. 2019: 7) and based on these ideas as well as the songwriting techniques described above, the following suggestion (see Cue Box below) applies such therapeutic approaches to ELT. The idea behind this activity is that if learners can reflect on emotional stressors and their (or others’) emotional states, they can better cope with emotional stressors and develop skills in emotional regulation.

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Cue Box (Step 3): Songwriting activity Teachers can encourage learners to write their own song (lyrics) through the following task: Write a mental health song. 1. 2. 3.

Set an intention: What is your song about? lt could be about your current experiences at school or about your future aspirations. Choose a prompt (e. g., a topic, a feeling, a word) and generate a list of words you want to use in your song. (Optional: provide scaffolding). Write the lyrics. (You can use a rhyming dictionary.)

(Optional for interdisciplinary projects: Compose a melody and complete (and perform) your song.) 4.

Reflect on your experience: What did you learn? How did this activity affect your mental health? How can songwriting be helpful in regulating emotions?

5 Conclusion

As the access to professional psychotherapeutic help for young people is limited across many countries today, school education plays an important role in contributing to learners’ mental health and emotional self-regulation. Devel‐ oping research-based materials for teachers across different subjects, including English, could support educators in this endeavour. As this contribution has shown, combining insights from psychology and psychotherapy with pedagog‐ ical concepts in ELT can establish a solid basis for making methodological decisions in English lessons concerning text choice and task design. Based on some of the research findings mentioned and the insights gained through the interview, we can conclude that, for one, English teachers can potentially influence their learners’ positive mental health and well-being through some basic language activities that foster a more precise description and recognition of human emotions. Additionally, songs in general and (mental health) song lyrics in particular offer further methodological options for iden‐ tifying others’ mental health struggles and identifying ways of offering support. Mental health and music are allies, not only due to the potentially positive impact of music on people’s well-being and emotional self-regulation, but also due to the richness of mental health song lyrics, which can provide a basis for engaging in discourses around mental health and identifying how to support

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poor mental health. Besides fostering mental health literacy (see Introduction in this volume), from a broader perspective, this caters to the needs of global citizenship education (Lütge et al. 2023) as learners are encouraged to be critically reflexive and act upon newly gained insights – for instance, what to do for one’s own well-being or how to provide support for others suffering from poor mental health. The general advice and more specific practical activities suggested in this contribution provide a starting point for lesson designs, which could be investigated through intervention studies in practice. Crucially, “[h]uman emotions are precious, but they can be self-destructive if not managed well” (Purushothaman 2021: 2). Therefore, a mere linguistic focus on describing emotions is insufficient for ELT. What is needed is a thorough and differentiated engagement with linguistic representations of emotions – for which songs provide manifold opportunities, as outlined above. A statement that provides a very positive outlook into English teachers’ role in promoting their learners’ positive mental health concludes this contribution. In reference to some of the task ideas we discussed throughout our interview and developed further in the sections above, the psychotherapist noted: “One small step may be enough; perhaps more than what has been taught in the last twenty years” (interview 2021). In the spirit of the present volume, we take this as encouraging for educators to engage with the topic of mental health, be it through songs and/or via other routes. Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to our interviewee for sharing her thoughts and perspectives with us and allowing us to publish her experiences, views, and suggestions. Thanks also go to Claudia Schnellbögl for her valuable comments on this contribution. References

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Interview (2021). Interview conducted with a psychologist and psychotherapist on 21 November 2021, based in Berlin, Germany. Simon and Garfunkel (1970). Bridge over troubled water. Columbia Records.

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Glasenapp, Jan (2021). Emotionen als Ressourcen: Manual für Psychotherapie, Coaching und Beratung. Weinheim: Beltz. Gläser-Zikuda, Michaela/Florian Hofmann (2022). Emotionen in Schule und Unterricht aus pädagogischer Sicht. In: Gläser-Zikuda, Michaela/Hofmann, Florian/Frederking, Volker (Eds.). Emotionen im Unterricht: Psychologische, pädagogische und fachdi‐ daktische Perspektiven. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 15–30. Gustavson, Daniel E./Coleman, Peyton L./Iversen, John R./Maes, Hermine H./Gordon, Reyna L./Lense, Miriam D. (2021). Mental health and music engagement: Review, framework, and guidelines for future studies. Translational Psychiatry, 11 (1), 370. Lackner, Regina (2021). Embodiment – die Wechselwirkung zwischen Körper und Psyche. In: Lackner, Regina (Ed.). Stabilisierung in der Traumabehandlung: Ein ganzheitliches, methodenübergreifendes Praxisbuch. Berlin: Springer, 55–57. https://doi.org/10.1038 /s41398-021-01483-8 Jazaieri, Hooria/Uusberg, Helen/Uusberg, Andero/Gross James J. (2020). Cognitive pro‐ cesses and risk for emotion dysregulation. In: Beauchaine, Theodore P./Crowell Sheila E. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of emotion dysregulation. Oxford: OUP, 127–140. Ludwig, Christian/Martinez, Veronika (2023). #mentalhealthmatters – Exploring border‐ line personality disorder in ELT through poetry slams. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. London: Routledge, 126–140. Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (2023). Approaching taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. London: Routledge, 3–20. Lütge, Christiane; Merse, Thorsten; Rauschert, Petra. (Eds.) (2023). Global citizenship in foreign language education: Concepts, practices, connections. New York: Routledge. Mannarelli, Paola/Serrano, Raquel (2022). “Thank you for the music”: Examining how songs can promote vocabulary learning in an EFL class. The Language Learning Journal. https:/doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2022.2092198 Mercer, Sarah/Hockly, Nicky/Stobart, Gordon/Galés, Neus Lorenzo (2019). Global skills: Creating empowered 21st century citizens. Oxford: OUP. Mercer, Sarah/MacIntyre, Peter/Gregersen, Tammy/Talbot, Kyle (2018). Positive lan‐ guage education: Combining positive education and language education. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 4 (2), 11–31. Oxford, Rebecca L. (2016). Towards a psychology of well-being for language learners: The ‘EMPATHICS’ vision. In: MacIntyre, Peter/Gregersen, Tammy/Mercer, Sarah (Eds.). Positive psychology in SLA. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 10–87. Purushothaman, Rajagopalan (2021). Emotional intelligence. Los Angeles: Sage. Rolvsjord, Randi (2005). Collaborations on songwriting with clients with mental health problems. In: Baker, Felicity/Wigram, Tony (Eds). Songwriting: Methods, techniques

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and clinical applications for music therapy. London: Jessica Kinglsey Publishers, 97–115. Salovey, Peter/Mayer, John D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, cognition and Personality 9 (3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/DUGG-P24E-52WK-6CDG Schütz, Astrid/Rüdiger, Martin/Rentzsch, Katrin (2016). Lehrbuch Persönlichkeitspsy‐ chologie Bern: Hogrefe. Stavemann, Harlich H. (2010). Im Gefühlsdschungel: Emotionale Krisen verstehen und bewältigen. Weinheim: Beltz. Stewart, Joanna/Garrido, Sandra/Hense, Cherry/McFerran, Katrina (2019). Music use for mood regulation: Self-awareness and conscious listening choices in young people with tendencies to depression. Frontiers in Psychology 10, 1199 https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2019.01199. Werner, Valentin (2020). ‘Song-advantage’ or ‘cost of singing’? A research synthesis of classroom-based intervention studies applying lyrics-based language teaching (1972–2019). Journal of Second Language Teaching and Research 8 (1), 138–170. Werner, Valentin/Summer, Theresa (2023). Mental health songs: Corpus-based analysis and implications for EFL education. English Text Construction 16 (2), 169–196. Werner, Valentin/Tegge, Friederike (2021). Learning languages through pop cul‐ ture/learning about pop culture through language education. In: Werner, Val‐ entin/Tegge, Friederike (Eds). Pop culture in language education: Theory, research, practice. London: Routledge. 3–30. Wigram, Tony (2005). Songwriting methods: Similarities and differences: Developing a working model. In: Baker, Felicity/Wigram, Tony (Eds). Methods, techniques and clinical applications for music therapy clinicians, educators and students. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 246–264. Williams, Marion/Mercer, Sarah/Ryan, Stephen (2015). Exploring psychology in language learning and teaching. Oxford: OUP.

8 Appendix

The following questions provided the basis for the semi-structured expert interview (note that not all answers could be considered in the contribution due to lack of space): 1.

The role and importance of mental health among adolescents – How would you explain the term mental health and why is it so important, especially for adolescents? – In your opinion, how can the current state of adolescents’ mental health in Germany be described?

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–

2.

3.

During your work as a psychotherapist, what have you been able to observe among young people, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic? Which problems occur more frequently than before? – To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic affected adolescent mental health? – Which statistical measures or descriptions of adolescent mental health exist? What do we know about adolescent mental health from psycho‐ logical research that is relevant for teachers? The role of school education (focusing on ELT) – What advice would you give to teachers in secondary schools about promoting their learners’ mental health? – How can teachers support young people’s mental health and wellbeing in the best possible way? – What do you think about the idea of integrating the topic of mental health into English lessons? The potential affordances of music and songs for promoting adolescents’ mental health – In your opinion, what role could music and songs play in promoting adolescents’ mental health? – What potential do you see in the use of songs dealing with mental health issues in education or ELT?

Section 2: Texts and Materials

Sally Nicholls’ Multimodal Novel Ways to Live Forever in the EFL Classroom – A Case Study

Maria Eisenmann

1 Introduction

In recent decades, multimodal theories and approaches have received a great deal of attention in various disciplines and have led to numerous publications in the fields of semiotics, linguistics, communication studies, cultural studies, and media studies (see, e.g., Hallet 2015 & 2018; Jewitt 2017; Eisenmann/Meyer 2018; Seizov/Wildfeuer 2019; Eisenmann/Summer 2020; Eisenmann 2022; Am‐ merer/Oppolzer 2022). This contribution focuses on approaches that make multimodal theories usable for teaching mental health issues through literature in the EFL classroom. In the educational context, multimodal arrangements are becoming increasingly important. Various works deal with multimodal compositions such as textbooks, films, and multimodal literary forms such as graphic novels, comics, and picturebooks (Eisenmann/Meyer 2018: 12 ff.). Multimodal novels integrate non-written language elements into the narrative and have great potential for foreign language teaching. However, due to the complexity of interpretation, differing literacy skills as well as teacher training needs, these formats can be challenging for both students and teachers (Alfes 2018). Overcoming these challenges requires a concerted effort from educators to adapt and evolve teaching practices to accommodate this evolving form of literature. In order to find answers to the question of how the advantages of multimodal novels can be used effectively and purposefully in the context of dealing with mental health issues and the taboo topic of dying and death in an EFL classroom, this contribution presents a teaching concept for Sally Nicholl’s multimodal novel Ways to Live Forever (2008). Although death is a universal reality and young adults inevitably come into contact with it directly or indirectly (even textbook publishers bring out school readings in the framework of which death plays a major role), it remains a sensitive subject area in EFL classes. A literary text is suggested as a more useful lens through which to record and reflect on

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how students handle this topic inside and outside the classroom. The teaching concept goes beyond the death taboo debate by demonstrating that students can (and will) talk about death and that they have a variety of needs in doing so, which are influenced by broader cultural and social contexts. The paper, therefore, aims to explore the academic field of dealing with this sensitive topic in the classroom. In relation to a teaching unit, a survey was conducted in a 10th grade Gymnasium. For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed to find out more about pupils’ motivation concerning multimodal nature of the novel and their attitudes towards the difficult themes of the novel, like illness and death. 2 The Multimodal Novel as a Genre

Multimodality can occur in various literary forms, and some literary genres are always multimodal arrangements. For example, picturebooks or comics include written language and drawings, although they do not necessarily include written text (Eisenmann 2022: 57). However, these narrative forms are to be distinguished from the genre of the multimodal novel, which emerged in the 1990s, especially in the English-speaking world, and is conspicuously common in the field of youth literature (Hallet 2018: 25). Wolfgang Hallet made a decisive contribution to characterising the multimodal novel as a genre. He defines it as follows (2018: 26): The multimodal novel is […] defined as a genre that integrates nonverbal modes of meaning-making such as, e.g., photographs, cartographic maps, handwritten letters and all sorts of other artefacts into the narrative discourse of the novel and in which such artefacts represent semiotic resources that are produced, circulated or displayed in the fictional world.

Therefore, this type of novel should be called its own genre because its narrative technique fundamentally differs from other multimodal literary arrangements such as comics or picturebooks (Eisenmann 2022). In the multimodal novel, all non-linguistic and non-narrative elements are part of the fictional narrative world, created, found, or collected by its characters or the narrator (Hallet 2018: 32). The reader thus perceives these elements in the same way as the characters of the respective novel perceive them. The range of these de-linearised text components, which can be integrated into the plot, is broad: It spans from handwritten notes and letters to photos, drawings, diagrams, topographical maps, receipts, tickets and travel cards, to representations of digital elements such as screenshots and emails. Unlike other multimodal arrangements, such as picturebooks, these elements not only

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serve to illustrate the plot told through written language but often contribute decisively to the construction of the plot (Alfes 2018: 29–30). 3 The Novel Ways to Live Forever

  3.1 Reasons for Dealing with the Novel in the EFL Classroom

Sally Nicholls’ multimodal novel Ways to Live Forever deals with the topic of how to live with the disease leukemia and how this affects the mental condition of the protagonists. The story covers the last three months of Sam Oliver McQueen’s life and the book functions as his diary. In the everyday descriptions, notes, question lists and wishful thinking of Sam and his best friend Felix, who is also suffering from cancer, reflect about life and death. In other words, the novel deals with illness, fear and death, hence, it focuses on a variety of mental health issues students might find difficult to talk about. The novel tells the story of a fatally ill eleven-year-old and thus belongs to a category of youth literature that is disparagingly called “sick lit” (Henseler/Schäfers 2014: 30). In this context, the repeated debate comes into play as to whether literature that deals with serious and taboo topics should be given a place in the school curriculum or whether it would be better not to expose young people to such heavy mental fare in school (see, e.g., Henseler/Schäfers 2014: 30). I argue in this contribution that young people have to be confronted with serious and difficult taboo topics in school, and that novels like Ways to Live Forever should be dealt with in the EFL classroom. Teaching English today is not only about making learners master the target language and develop inter- or transcultural communicative competence; it is also about implementing critical pedagogy (Gerlach 2020) into the classroom and this involves addressing relevant and interesting content such as mental health issues and taboo topics. In this context, the role of today’s educators is to develop learners’ critical literacies by addressing such topics through various texts and media (see also introduction in this volume). The novel centers on a key idea: the main character, Sam, and his friend Felix embark on a journey to create personal catalogues of their life goals. They are inspired by their homeschooling instructor, who guides them in this endeavour. These catalogues, referred to as “bucket lists” become a powerful tool that helps Sam and Felix engage in deep self-reflection. They use these lists to outline their priorities, personal values, and the important milestones and experiences they hope to achieve before they die. Over the course of the narrative, Sam and Felix try to work through Sam’s list, resulting in fun, comforting and exciting experiences for Sam. After a few weeks, Felix dies and Sam struggles with this loss. His parents,

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grandmother and sister all try to help him to deal with the death of his best friend in their own personal ways. Eventually, his family helps him tick off the missing items on his list before Sam also dies at the end of the book. The narrative is constructed by numerous other modes in addition to the written continuous text. It is designed as the protagonist’s scrapbook and is accordingly introduced with a handwritten preface by Sam: “This is my book, started 7th January, finished 12th April. It is a collection of lists, stories, pictures, questions and facts. It is also my story” (Nicholls 2008: 1). Sam’s collection includes handwritten notes, such as his handwritten Ways-to-Live-Forever list (see figure 1), questions nobody answers, written on index cards and lists written on slips of paper. There is also a printed piece of paper, a quotation from a dictionary, a printed schematic representation of a zeppelin on a piece of paper and a photograph of the earth torn out of a calendar. Also included in the scrapbook are drawings made by Sam, his father and his sister Ella (see figure 2), greeting cards and postcards addressed to the protagonist (see figure 3), and a questionnaire created by Sam and presumably filled out by his mother. In addition, there is a ticket, entrance tickets, a photo of Sam’s father, a landscape photograph, two leaves of a tree and a beer coaster (see figure 4). The different affordances of the individual modes help to flesh out the narrative world on different levels. For example, information about Sam’s zeppelin ride cannot only be taken from Sam’s description of what the landscape looks like below him, but also from a landscape photograph taken during the flight.

Fig. 1: Handwritten Ways-to-Live-Forever list (Nicholls 2012: 89)

Sally Nicholls’ Multimodal Novel Ways to Live Forever in the EFL Classroom

Fig. 2: Ella’s picture (Nicholls 2012: 187)

Fig. 3: Sam’s greeting cards and postcards (Nicholls 2012: 190–191)

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Fig. 4: Collection of things important to Sam (Nicholls 2012: 195)

4 Case Study

The teaching unit on Sally Nicholl’s multimodal youth novel Ways to Live Forever took place in a 10th grade of a Bavarian Gymnasium in 2021. Due to time constraints, the novel was read in excerpts over a course of four 45-minute English lessons. The teaching unit was followed by a students’ questionnaire survey. The aim of the teaching unit was to engage with the novel on three levels. First, the students dealt with the content of the text. Second, they examined linguistic peculiarities and stylistic devices. Third, they examined the novel in terms of its multimodal narrative technique and the effect it creates. Accord‐ ingly, the following overarching goals were set: The students were encouraged to approach the theme of the novel by examining how the individual characters deal with the disease of cancer. In this regard, the students examined rhetorical devices in the novel by conducting close reading for selected chapters. They were then given tasks to develop awareness of the novel’s multimodal narrative technique by examining the individual modes and reflecting on the effect of the multimodal narrative technique on the reading experience. After the introductory lesson, one focus of the teaching unit was, for example, on the parts of the novel that deal with the theme of “riding an airship,” which is extremely important to Sam and runs like a thread through the entire novel. The

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focus was on looking at the corresponding novel excerpts on the basis of content, stylistic devices and multimodal narrative techniques. The learning objectives consisted essentially of a cognitive task, in which students had to deal with the chapters about airships, taking into account both content and stylistic aspects. For this purpose, they analysed the elements that make up the narrative in the novel. On both a cognitive and affective level, they reflected on the effect that the interaction of the individual elements has on the perception of the novel. In this context, the students were asked to comment on what feelings and thoughts the pictures in Sam’s scrapbook evoked in them. To achieve the cognitive and affective learning objectives, the students were confronted with the question of “How does Sam feel about riding in an airship?” using the method of think-pair-share. Students were first asked to think about the question for themselves for one to two minutes and then share their thoughts in pairs. On the one hand, this content-related question aimed at creating a basis for considering the text excerpt on the level of stylistic devices, and on the other hand, it was intended to link the mainly cognitive learning objectives with affective aspects in terms of content. In the sharing phase, students’ contributions were collected on a shared worksheet. Most of the students’ findings referred to the stylistic devices in the chapter “Perfect” (pp. 167–171). Here the students recognised that riding an airship functions as a metaphor because the view from the zeppelin allows Sam to see his illness from a different, more positive perspective. Other students read the view from the airship as a metaphor for Sam having already died and looking at the world from above. The next step was to ask what effect the composition of the different elements had on the reading experience. The students not only found the whole reading process more interesting but also realised that reading the novel felt like reading a diary, which is the basic character of the novel. Students then noted that the de-linearised text components, mostly non-literary modes, of the novel were not exclusively ’created’ by Sam but appeared to be taken from the narrative world around him and integrated into the novel. Since Ways to Live Forever deals with illness and death, the regular English teacher was consulted prior to the lessons conducted by the author to determine whether students were personally or closely affected by cancer. To the teacher’s knowledge, this was not the case. Nevertheless, in the design of the lessons, as well as in the conception of the overall lesson planning, emphasis was placed on the novel characters and how they deal with the disease. In addition, the focus was mainly on the multimodal narrative technique of the novel in order to avoid dealing with the topic on a personal level.

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Since many of the modes can at least partly be accessed through literary competence in the sense of traditional reading (Eisenmann/Summer 2020: 61 f.), the focus in the lesson unit was on dealing with the different modes and on raising awareness of the multimodal character of the novel. In the first step, this was done in the introductory lesson; in the further course, the decoding and interpreting of the modes was ensured through corresponding while- and post-reading activities. Accordingly, an exchange about the different reading experiences of the learners was included, also concerning possible difficulties in the reading process caused by the multimodal character of the novel. In a last step, there was a reflection on the different modes, their interaction, and their effect on the whole text. The reading of the novel excerpts was conducted in a step-by-step manner, a suitable approach given the novels’ brevity, with its individual chapters being quite short. With a total length of approximately 200 pages, the novel was easily manageable in this format. This approach allowed to spotlight specific aspects, unique elements, and pivotal scenes within the novel during the reading process, creating opportunities for discussion and encouraging the use of prediction techniques. The lesson unit was primarily guided by three teaching principles: action orientation, product orientation and differentiation/individualisation. These principles were effectively incorporated through a range of activities before, during and after the reading sessions. Additionally, the students engaged in the creation of a scrapbook, similar to Sam’s, as a part of the instructional design. The practical preparation and keeping of the scrapbook by means of whileas well as post-reading activities corresponded to the principle of action orientation, whereas the result of this process was the finished scrapbook as a product in the sense of product orientation. Similar to a reading log, the scrapbook was to be set up as a multimodal reading book in which learners completed various compulsory and optional tasks (Eisenmann/Summer 2020: 64). The design of a reading log is particularly well suited to individualise the students’ reading process (Eisenmann 2019: 88). In this format, differentiation was achieved by having the learners work on different tasks from a task pool (Eisenmann 2019: 88). Furthermore, the assignments were designed as open as possible in order to allow individual student responses and to promote the heterogeneity of the outcome in the sense of a ’natural’ differentiation accordingly. To give an example, one of the tasks was as follows: “Choose one of the characters from Ways to Live Forever and explain how he or she deals with Sam’s illness. Refer to specific passages in the book to support your points.”

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The format of the scrapbook as a multimodal reading log not only enabled the individualisation of the reading and learning process, but also corresponded to the creative engagement in the treatment of multimodal novels. The haptic engagement with the format of the scrapbook made it an ideal entry point into the complexity of multimodal narratives. In particular for Ways to Live Forever it has proven to be useful to have students create a scrapbook with different modes rather than a purely text-based reading log, as this allowed them to recreate Sam’s creative processes throughout the plot. In exploring the multimodal narrative style, the scrapbook made it easier for students to bring affective aspects into the classroom discourse. Another advantage of the format is that it generally provides an opportunity for reticent learners, who are reluctant to share their personal experiences in plenary as well as to express and process individual reading impressions. During the entire teaching unit on Ways to Live Forever, no additional homework was set for the scrapbook tasks in order to use the lesson design to also encourage the students’ independent and self-organised work. The basic principle of the lesson unit was to integrate everything that is worked on and documented in class into the scrapbook. As compulsory tasks, learners are asked to make lists of what different semiotic expressions are used in the novel, what they like and dislike about Ways to Live Forever and write questions they have about the novel on index cards. In the elective tasks section, learners are free to choose whether to write a postcard to Sam or one of the other characters, whether to design a book or DVD cover, and whether to write a letter to the author or a book review. This ensures that learners engage with the novel in terms of content as well as multimodality. Furthermore, learners are encouraged to integrate individual and personal ideas and contributions, such as spontaneous reading impressions, into the scrapbook independently of the compulsory and elective tasks, and to make use of different modes in doing so as well. 5 Questionnaire and Evaluation

It is an obvious assumption that reading multimodal novels, compared to tradi‐ tional novels, leads to an increase in motivation among learners (see, e.g., Alfes 2018: 3; Eisenmann/Summer 2020: 52; Eisenmann 2022: 59). Wolfgang Hallet (2015: 295) also generally assumes that multimodal novels are more motivating for young readers. This general acceptance has also been confirmed by a teacher survey conducted in 2017 at the University of Koblenz-Landau (Alfes 2018: 3) in which teachers were asked to make assumptions about the opportunities

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and challenges of using multimodal literature in the EFL classroom. Most of them stated that multimodal literature has a motivating effect because it is true to life and visually strongly appealing, so that possible barriers, such as fear of reading unfamiliar texts or a lack of motivation to read, can more easily be overcome. At the same time, according to the teachers, multimodal texts reflect modern communication, globalisation and mechanisation. In addition, the teachers participating in the survey expected that multimodal literature offers the possibility to address different types of learners through numerous modes. Furthermore, they assume that multimodal youth novels can be used to connect to competence-oriented curricula. However, they agreed that it is a challenge to do justice to the genre in class by setting appropriate tasks, since the special feature of the literary genre lies in the integration of different modes, which need to be dealt with specifically (ibid). The studies by Kristy A. Brugar et al. (2018) or Riki Thompson and Matthew McIlnay (2019) come to similar conclusions. As all of these statements above are assumptions on the part of teachers, they say nothing about the student side. For this reason, this case study addresses students’ perspectives by conducting a short survey. The evaluation question‐ naire conducted in German after the teaching unit targeted four different areas. Firstly, the students’ media use was investigated to determine which types of texts they prefer to read outside the classroom, which media they use most often and how many students in this particular class use multimodal digital media on a daily basis. Secondly, an impression was gathered as to whether students are generally more motivated to read multimodal novels than traditional novels. Thirdly, in relation to the novel Ways to Live Forever, students were asked whether they were in favour of reading books that deal with difficult topics such as disease and death in school. The main focus, however, was, fourthly, to examine the reading experience of the students when reading the novel. The learning group consisted of 30 students with average performance levels. Two to three of the students performed particularly well in English and very few had fundamental difficulties. Since four students were sick during the lessons held, 26 participated in the survey; 12 boys and 14 girls (n=26). The age range at the time of the survey was from 15 to 17. All those who participated were present throughout the entire teaching unit. The questionnaire comprises 14 statements with a four-point Likert scale asking students to tick one of the four boxes: ’agree’, ’rather agree’, ’rather disagree’ or ’disagree’. Figure 5 shows the evaluation sheet, in which the first line is in absolute numbers and the second line in percentages rounded to two decimal places.

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Evaluationsbogen zur Unterrichtseinheit Ways to Live Forever

Zutreffendes bitte ankreuzen. Aussagen

trifft zu

Ich lese gerne Romane in meiner Freizeit.

trifft eher nicht zu

trifft nicht zu

4 3 15,38% 11,54%

6 23,08%

13 50%

Ich lese gerne Comics/Graphic Novels in meiner Freizeit. (1 ungültiges Kreuz)

1 4%

2 8%

8 32%

14 56%

Ich lese gerne Sachbücher in meiner Freizeit.

  0%

2 7,69%

6 23,08%

18 69,23%

Ich lese Zeitung.

  0%

5 19,23%

7 26,92%

14 53,85%

Ich lese online Nachrichten in Form von On‐ line-Zeitungen oder Nachrichten-Apps.

9 8 34,62% 30,77%

8 30,77%

1 3,85%

Ich nutze täglich soziale Medien wie Insta‐ gram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter oder Snapchat.

26 100%

 

 

11 Generell bin ich motivierter, Romane zu lesen, 4 in denen Bilder, Briefe, Postkarte, E-Mails, 15,38% 42,31% Tagebucheinträge etc. vorkommen, als “nor‐ male” Romane.

6 23,08%

5 19,23%

Beim Lesen der Auszüge aus Ways to Live 5 17 Forever haben mir die Listen, Zitate, hands‐ 19,23% 65,38% chriftlichen Notizen, Pläne und Zeichnungen geholfen, den Text besser zu verstehen.

4 15,38%

 

Beim Lesen der Auszüge aus Ways To Live   Forever haben mich die Listen, Zitate, hands‐ chriftlichen Notizen, Pläne und Zeichnungen irritiert.

 

10 38,46%

16 61,54%

Beim Lesen der Auszüge aus Ways To Live 1 Forever habe ich mich durch die Listen, Zitate, 3,85% handschriftlichen Notizen, Pläne und Zeich‐ nungen in meinem Lesefluss gestört gefühlt.

3 11,54%

8 30,77%

14 53,85%

4 6 15,38% 23,08%

8 30,77%

8 30,77%

Beim Lesen der Auszüge aus Ways To Live Forever war ich unsicher, in welcher Reihen‐ folge ich die verschiedenen Elemente (z. B. Fließtext, Zeichnung) lesen beziehungsweise betrachten soll.

trifft eher zu

 

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Die Auszüge aus Ways to Live Forever haben mir gefallen.

13 50%

5 19,23%

7 26,92%

1 3,85%

Ich habe Interesse daran, den gesamten Roman Ways to Live Forever zu lesen.

2 7,69%

8 30,77%

5 19,23%

11 42,31%

7 26,92%

3 11,54%

3 11,54%

Ich finde es gut, wenn in der Schule Bücher 13 wie Ways to Live Forever behandelt werden, 50% die sich mit ernsten und schwierigen Themen befassen.

Table 1: Evaluation sheet for the teaching unit Ways to Live Forever (n=26)

The questionnaire starts by asking whether students like to read novels, comics and/or graphic novels, non-fiction or the newspaper, which does not seem to be the case, with the majority of respondents denying this. The next question, which relates to the use of social media, was asked along the lines of one of the most important arguments that multimodal novels should be read in English classes because this type of novel corresponds to the usual communication in the students’ lifeworld, mostly with their smartphones (see e.g. Hallet 2018: 28). According to the JIM Study, 94 per cent of young people aged 12 to 19 owned a smartphone and 75 per cent an own PC/laptop in 2021 (JIM-Studie 2021: 6). In this class, in which the lessons as well as the evaluation were conducted, 100 per cent of the pupils stated that they used social media such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter or Snapchat on a daily basis. Since motivation is not an unproblematic concept in terms of its measura‐ bility, this evaluation can only give a rough, general picture or impression, which can be read from the young people’s statements. The answers to the statement “In general, I am more motivated to read novels that contain pictures, letters, postcards, emails, diary entries etc. than ’normal’ novels”, with a total of 58 per cent in the areas of ’applies’ and ’tends to apply’, compared to a total of 42 per cent in the areas of ’tends not to apply’ and ’does not apply’, indicate a slight tendency towards increased motivation when reading multimodal novels. Since the narrative in multimodal novels is de-linearised, it challenges students to make different reading decisions (Eisenmann 2022: 59). For example, they have to decide in which order to read the different forms of representation within the multimodal narrative and how much time and attention to devote to each mode (Hallet 2018: 26). On a newly opened double page, for example, do they first continue reading the continuous text on the left or do they directly look at a drawing on the right and then return to the written text? The de-linearised narrative technique of multimodal novels can actually lead to irritation and confusion among learners and possibly also disrupt their reading flow. For the

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text extracts read from Ways to Live Forever, hardly any students felt irritated or disturbed in their reading flow by the multimodal elements integrated into the narrative alongside the continuous text. Regarding the statement “When reading the excerpts from Ways to Live Forever, the lists, quotations, handwritten notes, plans and drawings irritated me”, all answers were even in the range ‛rather not true’ or ‛not true’. With regard to being unsure of the order in which to read or look at the individual elements when reading the text excerpts, however, the responses in the areas ‛agree’ and ’rather agree’ were 38 per cent in total. The answers here show that even with multimodal novels, in which the relationship of the individual modes to each other is complementary, difficulties can arise for learners in relation to the reading or comprehension process. Accordingly, this problem should be addressed with the students in a teaching unit on a multimodal novel. The awareness of the changed reading experience and the exchange about difficulties in the reading process can already be a first step towards a more structured reading of the novel. In addition, the teacher can develop strategies together with the class that are helpful for a systematic development process of the multimodal narrative. Despite the seriousness of the difficult topics such as disease and death, half of the learners stated that they enjoyed the excerpts and another 19 per cent stated that they quite enjoyed the reading. For the statement ’I am interested in reading the entire novel, a total of 38 per cent of responses were in the ’true’ and ’somewhat true’ ranges. In retrospect, however, this statement should have been further specified, as it is unclear whether learners would be willing to read the novel exclusively in school or also outside the classroom. The last question was asked in the context of dealing with mental health issues, in this case the taboo topic of dying and death. The responses to the statement “I like it when books like Ways to Live Forever that deal with serious and difficult issues are discussed in school” were 50 per cent in the ’agree’ range and 27 per cent in the ’somewhat agree’ range. Therefore, over three-quarters of the class are in favour of reading novels with taboo topics in class. This underpins the statement made above (see chapter 3.1) and recent empirical findings (e.g., Steinbock/Summer 2023) indicating that adolescents tend to be interested in taboo topics. 6 Conclusion

This contribution presented a comprehensive case study project that involved the immersive exploration of the multimodal novel Ways to Live Forever in a 10th

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grade English classroom. The findings from the post-questionnaire evaluation shed light on a noteworthy revelation: the weighty themes embedded within the narrative, centered around disease and mortality, have a profound resonance with the students, warranting thoughtful consideration and integration into the EFL classroom curriculum. Furthermore, a meticulous analysis of the student feedback has unveiled a positive reception of the multimodal novel Ways to Live Forever by a significant portion of the student body. Notably, the incorporation of multimodal narrative techniques has played a pivotal role in fostering individual introspection among many students, thus contributing to their deeper engagement with the text. In essence, the incorporation of multimodal narratives in the realm of EFL education can serve as a potent pedagogical tool, facilitating a nuanced under‐ standing of the intricate interplay between diverse modes of communication, particularly the dynamic relationship between textual elements and visual representations. Consequently, if educators empower learners with the skills necessary for multiliterate reading and judiciously select appropriate texts, the potential exists to ignite a lasting passion for engaging with multimodal texts not only within the confines of the classroom but also extending to their personal reading pursuits beyond the educational setting. References Alfes, Luisa (2018). Multimodale Jugendromane im Englischunterricht: Die Entwicklung prototypischer Konzepte. Trier: WVT. Ammerer, Heinrich/Markus Oppolzer (Eds.) (2022): Was kann der Comic für den Un‐ terricht leisten? Fachdidaktische Perspektiven auf ein subversives Erzählmedium. Münster: Waxmann. Brugar, Kristy A./Roberts Kathryn L./Jiménez, Laura M./Meyer, Carla K. (2018). More than mere motivation: Learning specific content through multimodal narratives. Literacy Research and Instruction, 57 (2), 183–208. Eisenmann, Maria/Michael Meyer (2018). Introduction: Multimodality and multilitera‐ cies. Anglistik 29, 1. Eisenmann, Maria (2019). Teaching English: Differentiation and individualisation. utb. Eisenmann, Maria/Theresa Summer (2020). Multimodal literature in ELT: Theory and practice. CLELEjournal, 8 (1), 52–73. Eisenmann, Maria (2022). Die Förderung visueller Kompetenz durch Comics. In: Am‐ merer, Heinrich & Oppolzer, Markus (Eds.) Was kann der Comic für den Unterricht leisten? Fachdidaktische Perspektiven auf ein subversives Erzählmedium. Münster: Waxmann, 57–78.

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Gerlach, David (Ed.) (2020). Einführung in eine Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Gerlach, David (Ed.) Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik: Grundlagen, Ziele, Beispiele. Tübingen: Narr, 7–31. Hallet, Wolfgang (2015). Teaching multimodal novels. In: Werner Delanoy/Maria Eisen‐ mann/Frauke Matz (Eds.). Learning with literature in the EFL classroom. Frankfurt: Lang, 283–298. Hallet, Wolfgang (2018). Reading multimodal fiction: A methodological approach. In: Eisenmann, Maria/ Meyer, Michael (Eds.). Anglistik 29.1, 25–40. Henseler, Roswitha, und Monika Schäfers (2014). Ways to booktalk. Eine Videobespre‐ chung des Jugendromans Ways to Live Forever. In: Der fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch 132, 30–37. Jewitt, Carey (2017). Introduction. Handbook rationale, scope and structure. In: Carey Jewitt (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis. London: Routledge, 1–7. JIM-Studie 2021 (2021) – Jugend, Information, Medien. Basisuntersuchung zum Medie‐ numgang 12- bis 19-Jähriger. https://www.mpfs.de/fileadmin/files/Studien/JIM/2021/ JIM-Studie_2021_barrierefrei.pdf (last accessed: 02.03.2023) Nicholls, Sally (2008). Ways to live forever. London: Scholastic. Ron, Gustavo (2010). Ways to live forever. Film. Seizov, Ognyan/Janina Wildfeuer (2017). Introduction: Rethinking multimodality in the twenty-first century. In: Ognyan Seizov/Janina Wildfeuer (Eds.). New studies in multimodality. London: Bloomsbury, 1–13. Steinbock, Jeanine/Summer, Theresa (2023). Learner perceptions of taboo topics in English language teaching. In: Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (Eds.). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education. London: Routledge, 71–80. Thompson, Riki/ McIlnay, Matthew (2019). Nobody wants to read anymore! Using a multimodal approach to make literature engaging. CLELEjournal, 7 (1), 61–80.

Addressing Mental Health (Representation) in and with Video Games – Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and its Potential Use in the EFL Classroom

Carolin Zehne

1 Introduction

Video games and related discourses are essential to many students’ lifeworlds. The recent JIM1 study in Germany revealed that 72 per cent of adolescents (12 to 19 years old) regularly play digital games2 (Medienpädagogischer Forschungs‐ verbund Südwest 2021: 56). Apart from actively playing video games, students also engage in the broader discourses surrounding gaming (Steinkuehler 2006), such as communicating with other players in the game or using platforms like Twitch to watch live streams of others playing games (Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest 2021: 37). With an apparent link between video games, related discourses, and students’ lives, it seems even more important to acknowledge the connection between video games and mental health. Even though there still is a certain stigma surrounding (regular) gaming practices, there has been increasing recognition and exploration of the positive effects of actively gaming on mental health and mental well-being (see e.g. Eichenberg/Schott 2017; C. M. Jones et al. 2014; Kowert et al. 2015). Additionally, serious games have received increasing attention in therapy (Horne-Moyer et al. 2014) and they have been used to reduce stigma surrounding mental health/mental illness, specifically in educational settings (Cangas et al. 2017). In addition to the potential effects of gaming on mental health, students are also likely to encounter mental health representations in video games whenever they are actively engaged in gaming practices and participating in related discourses. Video games display varied and frequent portrayals of mental illness

1 2

Jugend – Information – Medien; Youth – Information – Media I use the terms (digital) game(s) and video game(s) interchangeably in this chapter.

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(see Buday et al. 2022). These depictions, however, often rely on and perpetuate stereotypes, such as linking mental illness to violent and dangerous behavior (Shapiro/Rotter 2016), as well as being scary, abnormal, isolated, and unlikely to get better (Ferrari et al. 2019). Mental illness is often used as a sole motivational factor to portray characters’ violent behavior. Certain game mechanics also relate to mental illness in somewhat problematic ways, for instance, “sanity meters”, which depict how “crazy” a character is (Dunlap 2019). These framings are particularly prevalent in horror games (Dickens 2017) with tropes such as abandoned mental asylums, as in The Evil Within or Outlast. Apart from problematic and stereotypical depictions of mental illness, video games such as Gris or Night in the Woods deal with mental health issues in a more subtle, reflected, and respectful manner. In order to navigate mental health (representation) in connection with video games, students thus need to be enabled to become aware of, critically reflect, and deconstruct such prevalent stereotypes they are likely to encounter in their everyday lives. Additionally, they need to experience positive examples of depictions of mental health in video games, as they constitute a medium with a unique potential to engage with the topic. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory 2017) is another more recent and more prominent example of video games utilizing a more respectful and informed approach to mental health and related topics. It has received wide acclaim for its depiction of the main character’s psychosis, as it “[…] pushes the player towards a better understanding of severe mental illness without trivializing the seriousness of the subject matter” (Fordham/Ball 2018:  2). Additionally, there generally has been an ever-growing interest in using video games for (E)LT (see e.g. Becker 2021; Blume 2019; Peterson et al. 2021; Reinhardt 2019; Sykes/Reinhardt 2012). This interest is mainly connected to new conceptions of literacy to enable students to take part in and (critically) navigate our increasingly complex and digital world (Beavis 2014; Beavis/O’Mara 2016; Bourgonjon 2014; Ferding/Pytash 2014; R. D. Jones 2018). This contribution focuses on how video games can be used in ELT to let students critically engage with mental health representation. For this, I outline a practical teaching idea that lets students actively experience the game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and its depiction of the main character’s mental state. Students not only (critically) reflect on their experience of actively playing the game but also on the game’s design and how storytelling contributes to the depiction of mental health. They also explore the broader discourse of the game and representations of mental health in other games and media. This way, students become aware of different representations of mental health in video games and

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other media, and they approach such portrayals and their own conceptions critically. I first approach a definition of video games to argue for their suitability for the classroom, particularly in connection with fostering an understanding of mental health. This includes a focus on how to use games in ELT. I then outline how I approached viewing video games as action and as text (Apperley/Beavis 2011, 2013) to develop the teaching idea which allows students to experience the game Hellblade as well as the sociocultural discourse in which it is embedded with a focus on mental health representation. Based on the explanation of the model’s components, with Hellblade serving as a specific example, the final step includes a teaching idea within a task-based approach. 2 Theoretical Background

  2.1 Video Games in Educational Settings

Defining video games is not only a difficult and continuous process in the field of game studies (Arjoranta 2019), but also in the light of a growing interest in using digital games in educational settings and language learning (Thanyawatpokin/York 2021). Therefore, it is essential to consider the particular context and purpose of the definition (Arjoranta 2019). In his attempt to come up with a simplistic approach, Nicolas Esposito (2005: para. 6) calls a video game “[…] a game which we play thanks to an audiovisual apparatus and which can be based on a story”. A game, in turn, can be described as a system with which players interact. The game (and thus the system) is defined by rules which limit player behavior to a certain extent. The game as a system engages the player(s) in some form of artificial conflict which would not exist without the game’s system. Additionally, games display some form of quantifiable outcome (Salen/Zimmermann 2004: 83).3 Becker (2021: 19) stresses that while video games are similar to analog games, they transfer the game into a digital space which comes with its own unique properties: ● Often, video games are more dynamic and extensive ● They display multimodality ● They offer new ways of establishing agency, e.g. by letting players create their own gaming environments or enabling them to choose between different goals and missions.

3

For a detailed overview of game definitions, see Salen and Zimmermann (2004).

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With video games taking place in a digital sphere, they also require com‐ puter-based software and electronic components to function. Visual output devices such as a monitor or a TV are needed to display their content. Specific input devices process digital information which is transmitted by the players (Rehse 2020a: 36). Through the interaction of input and output by the player(s) and the game as a complex system, video games can thus be described as inherently interactive (Juul 2004). Games have been used in foreign language education for a long time. Because of their properties and specific characteristics, digital games and their potential for language teaching have been increasingly explored, e.g. for cultural learning (Breuer 2017), vocabulary learning (Gunel/Top 2022; Xu et al. 2020), grammar (Mifsud et al. 2013), or reducing anxiety to use the target language (Ho 2020). This interest is particularly connected to the link between new conceptualizations of literacy and games, as they “[…] provide examples par excellence of the ways in which literacy is reconfigured and redesigned in digital times, and of intersections between textual experience, meaning-making, and the socially situated nature of play” (Beavis 2013:  58).   2.2 Video Games as Action and as Text for (English) Language Teaching

Among the many approaches to video games and literacy (Ferding/Pytash 2014), Apperley and Beavis (2011, 2013) propose a model which connects video games to students’ literacy practices in and beyond the classroom. In their model, they account not only for the inherently interactive nature of video games, but they also view them as complex, socially embedded and enacted texts (see Table 1). The action component accounts for gameplay and related “contexts, actions, and decisions needed to create play” (Beavis 2014: 436). This mainly involves the internal, virtual world of the game and the connection between the player and the game. Here, the literacy practices to be involved in digital gameplay become relevant (Apperley/Beavis 2013). While the action component is thus rather concerned with the immediate context of playing the game, the text component is linked to the player’s lifeworld, with the game receiving meaning through being enacted and embedded in a broader sociocultural context (Apperley/Beavis 2011, 2013).

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Dimen‐ sion

Games as Action

Games as Text

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Aspects

Explanation

actions

relationship between the players and the device that operates the game software

design

design that follows the rules of the game and that shapes the rules of the game, elements such as customizing the appearance of the game or parts of the game world and how design decisions might influence the game system

situations

context of play and the spaces in which digital games are enacted

knowledge about games

digital games as cultural artefacts with, e.g. similarities between games and other media, as well as the types of transmedia storytelling some games involve

‛me’ as a player

critical reflections on practices of play, in which students are involved as players, readers, and creators

the world around the game

global and local contexts in which the game is situated, exploring the contexts of play: virtual and physical spaces in private and public settings

learning through games

specific knowledge fostered through particular games

Tab. 1: Overview of games as action and games as text as proposed by Tom Apperley and Catherine Beavis (2013: 3–7)

3 Mental Health Representation in Hellblade as Action and as Text

Viewing video games as action and as text offers new ways for students to engage with mental health representation. Through the inherently interactive nature of video games (action), students can encounter mental health related issues in a unique way while actively playing and thus experiencing engagement with the game. As a part of the text component, they can explore the socially constructed meanings of mental health/mental illness (representations): What are their views as players of the game and as individuals in a broader sociocul‐ tural context? How does this context depict mental health? Viewing games as action and as text thus has the potential to create numerous links to students’ critical reflection, which can be fostered in the classroom. The video game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice can be viewed as action and text for its use in the classroom, focusing on mental health representation. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a single player action-adventure game developed by the

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independent studio Ninja Theory and was first published in 2017 (Ninja Theory 2017). In Hellblade, students play the main character Senua, a Celtic warrior who has suffered from psychosis most of her life. Senua returns to her village from a self-imposed exile because of her mental state and finds it raided by Vikings, with her lover Dillion having been brutally killed. Senua decides to travel to the Viking underworld – Helheim – to confront Hela and retrieve Dilions soul, carrying her lover’s head with her on her journey. Table 2 provides an overview of potential action components of the game and how they contribute to the portrayal of Senua’s mental state. The teaching idea in this contribution focuses on the game’s storytelling and selected game mechanics (Fordham/Ball 2019; Rehse 2020b). Component of the model

Aspect of the game

Explanation

Actions: story‐ telling

journey to Helheim as a (symbolic) journey into Senua’s traumatic experi‐ ences

being exposed to her trauma, Senua slowly comes to terms with her painful past and herself

no additional informa‐ tion/heads up display

players have to rely on Senua’s per‐ ception of her environment

hearing voices

Senua hears voices (the furies) with very individual characteristics (e.g. warning or guiding the players, ex‐ pressing fear) throughout the game

rune riddles

riddles need to be solved throughout the game to proceed, Senua recog‐ nizes patterns in her environment, things need to be put into the right perspective

Actions/design: game mechanics

Tab. 2: Overview of Hellblade as action components and depictions of mental health based on Tom Apperley and Catherine Beavis (2011, 2013)

As a part of the action component of the model and in connection with the game’s story progression, it becomes evident that travelling to Helheim is not just simply a hero’s journey to save Senua’s lover, but rather a journey into the very mind of the main character and her traumatic experiences caused by her shunning within the community and especially by her father as well as the loss of her mother who also had to deal with mental illness. Through pursuing her (symbolic) journey, the player discovers more and more about Senua and her past (Fordham/Ball 2019; Rehse 2020b). While taking on the journey to Helheim,

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the player is engaged with Senua’s subjective perception of her reality. This includes the riddles that need to be solved as well as enemies that need to be overcome. The monsters Senua fights throughout this journey can be seen as symbols for her fears; at the same time, they are embodied as her fears in the game – Senua and the player physically encounter and must fight them. It is not entirely resolved by the game to what extent the journey to Helheim is real or not and thus, this is open to interpretation and discussion on the part of players. Apart from storytelling, Hellblade also uses specific game mechanics to immerse the player in how Senua perceives the world in the game. Unlike other action-adventure games, Hellblade does not make use of non-diegetic elements (Iacovides et al. 2015), which include a so-called Heads-Up Display (HUD) with additional information only for the player and not for the character(s) in the game. This typically involves elements such as a health bar or a map. With no additional guidance, the player thus has to rely on Senua’s perception of the world of the game. Instead of using a HUD for guidance, the player perceives the voices Senua hears throughout the game. These voices display very individual characteristics: While some guide us or provide helpful information, others doubt our actions or express fear. Additionally, how Senua and thus the players perceive the world in the game is influenced by Senua’s mental state. This can involve hallucinations, a changing perception of her environment depending on the game’s progress, as well as rune riddles as a prominent game mechanic. To solve the riddles and progress in the game, the player needs to find patterns in the environment and put things into the right perspective. This mainly involves setting up the camera angle in a way that it matches the shape of different runes that appear on the screen throughout the game. The game Hellblade itself can be regarded as a type of text in the sense of an extension of the concept of text and literacy. The game constitutes a multimodal code with actions, sounds, images, and words that need to be interpreted by players (Gee 2003). Students not only encounter the target language in written and spoken form in the game, but also other codes, such as the gaming environment with its symbols and elements central to Hellblade’s gameplay. The text dimension of the model is also concerned with the world around the game and the discourses surrounding Hellblade. Here, the developers’ diaries provide an in-depth insight into which choices (in connection with mental health representation) were involved in the game’s design process. The video blog, which is available on YouTube, addresses multiple steps and decisions of the game’s development, such as the involvement of a multidisciplinary team which included psychologists as well as people who suffer from psychosis,

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and how their experience was translated into the game’s design or the unique binaural sound design of the voices as a prevalent game mechanic. Apart from the developers’ diaries, numerous other resources which deal with the game’s depiction of mental health are available online. These include reviews of the game on blog posts and in interviews with people who have played the game and suffer from psychosis themselves (see also Table 3). 4 Using Hellblade as Action and as Text in the Classroom

In this section, I use the model by Tom Apperley and Catherine Beavis (2011, 2013) to outline a teaching project in which students experience and investigate the depiction of mental health in Hellblade (as action) and critically reflect on depictions of mental health in the game as well as other video games (as text). Because of the sensitive themes addressed by the game and the fact that not all students might be interested in video games and video game discourse (Blume/Reinhardt 2020), engaging with the game could be one potential project for students to choose from. The game’s age rating (USK for the German context) is set to 16 years. Hence, Hellblade can only be integrated into higher grades of secondary school. The project is framed within a task-based approach with the task-as-a-workplan method (see, e.g., Ellis 2009). As a final task outcome, students create a blog in which they collaboratively and critically analyze and reflect on the depiction of mental health in Hellblade and in other media beyond the game. As the students are supposed to play the game at home and use the classroom to reflect on their experience, they need the appropriate hardware to play the game. It is available for PC as well as for all major consoles. Figure 1 connects the task-based approach and the final product with the action and text components outlined in the preceding section.

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Fig. 1: Overview of implementing Hellblade as action and text within a task-based approach in the classroom

In a pre-game/pre-task phase, the teacher is advised to set up an appropriate framework for working with the game, such as providing a trigger warning in connection with the game’s themes or thinking about how to approach letting students play the game. Depending on the time available for the topic, students could play the game as a part of a level approach (Becker 2021: 64). With an estimated playing time between seven and nine hours, the game can be divided into smaller sequences students play at home while using the classroom to exchange and reflect their experiences with their peers. Additionally, the required outcome format of creating a blog as well as the language students need for completing the task need to be addressed. Even though action and text components are linked, students rather engage with the former while playing the game (at home) with a focus on the elements I outlined in the preceding section (see Table 2 and Figure 1) and how they contribute to the portrayal of Senua’s mental state. In addition to actively playing the game, students focus on the discourse surrounding Hellblade and compare it to their own experience of playing the game and depictions of mental health in other games/media. Through the game’s story and mechanics, Hellblade moves beyond simplistic and stereotypical tropes of mental illness. Senua’s story and experience are complex and so is her perception of reality in which the player is immersed. Beyond the action component of the game, extensive material is available to let players obtain insights into how the

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developers approached the topic. To let students engage in the broader discourse about the game and mental health representation in other video games, the teacher provides a selection of resources (see Table 3 for examples), which also contain the required outcome format of a blog. The teacher can set up a webpage to utilize Hellblade as action and as text to structure the playing process for the classroom and guide their students’ experience (this sample page illustrates how such a webpage could look like: https://hellbladereflectionblog.wordpres s.com/). This includes specific prompts and questions at certain points of the game to help students use the time in class to talk to their peers, reflect on their experience, and guide them to create the blog together as the project’s final outcome.4The blog is then published and shared in class for other peers to read or possibly even with a wider online community. Aspect

Type of source

Where to find it (short link)

video blog of the development https://tinyurl.com/4xw6fayd process of the game (developers’ dia‐ ries) discourse surrounding the game Hellblade as such

podcast with someone who suffers https://tinyurl.com/48vtst4s from psychosis themselves and who has played the game interview with the creative director and a psychosis expert who was in‐ volved in the development process

https://tinyurl.com/27x8pvk8

a blog post with a review of the game https://tinyurl.com/2wvct8mn wider dis‐ course linked to mental health rep‐ resentation in video games

online articles about mental health representation in video games

https://tinyurl.com/bsreuakf   https://tinyurl.com/3maukfm8

video about how (other) video games https://tinyurl.com/mtk59f88 explore mental illness/mental health

Tab. 3: Overview of text suggestions for the Hellblade as text dimension

4

For creating the blog, the teacher and students could use tools such as Wordpress or Blogger.

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5 Conclusion and Outlook

Video games and their surrounding discourses constitute a part of many of our students’ lives. As stereotypical depictions of mental health are still somewhat prevalent in many games, students are thus likely to encounter such problematic depictions. Therefore, learners must develop a reflective mindset to (critically) encounter these portrayals. At the same time, video games and their interactive nature display an inherent potential for mental health representation, e.g. helping students develop empathy. The teaching unit outlined in this contribution addresses both aspects with a focus on Hellblade as action and as text, as students actively experience the game’s portrayal of the protagonist’s mental state while playing the game and engaging with the broader discourse of video games and mental health representation with the text component of the model. References Apperley, Tom/Beavis, Catherine (2011). Literacy into action: Digital games as action and text in the English and literacy classroom. Pedagogies 6 (2), 130–143. Apperley, Tom/Beavis, Catherine (2013). A model for critical games literacy. E-learning and Digital Media 10 (1), 1–12. Arjoranta, Jonne (2019). How to define games and why we need to. The Computer Games Journal 8 (3-4), 109–120. Beavis, Catherine (2013). Multiliteracies in the wild: Learning from computer games. In: Merchant, Guy (Ed.). Virtual literacies: Interactive spaces for children and young people. London: Routledge, 57–74. Beavis, Catherine (2014). Games as text, games as action. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 57 (6), 433–439. Beavis, Catherine/O’Mara, Joanne (2016). Shifting practices and frames: Literacy, learning and computer games. In: Johnson, Greer/ Dempster, Neil (Eds.). Leadership in diverse learning contexts. Basel: Springer International Publishing, 239–254. Becker, Daniel (2021). Videospiele im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto. Blume, Carolyn (2019). Investigating digital game-based language learning: Applications, actors, and issues of access [Dissertation]. Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg. Blume, Carolyn/Reinhardt, Jonathon (2020). Gaming as a critical language learning practice. In: Gerlach, David (Ed.). Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik: Grundlagen, Ziele, Beispiele. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 87–106.

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Lighter Than My Shadow: Graphic Memoirs about Eating Disorders in the Multimodal EFL Classroom

Christian Ludwig & Veronika Martinez

1 Introduction

Eating disorders are on the increase among teenagers. In addition to dealing with the mental illness itself, grappling with the stigma associated with eating disorders is a major problem, especially as young people may internalise existing stigma and even use them against themselves. Traditional and modern digital media can increase the visibility of unhealthy disturbances in eating behaviour and combat related prejudices and stereotypes. Yet, mass media can also perpetuate stigma around eating disorders, especially as our society seems to be increasingly preoccupied with unrealistic beauty standards and hardly achievable body norms in magazines, TV spots, reality shows, and social media (Bell et al. 2021). Media may send the message that all bodies that move away from the Western concept of an ideal body have less value. Taking this as a starting point, this contribution discusses how (dysfunc‐ tional) eating behaviours as a global taboo topic (Ludwig/Summer 2023) can be addressed in English language education, giving learners the opportunity to not only learn more about the symptoms of and preventive strategies against EDs but also look critically at the (lack of) representation of disordered eating in cultural conversations and public (media) discourse. It particularly focuses on comics and graphic novels as an important contemporary pop-cultural artifact which provides innovative spaces for processing and addressing traumatic experiences (cf., e.g., Eisenmann 2013). In contrast to more canonical and (mono-modal) texts, comics as a verbal-visual medium offer creative ways for those affected by an eating disorder to express their subjective experiences and convey the struggles they are going through (Wilson 2016). However, in order to understand how graphic novels tell stories through the combination of various visual and verbal elements, learners require critical thinking as well as visual literacy skills as they are challenged to read in a non-linear, fragmented, and often metaphoric fashion.

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Against this background, this contribution first looks at eating disorders among adolescents, emphasising the fact that disturbed eating habits during adolescence are not a ‛teenage phase’ but a potentially severe mental health condition which far too often goes undetected and untreated. It then argues that eating disorders should not be relegated to health education but be addressed in all subjects, including English as a foreign language. Following this, Katie Green’s highly celebrated graphic novel Lighter Than My Shadow (2017) serves to illustrate the potential of graphic narratives to tackle EDs. In the graphic memoir, the author narrates her traumatic memories of body shaming, eating disorders as well as ill treatment, and abuse, which haunted her throughout her teenage and adult life (Venkatesan/Peter 2019: 9). The contribution concludes by providing a practical classroom example of how eating disorders can be addressed with learners of English as a foreign language by applying Aaron Antonovsky’s model of salutogenesis as a basic framework. 2 Eating Disorders among Adolescents

Eating disorders, i.e. severely disturbed eating habits and abnormal concerns about body weight and shapes (Zhang et al. 2021), represent a serious mental illness which affects individuals regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, and back‐ ground (Schaumberg et al. 2017: 432). Such illnesses are “chronic, difficult to recover from, prone to relapse and often have serious sequelae” (Zhang et al. 2021). Recent studies and publications indicate that EDs have become a major public health concern among children and adolescents (Galmiche et al. 2019; van Eeden et al. 2021; Herpertz-Dahlmann/Hilbert 2022). Yet, eating disorders are complex and the psychological, biological, social, and environmental risk factors known to influence one’s eating behaviour “may interact differently in different people, so two people with the same eating disorder can have very diverse perspectives, experiences, and symptoms” (NEDA 2022). Furthermore, although numbers and mortality rates are high, EDs are still often missed by healthcare professionals due to a lack of training in recognising them. As the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote in a press statement in May 2022: “The signs that someone with an eating disorder is severely ill and in need of hospital treatment are often missed in primary care and emergency departments, due to lack of training and accessible guidance for frontline staff”. Especially in Germany, eating disorders have been neglected for a long time and still do not seem to get the attention they deserve. For example, they are not a mandatory subject in medical or psychology studies, not even for those who specialise in paediatric and adolescent medicine (Herpertz-Dahlmann/Hilbert

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2022). However, the latest changes in the two main manuals for diagnosing mental disorders, the American DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association 2013) and the ICD-11 (World Health Organization 2022) – the European equivalent of the DSM-5 – make a broader range of EDs much easier to diagnose as criteria for eating disorders have undergone major changes with new disorders and criteria also having been added (Herpertz-Dahlmann/Hilbert 2022). For example, the latest version of the DSM-5 from 2013 includes diagnostic criteria for common eating disorders like anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) but also less known ones such as binge eating disorder (BED), pica, rumination disorder or avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (S3-Guideline 2018). Signs and symptoms can differ depending on the type of eating disorder. For example, individuals with AN show an extremely low body weight due to a self-induced restriction of or insufficient increase in energy intake (i.e. restrictive type), purging behaviours (e.g. self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives), or binge-purging methods (i.e. binge-purging type). In addition, those who suffer from AN may also try to reduce their body mass index (BMI) through excessive exercise. In contrast to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa is characterised by frequent, recurrent episodes of binge eating (e.g. once a week or more over a period of at least a month). People affected by BN are unable to stop eating or limit the type or amount of food they eat. Similar to anorexia nervosa, BN is also accompanied by repeated purging behaviours to prevent weight gain. Last but not least, individuals with BED show recurrent episodes of binge eating but without purging behaviours. What all three eating disorders have in common is that people affected are obsessed with their body shape or weight, which strongly influences their self-esteem (DSM-V 2013). Without intervention, EDs can lead to potentially life-threatening conditions or even be fatal. This is especially true for anorexia nervosa, a disorder with a low incidence but a proportionally high mortality rate (S3-Guideline 2018), especially among young adults (Fichter/Quadflieg 2016). Furthermore, eating disorders often come with acute or chronic comorbidities. For example, more than half of all AN patients show comorbid mental disorders, including anxiety disorders (Godart et al. 2006), obsessive-compulsive disorders and depression (Fennig/Hadas 2010), or suicidal and self-harming behaviour (Swanson et al. 2011). Eating disorders as well as other chronic mental illnesses and risk behaviours among children and adolescents have become the focus of medical and public attention (Resch/Parzer 2021). As already mentioned, there seems to be a number of reasons for the increase in irregular eating behaviours among children and adolescents, including different biological and genetic but also social,

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behavioural, and environmental factors. As adolescents go through a critical phase of development, they are more sensitive to social stimuli, conflicts with family and friends, or criticism. Also, the changes of the adolescent physical body go together with an increased body dissatisfaction. Pre-teens and teens are hyper-critical about their own bodies as they compare themselves with others as well as existing body norms in society. As adolescents tend to dislike their physical appearance, they try to optimise their bodies through the use of styling-products, (extreme) diets, or gym workouts (König 2020: 127). In addition to adult norms and other influencing factors, (digital) media play an important role in shaping body norms (cf., ibid.: 128) as they contribute to an “increased body dissatisfaction and decreased self-esteem” (Talbot et al. 2017). Young people spend significantly more time online and increasingly communicate through images and videos, which means that they can compare themselves with others and seek validation of their body through likes and followers. Closely related to this, they are potentially exposed to unrealistic body images, body shaming, diet tips, and hashtags such as thinspiration and bonespiration (Talbot et al. 2017), content that encourages them to be thinner and fuel an unhealthy and obsessive relationship with food. Last but not least, research indicates that stress and fear of the pandemic additionally had a bad impact on young people with eating disorders (cf., e.g., Spettigue et al. 2021). Despite the ubiquity of EDs among adolescents, they are often not recognised. This may be, for example, because family and friends, and even those affected are unaware of typical warning signs, are uncertain about where to find help, or decide not to get professional help. Also a lack of qualified providers (Thornton 2019) and training about eating disorders among doctors (Lebow et al. 2021) contributes to the fact that EDs remain in the shadows. 3 Addressing Eating Disorders in ELT

Eating disorders are a tricky subject, especially for English language teachers who are not health care professionals. Yet, paying tribute to the fact that EDs are becoming increasingly common among young people, English language teaching should not shy away from addressing this admittedly critical issue. One way of bringing the topic into the classroom is to invite experts to the school. However, it may be doubted that such a “selective consulting approach” has a long-lasting effect on learners. In fact, as Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann and Anja Hilbert (2022) emphasise, eating disorders should not be “taught” by “experts” but rather be explored in peer group settings and through learner-centred activities. Furthermore, as Dorothe Verbeek and Franz Petermann (2015) point

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out, preventive measures in schools may have a bigger, long-term impact when being addressed in longer projects including interactive activities such as role plays and discussions. There are also a plethora of subject-related reasons for helping EDs out of the shadows. Body norms and eating disorders are global topics which are, nevertheless, influenced by the cultural and social norms, beliefs, and attitudes of society as a whole (e.g. the seemingly prevailing Western concept of thinness as a beauty ideal and sign of success) or specific groups within a society (Bhattacharya et al. 2018). In addition to that, queer and transgender (adults and) adolescents experience greater incidence of eating disorders which is due to the unique risk factors of that group (Parker/Harriger 2020). Thus, the issue could be linked to the curricular guidelines in which gender sensitive education is now one of the core principles. Last but not least, unhealthy (digital) media consumption may also contribute to the development of eating pathology as young people are confronted with unrealistic ideals of beauty and perfectness or encounter dangerous content on pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites. The brief overview in Figure 1 illustrates that EDs can be addressed in English language teaching without necessarily talking about the learners’ personal eating disorder (survival and recovery) stories. Furthermore, it shows that discussing eating disorders can help to enhance learners’ cognitive and behavioural but also communicative and media competences as they work with different text formats such as podcasts, videos, literary texts, newspaper articles, or social media posts, engage in critical classroom discussions, and produce their own texts (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1: Integrating EDs into English language education

The following section concentrates on autobiographical graphic novels which appear particularly apt to learn more about the reasons for and possible consequences of unhealthy behaviours like calorie counting, weight obsession, and constant dieting. Graphic novels and comics have a long history of tackling a wide variety of sensitive and tough issues which we do not talk about but should talk about. This is partly because of their former life as an “underdog” but also because they can make use of a variety of storytelling techniques some of which are unique to the medium. 4 Graphic Memoirs and Eating Disorders

No matter whether graphic autobiographies, graphic memoirs, autographics (Whitlock 2006), autobioBD (Miller/Pratt 2004), or graphic life narratives (Chute 2010), there has been a real boom of graphic life writing in the past decades (cf., e.g., Whitlock 2006; Schröer 2016 for a more detailed discussion of autobiograph‐ ical writing and the graphic novel). In fact, autobiographical comics have a long history of engaging with critical issues such as illness and disability. As Tanya Heflin (2014/2015: 280) writes: “Giving voice and visibility to the previously

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inaudible or invisible, these narratives […] tell stories of pain, addiction, trauma, illness, stigmatized sexualities, etc”. In 1994, Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year was one of the first graphic novels to count as a medical memoir. More recently, the term graphic pathography – a narrative about an individual’s experience with (mental) illness or with medical care – has received increasing recognition (Wegner 2020). These stories allow individuals struggling with EDs to tell their stories, those not affected to see things from the point of view of those who struggle with EDs, medical staff to gain an insight into patients’ personal experience of the illness, and new patients to see what life with their illness is like. Furthermore, there seems to be no other medium more suitable to visualise mental illnesses and their social and cultural mediation outside of the clinical context than the comic. As Nicole Eugene (2017: 234) poignantly puts it: Since the invisible nature of mental illness is a barrier to accessing understanding and empathy, graphic narratives offer a unique gift because they cultivate empathy while also laboring to render invisible impairments and hidden deficiencies in visual terms.

The comic allows writers to express what cannot be expressed verbally and to reveal the obscure elements of fighting eating disorders. On the one hand, this can help the artists to externalise their often corporeal and fragmented memories of suffering which they may not be able to verbalise through different drawing techniques and visual metaphors. As Elisabeth El Refaie (2012) writes: The autobiographical comic genre offers artists the opportunity to represent their physical identities in ways that reflect their own innermost sense of self, often by using a range of symbolic elements and rhetorical tropes to add further layers of meaning to their self-portraits.

Meanwhile, a substantial number of eating disorder comics such as Lesley Fairfield’s Tyranny (2009), Lacy J. Davis and Jim Kettner’s Ink in Water (2017), and Meat and Bone (2019) by Kat Verhoeven has been published, depicting eating disorders from very different perspectives. Lighter Than My Shadow tells the story of Katie Green’s life with an eating disorder, from her childhood as a picky eater to her adolescent anorexia to secretly binge eating in college, losing complete control of her body following sexual abuse to an ongoing and never-ending cycle of recovery and relapse. Critically engaging with subjective experiences of eating disorders such as Green’s allows learners to understand how comics tell their stories, enhancing twenty-first century literacies such as visual and multimodal literacy (Frey/Fisher 2008).

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5 Lighter Than My Shadow: A Classroom Example

The lesson example for secondary/advanced learners of English, presented in the following builds on Aaron Antonovsky’s 1979 model of salutogenesis which concentrates on aspects that preserve health and well-being instead of focusing on factors that cause illness and disease. According to Aaron Antonovsky, people can maintain or optimise their health when they are able to develop a Sense of Coherence (SoC), enabling them to cope with adverse experiences such as stress. SoC consists of three components: comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness (Fig. 2). Meaningfulness is the most vital of the three components as people are only willing to manage challenges in life when they are convinced that everything happens for a reason (Antonovsky 1979).

Fig. 2: Components of Aaron Antonovsky’s model of salutogenesis (based on Anto‐ novsky 1979)

The lesson briefly presented in the following is based on these three compo‐ nents, aiming at providing strategies to deal with mental health problems in general and eating disorders in particular. Although the incidence of anorexia nervosa accounts for only 0,5 to 1 % or bulimia for about 1 % to 4 % of all eating disorders, the number of young people

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showing conspicuous eating behaviours or early forms of EDs is significantly higher (Verbeek/Petermann 2015). This makes it at least not unlikely that there are learners with some form of eating disorder in each learning group. Therefore, it is vital to inform learners in advance that the content may be disturbing (trigger warning) but important, encouraging them to attend class. To make the experience less intense, it is important to tell them that the topic will be dealt with in a safe environment and that common “rules of conduct” will be established before discussing the topic. By doing this, the learners’ awareness of the fact that some students may already be struggling can also be increased. At the beginning of the lesson, the students are shown one of the first panels of the memoir. The protagonist is sitting at her desk, obviously crying, and trying to write something down. Hovering above her, we see a thought balloon in the form of a scribbled shadow in which Green’s body is depicted in the form of a growing embryo. The dark shadow is one of the central metaphors in Green’s memoir, representing the increasing burden she carries. It is important to mention here that it is in fact common for authors in graphic illness (and ED) writing to revert to monsters, shadows, or other gloomy figures as metaphorical representations of the illness. In addition to that, military metaphors are also often used (Wilson 2016: 219). As Crystal Lie (2018) emphasises, the shadow is a “richly symbolic figure, enabling Green to push formal and thematic boundaries. On occasion, the shadow functions as a gutter, transforming separate images into single ideas and fracturing both time and space”. The shadow is representative of the power of graphic storytelling as, “due to its hybrid nature, the comic book has certain possibilities when it comes to the telling of a story, which are unavailable for classical narrative texts consisting of words only” (Pointner 2013: 41). These include, for example, the possibility to show gestures, facial expressions, or the physical appearance of characters. With regard to EDs writing, being able to show inaction (which has to be filled by the reader through closure) and simultaneity (showing two or more actions at the same time) are two of the major strengths of the comic. One technique which deserves particular attention is the use of what Frank Pointner refers to as graphic objective correlatives, which externalise the emotions of a character by correlating them with the outside world (ibid.: 46). Last but not least, the ability of the comic medium to quote itself deserves closer attention with regard to complex narratives such as Green’s. By using graphic echoes (panels or whole splashes echoing one another), comics can express changes in the constellation of characters or in a character’s inner life. The panel at hand leaves room for interpretation, encouraging the learners to speculate about what exactly is portrayed. One way of reading the panel is that

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it shows an embryo evoking associations such as abortion or stillbirth. Also, it could be read as the body symbolising that life and death are inseparable. The next step involves the learners more emotionally while, at the same time, allowing them to keep their distance. They are shown skinny Katie looking at herself in the mirror, seeing a distorted and fragmented body. The body, as Alissa Burger (2019: 80) poignantly puts it, is a “source of textual and visual contestation”. Instead of describing the panel, the learners are asked to write down questions to the protagonist (Fig. 3). On the one hand, this activity offers them the opportunity to think of more controversial questions they would probably not ask in front of the whole class; on the other hand, it allows them to engage with the panel and Katie’s experience on a deeper level.

Fig. 3: Possible questions to the artist/protagonist (own illustration)

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In the following phase, the learners are given the task to research diagnostic criteria of eating disorders to gain a better understanding of the illness (com‐ prehensibility). With the help of a case report of a patient like Katie, the students are asked to analyse and critically discuss selected panels showing different eating disorder symptoms. The activity avoids merely showing the learners seemingly deterrent images of people with eating disorders as this may increase the learners’ knowledge but, at the same time, not reduce risky behaviour (Verbeek/Petermann 2015). In fact, only low-risk adolescents are responsive to ‛appeals to the fear’. For individuals who are at risk of developing an eating disorder, such images may stir-up their curiosity and – in the worst–case scenario – lead to imitating behaviour. Following this, the learners compare their findings with an excerpt from the ICD-11 and put together their findings in an infographic, i.e. a visual representation of data, information or a story. To create infographics, websites such as canva.com or visme.com can be used. In recent years, this graphic visual representation of facts and figures has become an important way to convey and spread information quickly and easily. By creating an infographic, the students learn to narrow down a topic or idea and display information verbally as well as visually. In the final part of the lesson the learners are asked to research professional help, e.g. specialists in treating eating disorders and add their findings to the infographic. By doing that, they experience what it is like to be a competent, autonomous, and pro-active agent/actor who is resilient enough to even act in such difficult situations (manageability). Last but not least, the learners discuss potential factors in their environment that may promote or help prevent eating disorders. Thus, they become aware of the fact that they are not simply an individual lifestyle choice but a severe problem that must receive societal attention. 6 Conclusion

Experiencing an eating disorder can be a traumatic event with often life-long consequences for everyone involved. The verbal-visual medium of graphic illness memoirs can function as a form of therapy as artists get a different sense of self. For the very same reason, it is also important that teachers encourage their students to attend class and explore eating disorders in more depth. Yet, they can also be read in the classroom as they move away from mainstream perspectives on eating disorders and make the often unspeakable and highly subjective experiences of individuals struggling with EDs tangible. In this contribution, Aaron Antonovsky’s model of salutogenesis served as

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a framework for discussing Katie Green’s graphic memoir Lighter Than My Shadow with secondary learners of English, allowing them to work with a modern multimodal text while, at the same time, learning more about the severe consequences of developing unhealthy eating habits. References Antonovsky, Aaron (1979). Health, stress and coping. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pub‐ lishers. American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. 5th Ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association. Bell, Beth T./Taylor, Caitlin/Paddock, Danielle L./Bates, Adam/Orange, Samuel T. (2021). Body talk in the digital age: A controlled evaluation of a classroom-based intervention to reduce appearance commentary and improve body image. Health Psychology Open 8 (1), Article 20551029211018920. Bhattacharya, Rahul/Unadkat, Anish/Connan, Frances (2018). Cultural perspectives on eating disorders. In: Bhattacharya, Rahul/Cross, Sean/Bhugra, Dinesh (Eds.). Clinical topics in cultural psychiatry. Cambridge: Royal College of Psychiatrists, 232–244. Burger, Alissa (2019). Illustrating mental illness and engaging empathy through graphic memoir. In: Howard, Leigh Anne/Hoeness-Krupsaw, Susanna (Eds.). Performativity, cultural construction, and the graphic narrative. London: Routledge, 68–86. Chute, Hillary (2010). Graphic women: Life narrative and contemporary comics. New York: Columbia University Press. Eisenmann, Maria (2013). Shadows and superheroes in 9/11 graphic novels. In: Ludwig, Christian/Pointner, Frank E. (Eds.). Teaching comics in the foreign language class‐ room. Trier: WVT, 183–212. El Refaie, Elisabeth (2012). Autobiographical comics: Life writings in pictures. Missis‐ sippi: University Press of Mississippi. Eugene, Nicole (2017). Graphic narratives: Bechdel’s Fun Home and Forney’s Marbles. In: Packer, Sharon (Eds.). Mental illness in popular culture. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 233–242. Fennig, Silvana/Hadas, Arie (2010). Suicidal behaviour and depression in adolescents with eating disorders. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 64 (1), 32–39. Fichter, Manfred M./Quadflieg, Norbert (2016). Mortality in eating disorders – results of a large prospective clinical longitudinal study. The International Journal of Eating Disorders 49 (4), 391–401. Frey, Nancy/Fisher, Douglas (2008). Teaching visual literacy: Using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills. California: Corwin Press.

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Galmiche, Marie/Déchelotte, Pierre/Lambert, Grégory/Tavolacci, Marie Pierre (2019). Prevalence of eating disorders over the 2000–2018 period: A systematic literature review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 109 (5), 1402–1413. Godart, Nathalie/Berthoz, Sylvie/Perdereau, Fabienne/Jeammet, Philippe (2006). Comor‐ bidity of anxiety with eating disorders and OCD. American Journal of Psychiatry 163 (2), 326. Green, Katie (2017). Lighter than my shadow. Missouri: Oni Press. Heflin, Tanya (2014–2015). Minds in the gutter: Psychological self-exposure in graphic memoir. Works and Days 63/64 32 (1&2), 277–296. Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate/Hilbert, Anja (Eds.) (2022). Essstörungen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Ein klinisches Handbuch. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. König, Lotta (2020). On beauty ideals and body norms. Schönheits- und Körpernormen als Thema einer Kritischen Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Gerlach David (Ed.). Kriti‐ sche Fremdsprachendidaktik. Grundlagen, Ziele, Beispiele. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 125–144. Lebow, Jocelyn/Mattke, Angela/Narr, Cassandra/Partain, Paige/Breland, Renee/Gewirtz O’Brien, Janna R./Geske, Jennifer/Billings, Marcie/Clark, Matthew M./Jacobson, Robert M./Phelan, Sean/Harbeck-Weber, Cynthia/Le Grange, Daniel/Sim, Leslie (2021). Can adolescents with eating disorders be treated in primary care? A retrospec‐ tive clinical cohort study. Journal of Eating Disorders 9 (1), Article 55. Lie, Crystal Yin (2018). Lighter than my shadow – Review. https://www.graphicmedicin e.org/comic-reviews/lighter-than-my-shadow/ (last accessed: 20.11.2022) Ludwig, Christian/Summer, Theresa (2023). Taboos and controversial issues in foreign language education and critical language pedagogy in theory, research and practice. London: Routledge. Miller, Ann/Pratt, Murray (2004). Transgressive bodies in the work of Julie Doucet, Fabrique Neaud and Jean-Christophe Menu: Towards a theory of the autobioBD. Belphegor: Littérature Populaire et Culture Médiateque 4 (1), 1–18. NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association): https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org (last accessed: 20.11.2022) Parker, Lacie L./Harriger, Jennifer A. (2020). Eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors in the LGBT population: A review of the literature. Journal of Eating Disorders 8, Article 51. Pekar, Harvey/Brabner, Joyce (1994). Our cancer year. Philadelphia: Running Press. Pointner, Frank E. (2013). Teaching comics as comics. In: Ludwig, Christian/Pointner, Frank E. (Eds.). Teaching comics in the foreing language classroom. Trier: WVT, 27–68. Resch, Franz/Parzer Peter (2021). Adolescent risk behaviour and self-regulation. A cybernetic perspective. Basel: Springer.

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Royal College of Psychiatrists (2022). Hospital admissions for eating disorders increased by 84 % in the last five years. https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latestnews/detail/2022/05/18/hospital-admissions-for-eating-disorders-increased-by-84-in -the-last-five-years (last accessed: 20.11.2022) Schaumberg, Katherine/Welch, Elisabeth/Breithaupt, Lauren/Hübel, Christopher/Baker, Jessica H./Munn-Chernoff, Melissa A./Yilmaz, Zeynep/Ehrlich, Stefan/Ghaderi, Ata/ Mustelin, Linda/Hardaway, Andrew/Bulik-Sullivan, Emily C./Hedman, Anna M./ Jangmo, Andreas/Nilsson, Ida A.K./Wiklund, Camilla/Yao, Shuyang/Seidel, Maria/ Bulik, Cynthia M. (2017). The science behind the academy for eating disorder’ nine truths about eating disorders. European Disorders Review 25 (6), 432–450. Schröer, Marie (2016). Graphic memoirs – autobiographische Comics. In: Abel, Julia/ Klein, Christian (Eds.). Comics und Graphic Novels: Eine Einführung. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 263–275. Spettigue, Wendy/Obeid, Nicole/Erbach, Madison/Feder, Stephen/Finner, Natalie/Har‐ rison, Megan E./Isserlin, Leanna/Robinson, Amy/Norris, Mark L. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on adolescents with eating disorders: A cohort study. Journal of Eating Disorders 9 (65), Article 65. Swanson, Sonja A./Crow, Scott J./Le Grange, D./Swendsen, Joel/Merikangas, Kathleen R. (2011). Prevalence and correlates of eating disorders in adolescents. Results from the national comorbidity survey replication adolescent supplement. Arch Gen Psychiatry 68, 714–723. Talbot, Catherine V./Gavin, Jeffrey/van Steen, Tommy/Morey, Yvette (2017). A content analysis of thinspiration, fitspiration, and bonespiration imagery on social media. Journal of Eating Disorders 5, 40. https://www.doi.org/10.1186/s40337-017-0170-2 Thornton, Jacqui (2019). Lack of training in eating disorders is contributing to avoidable deaths, MPs conclude. BMJ 365, Article l4279. Van Eeden, Annelies E./van Hoeken, Daphne/Hoek, Hans W. (2021). Incidence, preva‐ lence and mortality of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 34, 515–524. Venkatesan, Sathyaraj/Peter, Anu Mary (2019). Anorexia through creative metaphors: Women pathographers and graphic medicine. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 12 (5), 429–442. Verbeek, Dorothe/Petermann, Franz (2015). Essstörungen bei Jugendlichen vorbeugen: Auffälliges Essverhalten erkennen und handeln. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Wegner, Gesine (2020). Reflections on the boom of graphic pathography: The effects and affects of narrating disability and illness in comics. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 14 (1), 57–74. Whitlock, Gillian (2006). “Autographics”: The seeing ‘I’ of the comics”. Modern Fiction Studies 52 (4), 965–979.

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World Health Organization (2022). International classification of diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11). https://icd.who.int/browse11 (last accessed: 20.11.2022) Wilson, Susannah (2016). Anorexia and its metaphors. Exchanges: The Warwick Research Journal 3 (2), 216–226. Zhang, Juan/Wang, Yihui/Li, Qianru Li/Wu, Chenggang (2021). The relationship between SNS usage and disordered eating behaviors: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology 12, Article 641919.

Section 3: (Digital) Culture and Communication

“Down at the End of Lonely Street”: Social Isolation, Loneliness, Stress and Boredom – A NeuroDidactic View

Michaela Sambanis

1 Introduction

As stated in a press release by the American Psychological Association in May 2022, “[p]eople around the world experienced an increase in loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, which […] could have implications for people’s long-term mental and physical health, longevity and well-being”. This raises the question of whether the lack of immediate experience and the alteration of young people’s social interactions during the pandemic might have impaired young people’s development, including certain aspects of brain development and learning. If so, is it time to think about specific educational interventions? If people are exposed to intense stressors, especially over a longer period of time, their resilience can decrease. Resilience is the capacity to cope with and adapt to challenging life situations, but also the ability to recover and to bounce back from difficulties and adversities. Without doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic classifies as a challenging event that, as it turned out, was not followed by a period of recovery but yet another period of insecurity and worry – among others due to the war in Ukraine with its economic and social consequences, such as skyrocketing inflation rates in many states, including Germany, and other considerable ripple effects. It seems advisable to keep an eye on how children and young people cope with this chain of challenges and perturbations in their lives now and in the following years, to be vigilant, well-prepared, and well-informed. To this purpose, this article refers to findings on the effects of isolation, loneliness, stress, and boredom and, in the last section, proposes a model inspired by Positive Psychology.

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2 Social Isolation and Loneliness

Leading researchers in this field, such as Julianne Holt-Lunstad and colleagues (2015: 227–228), make a conceptual distinction between the two constructs: iso‐ lation is an objectively quantifiable variable, whereas loneliness is an emotional response, more precisely, a state of discomfort resulting from a discrepancy between a person’s desire for social connection and the actual possibility to get socially connected. Loneliness does not exclusively affect older people as one might think. There has been a trend “for loneliness to be experienced by the very young and the very old” (Oakley 2020: 2). Both loneliness and isolation can exist independently from one another, meaning that social isolation can lead to loneliness but does not necessarily trigger the feeling. What is more, people sometimes feel alone even when there are other people around. This phenomenon is known as the alone together effect or the alone in the crowd phenomenon. It is important to note that according to meta-analyses both social isolation and loneliness constitute risk factors that can affect well-being and health. There is research that identifies “the relative effects of objective and subjective social isolation on mortality (the likelihood of death over a given time)” (Holt-Lunstad et al. 2015: 228). In comparison to other risk factors, such as pollution, or smoking, what is the magnitude of social isolation and loneliness? The following visualization of findings from research, taken from the prac‐ tical guide to classroom interaction Make it work! (Sambanis/Walter 2022), makes it possible to estimate the negative effect of different risk factors. Note that this is not a scientific graph, but a translation of findings into visual language.

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Fig. 1: Risk factors (Sambanis/Walter 2022: 39)

The picture illustrates, with a crescendo from left to right, the risk factors pollution of the air, obesity, alcohol, smoking, and loneliness. Loneliness has a stronger effect than the others, even when controlled for pre-existing disease, and gender, as Manfred Spitzer (2020: 102) points out. According to Lee Oakley, researchers claim that “‛greater loneliness predicted greater anxiety, stress, depression and general mental health over time’ […]” (2020: 7, single quotation marks in the original). Evidence from research (ibid.) allows to identify loneliness as a potential trigger of poor mental health symptoms as well as a factor that, by causing mental distress, exacerbates the symptoms over time. First studies on the impact of COVID19 quarantine on mental health […] suggested detrimental effects of the lockdown on various indicators of mental health, such as life satisfaction, psychological distress, and insomnia […] [A]n Italian longitudinal study conducted at the beginning and the end of the first lockdown [with almost 2 500 participants in an online survey] showed small to medium worsening in the levels of depression and stress […]. (Pancani et al. 2021)

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The study leads the researchers to conclude that there is an effect of space (“the more adequate the space where participants were confined, the fewer mental health issues”, ibid.) and an effect of time (“the longer the isolation, the worse the mental health”, ibid.), begging the question whether it is possible to pinpoint the moment or particular developmental phases when imposed isolation becomes a risk factor. There is no simple answer to this question, since multiple factors contribute as moderating variables, but there are findings, amongst others from brain research, which can contribute. It has been hypothesized that loneliness and isolation could hinder important processes, above all the emotional and social development of children and adolescents. The quality of experience and interaction matters for learning in general and for language learning in particular. A lack of specific interactions, important to the language, cognitive, physical, or social-emotional development of children or adolescents at a certain point in time, might not be easy to recompense. Shorter periods of solitude, especially so-called desired solitude, can be stimulating, allowing the mind to wander and to consolidate, whereas imposed isolation can be detrimental. While many people suffered from the limitation and alteration of social contact during the lockdown phases, starting to feel lonely, others did not. Interestingly, isolation can still be harmful, even to people who do not experience loneliness. A press release by the DIW (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung) in late summer 2021, drawing on data from the second lockdown, shows a further decrease in well-being and reports loneliness rates that remain stable on a prominent level (Entringer/Kröger 2021). Especially women, persons with a fresh migration background as refugees, and young people reported elevated levels of loneliness, many also of fear and depression. Researchers currently hypothesize about explanations for the increase of loneliness in the group of refugees during the pandemic focusing on how migration-related factors, such as heightened vulnerability due to the experience of fear and flight, and pandemic-induced factors might have interacted. The duration and the point in time when isolation occurs, are crucial factors. Studies from neuroscience shed light on how the brain reacts to social isolation. For ethical reasons, isolation experiments are usually not carried out on human beings but, most commonly, on rats as in group-living mammals, very much like human beings: Laboratory studies have revealed complex social skills in rats like helping others out, freeing trapped partners etc. This begs the question of animal welfare and animal rights which cannot be adequately addressed within the

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scope of this article. For further information and aware-raising considerations on animal ethics see Maria Eisenmann (2023: 181–194). A couple of years ago, a team of researchers (Shao et al. 2013) published data from an isolation experiment, where teenage rats were kept in social isolation for two weeks, whereas a control group remained in their social group. Measurements of cognitive functions were conducted on the rats from both groups, experimental and control, at a later point in time. With this data, researchers could show that the temporary phase of social isolation impaired certain cognitive functions. It is important to understand that, from a neuroscientific point of view, there are similarities between humans and rats, namely the fact that both are social beings and that basic functional principles of their brains are comparable. There are several outcomes from these social interaction deprivation studies worth noting: Firstly, the isolation affected a particular developmental stage, namely puberty, known as an important phase where individuals are experi‐ ence-expectant (Böttger/Sambanis 2021: 84). Puberty is the time when the brain, based on experiences, reorganizes itself, switching gears from child to grown-up. Adolescents are, as the data shows, highly vulnerable. By the onset of the pandemic, Loades et al. (2020) reviewed studies that researched the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the mental health of previously healthy children and adolescents as a way to inform responses to the pandemic. They found a clear association between loneliness and future mental health problems, most significantly for depression, and less so for anxiety. (Pudlik 2022: 20)

What is more, about twenty years ago, researchers found first indications for loneliness and pain being processed in the same areas of the brain. Over the years, there have been numerous published findings that support pain overlap theories (cf. Spitzer 2020: 97). These have been claiming that physical and social pain overlap, meaning that the activation patterns in the brain are, in parts, comparable and that social and physical pain cause common psychological responses. Secondly, the neuroscientific evidence reported above is prompting a follow-up question: Converting the isolation period from rat years to human years, what would be the result? Given that the average life expectancy of rats is three years and of humans eighty, the two weeks of the rat isolation approximate one year and a couple of days in human years. Based on this, we can fairly assume that in 2020 and 2021 a critical threshold has been reached, even if, in contrast to the lab rats, people were not completely cut off from social contact

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and interaction during the lockdown period. What is more, the positive thought to hold on to is that the brain is plastic, i.e. able to change with experience – not only with bad ones but also with enjoyable ones and positive thoughts. Prolonged social disconnection can induce negative emotions and heighten the risk of depression and early mortality. The remedy, which may come as no surprise, is social connectedness and interpersonal interaction – both also key factors in language learning. Aiming at communicative competence means to view the learning process as grounded in social, interpersonal interaction. Luca Pancani et al. (2021) point out that “[t]he available literature highlights that the quantity and quality of face-to-face social connections could influence the psychological health of individuals exposed to persistent conditions of exclu‐ sion”. Do online interactions present an alternative to face-to-face interactions? They do, to a certain degree. The aforementioned study from Italy with data collection in 2020 “showed that using technologies to relate with other people ([…] [amongst others] video calls) was positively associated with psychological well-being via perceived social support” (Pancani et al. 2021). Using information and communication technologies to connect, to interact, and to teach and learn, clearly has a lot of potential, but there are also limitations. One major limitation affects social dynamics: the dynamic interaction between teacher and students is a key factor for learning, affecting student engagement and academic achievement. As recent research shows, positive classroom interaction is closely linked to a phenomenon called brain-to-brain synchrony. 3 Synchronization of Multiple Brains

Brain-to-brain synchrony is a measurable neural marker that, for example, in teaching and learning situations, constitutes “a quantifiable reflection of underlying cognitive psychological processes” (Bevilacqua et al. 2019: 409). Simply put, brain-to-brain synchrony occurs when people are on the same frequency, when, in classroom settings, there is joint attention, the students are engaged in the activity, and when the chemistry is right. Teachers sense that this is a particular state, a precious one with regard to the learning outcome, but also socially as well as psychologically valuable. Thanks to recent studies based on data collection with a novel form of EEG allowing hyperscanning, it is possible to explain the phenomenon of synchronization (Sambanis/Walter 2022: 18–23). Advances in technology made it possible to design portable electroencephalographic (EEG) units allowing brain researchers to gather data not only in the laboratory but also in the natu‐ ralistic field, for example, in the actual classroom during regular lessons. Using

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the hyperscanning technique, researchers can gather brainwave data from all the students simultaneously. Hyperscanning data is an objectively measurable indicator of students’ neural responsiveness to classroom interaction, to tasks, materials etc. This is highly interesting for the field of education as it opens new perspectives, allowing researchers to compare the neural activity for different teaching and learning activities. Thus, hyperscanning data can help gain a better understanding of, pedagogically speaking, fruitful interactions that stimulate joint attention and focused learning alongside positive emotions and the feeling of togetherness. The key question is: When do people’s brainwaves get synchronized? They do so in smooth communication situations, when singing together, when listening to stories etc. In school settings, researchers have found synchronous signals when students are productively activated as a group, for example, in discussions (Dikker et al. 2017: 1375; Poeppel 2016: 62–63). There are a number of positive effects when learners achieve synchronization in the classroom, such as heightened productivity and engagement (Dikker et al. 2017: 1375). The interpersonal synchronization of the brain activity promotes efficient learning and focused attention: the more intense the inter‐ brain synchrony, the less distraction in the classroom. Moreover, researchers have found positive correlations between brain-to-brain synchrony and the learners’ evaluation of the lesson. Additionally, students report a strengthening of their feeling of belonging after experiencing brain-to-brain synchrony: “[…] inter-brain synchronization has been associated with subjective reports of social connectedness, engagement, and cooperativeness, as well as experiences of social cohesion […]” (Valencia/Froese 2020). Researchers conclude that “interbrain synchrony constitutes an important marker of social interactions, social facilitations and team work” (Bhattacharya 2017). Evidence from hyper‐ scanning studies indicates that eye contact is a facilitator of synchronization. Experimental research shows that eye contact between learners, as well as between teacher and learners, matter, and that the establishing of eye contact at the beginning of a lesson encourages synchronization during subsequent educational activities. Eye contact gives orientation, affirms presence, fosters attention and connects people. In an experiment, students were randomly paired and asked to hold “face-to-face eye contact for two minutes prior to class” (Bhattacharya 2017). This “was found to significantly boost interbrain synchrony during subsequent classroom activities” (ibid.). Social interaction is a major factor of influence not only on L1-acquisition (see gating mechanism by Kuhl 2007), but also on foreign language learning (Kotz/Verga 2013). The quality of interaction matters, and, as shown above, synchronization fosters learning,

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as well as prosocial behavior, and contributes to a learning atmosphere where students feel safe when trying to communicate in the foreign language. This begs the question whether inter-brain synchronization is also possible in distance learning. We cannot yet clearly answer the question to what extent synchronization is possible when teaching is undertaken remotely. Video meetings seem promising, even if video communication lacks certain aspects that contribute to face-to-face interaction, such as actual eye contact or olfactory information. Note that the sense of smell is constantly involved in face-to-face communication in the form of chemocommunication. Further‐ more, recent hyperscanning studies investigating mother-child synchrony show differences in brain activation patterns depending on the communicative inter‐ action being face-to-face or remote (Schwartz et al. 2022). EEG data reveal multiple cross-brain links for the face-to-face condition pointing at intense inter-connectedness and synchrony, whereas for the remote condition only one cross-brain link could be identified (Schwartz et al. 2022). Social connectedness might be harder to achieve in video communication, but not impossible if the video meeting offers opportunities to connect. To this purpose, teachers can use specific remote-teaching activities like “What’s changed?” proposed by the British Council (2021: 22; for further suggestions see Sambanis/Walter 2022). From a language teaching point of view, it is a speaking or a writing impulse, while, from a psychological point of view, it is, above all, a connecting activity. Cue Box: What’s changed? The teacher tells the learners to turn their cameras on and to observe each other for a moment. Students are then asked to turn off their videos and to change one thing about themselves before turning their videos back on. Everyone can contribute to answering the question: What’s changed? To make it more challenging, students can be asked to change two details at once.

4 Stress and Anxiety

There are different forms of stress and not all stress is detrimental. Generally speaking, stress is a natural reaction, the body’s response to a challenge. Stress triggers a chain of physical and chemical reactions in the body to mobilize the system. In stress-inducing situations, especially when the brain perceives a

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threat to well-being and safety, first, adrenaline is released, then cortisol, both stress hormones. Cortisol has several functions, such as increasing the body’s metabolism, reducing inflammation, regulating the immune function, and, amongst others, mediating the body’s stress response. Normal levels of cortisol are important. In small doses, the hormone can also heighten memory, but too much cortisol over a longer period is detrimental. Elevated cortisol levels may suppress the immune system, and social isolation is one factor that can cause stress. The effects of stress caused by extreme situations have already been inves‐ tigated before the pandemic in connection with other disease-related threats (e.g., Ebola), natural disasters, or acts of terrorism (Spitzer 2020: 117 ff.). The data points at a heightened rate of development impairments (cognitive, social, emotional), anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and lack of motivation, to name just a few. A major protective factor is social contact; others are movement and relaxation, a good sleep hygiene, and nutrition as well as tasks and challenges. A systematic review of studies and meta-analyses of mental burden during the pandemic (Kunzler et al. 2021) shows that “symptoms of anxiety […] and depression […] were increased in the general population during the early phase of the pandemic compared with prepandemic conditions” (ibid.). In a press release in summer 2021, the KKH, one of the leading health insurance companies in Germany, published the results of survey data collected by the institute forsa: a thousand participants, all parents of children or teenagers (age range 6–18), were asked to answer questions on indicators of their children’s anxiety about the future and about potential psychological disorders during the pandemic. In brief: 77 % of parents feel that their children are more stressed compared to pre-pandemic conditions; the rate is even higher, namely 83 %, in the subgroup of 10- to 12-year-olds, correlating with the onset of puberty. Many parents are concerned that the side effects of the pandemic-related restrictions may continue into adulthood. Based on the survey data, two major stressors for children and teenagers can be identified, namely social distancing and boredom. 5 Boredom

According to Friedrich Nietzsche, boredom is “die Windstille der Seele” (see Schlechta 1977), the soul stuck on windless water, loosely translated. There is evidence from data collection at schools (Goetz at al. 2014) leading to the conclusion that boredom is a state characterized by low attention or lack of attention. Thus, boredom can lead to attention failure, but also vice versa:

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Low attention can induce boredom (Hunter/Eastwood 2018: 2483 ff.) and low motivation, and result in low performance. Furthermore, boredom is in most of the cases perceived as an unpleasant and negative, or at least a slightly negative emotion, and seldom as positive. Positive Psychology (Furlong et al. 2014) defines boredom as a person’s response to moderate challenge. While underchallenge in heavy doses tends to have negative effects, it may, at low doses, enable or encourage mind wandering, which can be a pleasant experience, contribute to successful learning, and open the mind to creativity. However, beneficial effects of this kind require a particular constellation or, in other words, a specific and quite rare type of boredom. Most researchers differentiate between five types when classifying individ‐ uals’ boredom experiences along the dimension of arousal and the dimension of valence: indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant, and apathetic boredom. People who experience indifferent boredom seem calm or withdrawn. Their arousal is low, the valence of the experienced emotion is “slightly positive” (Goetz et al. 2014: 403), their minds can wander. With calibrating boredom, the arousal level is marginally higher and the experienced emotion negative by tendency. The person is receptive for “boredom-reducing ideas” (ibid.) but does not actively produce them. Searching boredom corresponds to higher arousal and more intense negative valence, leading to an unpleasant feeling, characterized by restlessness and an active search for ways to escape the boredom-inducing situation. Reactant boredom shows the highest levels of arousal and negative valence (ibid.). A person experiencing reactant boredom wants to escape the situation, feels restless, might even be aggressive, and has “persistent thoughts about specific, more highly valued alternative situations” (ibid.). Finally, distinctive features of apathetic boredom are strong negative emotions in combination with extremely low arousal. Hence, like reactant boredom, apathetic boredom is experienced as highly unpleasant, but in this state, the person shows little energy, i.e. low levels of arousal, feels helpless and sometimes even depressed. According to the study by Thomas Goetz et al. (2014), more than a third of the high school students in their sample experienced this debilitating type of boredom at school, whereas the type of boredom that encourages mind-wandering and creative ideas was rarely encountered. Thomas Goetz and colleagues (2014: 404) specify that “boredom types that are higher in negative valence […] [especially reactant and apathetic] are assumed to be more strongly associated with achievement situations” including educa‐ tional contexts. There seems to be a connection between boredom, destructive

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thoughts and behaviors, and even depression, especially with prolonged or frequently reoccurring boredom episodes. In the attempt to answer the question, whether it is part of human nature to cope with boredom or not, let us consider a study published in the journal Science a couple of years ago. Researchers designed an experiment to explore how long it takes for people to get bored and if they would be willing to cope with the boredom or rather try to escape the situation. What would participants do to escape underchallenge and lack of stimulation: “[…] would they rather do an unpleasant activity than no activity at all” (Wilson et al. 2014: 76)? The participants were led into an empty room and instructed to “entertain themselves with their thoughts” (ibid.). There were no alternative stimuli, no books, no cellphones etc. in the room, with one exception: a taser for electric shocks. It is worth mentioning that the participants had gone through a preliminary study phase during which they had rated different stimuli for pleasantness and unpleasantness, including the taser. By the onset of the actual study, they were all familiar with the electric shock, and the researchers included only those sets of data from participants who had rated the shocks as very unpleasant. The participants stayed in the neutral surrounding for a quarter of an hour with nothing else to do apart from “the opportunity to experience […] [an electric shock] if they so desired” (ibid.). Remarkably, 67 % of the male and 25 % of the female participants administered themselves one or more electric shocks. The highest number of shocks was nine with the female participants, and four with the male participants with one male participant classifying as an outlier: He administered himself as many as 190 electric shocks. The experiment shows that even if human beings are capable of tolerating boredom to a certain degree, “[m]ost people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative” (Wilson et al. 2014: 75). From a pedagogical point of view, this can be interpreted as an important finding, highlighting the relevance of fruitful interaction, whenever possible, with moments of synchronization, stimulating tasks, and appropriate challenges. To close these considerations on boredom, stress, social isolation, and lone‐ liness, the last section proposes a model that focuses on positive core mental health domains followed by a brief conclusion. 6 The Covitality Model

Highlighting relevant positive mental health domains constitutes a starting point to improve the situation of learners and university students, to navi‐

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gate them safely through challenges, and to nourish, amongst others, their self-efficacy, optimism, and persistence. The Covitality Model covers all the relevant factors, offers a systematization, and is considered as the counterpart to comorbidity (Renshaw et al. 2014: 14). The idea behind the model, rooted in Positive Psychology, is to consider “personal strengths and assets” (Renshaw et al. 2014: 25) and not just on factors of psychological distress. The Covitality Model consists of “12 social-emotional health building blocks that contribute to four core mental health domains […]” that can be addressed (Renshaw et al. 2014: 31; see Tab. 1). Belief-in-self

Be‐ lief-in-others

Emotional Competence Engaged Living

Self-efficacy Self-awareness Persistence

School Support Peer Support Family Support

Emotional Regulation Empathy Behavioral Regulation

Gratitude Zest Optimism

Tab. 1: The Covitality Model of positive mental health domains

The model can not only be used as a guideline for teachers but also be discussed with learners in the classroom, trying to identify factors they can work on by themselves, or teacher and students can work on together. Apart from using different texts on topics like emotional regulation and persistence, nicely addressed by Ashley Spire’s The Most Magnificent Thing (2013) for example, a picture book that can be used in English teaching with young learners, gratitude exercises can be easily implemented in the foreign language classroom. Thinking about positive things and keeping a gratitude journal can emotionally stabilize the learners and contribute to their willingness to write in English by offering authentic writing impulses. 7 Conclusion

The introduction raised the question whether it is time to think about specific educational interventions. First and foremost, it is important to be aware of the effects that isolation, loneliness, stress, and boredom can have on learners’ mental health. The article set out to shed some light on corresponding evidence. With regard to language learning, the same factors should be considered as potentially influential. Educational interventions and activities to, for example, reduce boredom, such as movement breaks to make it easier for the learners to escape the trap of boredom and to refocus, or activities to connect students, like the one proposed in section 3, can serve as a starting point. The Covitality

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(Mental) Challenges of a Post-Truth Society: Tackling Conspiracy Theories in the English Language Classroom

Peter Schildhauer, David Gerlach, Kristin Weiser-Zurmühlen

1 Introduction

“We need to talk about this!” – These words are the generic opener of TikTok videos posted by the account @tythecrazyguy, which has 3.5 million followers. As part of his ConspiracTEA series, US high school senior Ty presents in these short videos conspiracy theories, such as the notion that the US government has fluoride added to tap water to lower the population’s IQ. Usually, Ty’s videos have a soundtrack that is reminiscent of the X-Files. This somewhat sensationalist presentation corresponds to the fact that the theories are seldom reviewed critically, with Ty only mildly establishing a distance from them. Ty’s example illustrates the “mediatization of conspiracy theories” (Stano 2020: 483). Given that social media play a crucial role in adolescents’ lives (Richter 2018), it is highly likely that they will encounter conspiracy theories in one way or another within their (digital) life worlds. TikTok’s user demographics (Statista 2022) suggest that most of Ty’s viewers are, in fact, teenagers. Our contribution will show that these inevitable encounters with conspiracy theories can have serious mental health-related consequences, highlighting the need for educators to empower their students to face this challenge. Further, the chapter will argue that English language classrooms provide opportunities for educators to do so while offering some first ideas on how to deal with the topic of conspiracy theories in English lessons.

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2 Theoretical Background

  2.1 Conspiracy Theories as a (Digital) Practice

Conspiracy Theories are not a ’new’ phenomenon. Michael Butter (2020) shows how vital a role conspiracy theories played in US history. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example, the conspiracy theory stating that the devil was behind any hardship from earthquakes to pirates “stabilised the Puritan community because it located the conspirators […] firmly on the outside” (Butter 2020: 650). Similarly, the American Revolution was fueled by the belief in a conspiracy of England’s elite against liberty everywhere in the world. In fact, up to the 1950s, conspiracy theories concerning the Illuminati, the British monarchy, bankers, the Catholic church, the Red Scare, and others were considered orthodox – legitimate – knowledge in the US. Only in the second half of the twentieth century, conspiracy theories started to be regarded as heterodox, i.e. stigmatized knowledge that opposes the official narrative (Anton/ Schetsche 2020), with examples including the various theories connected to the Kennedy assassination and a plethora of theories concerned with the alleged abuse of power by the state. Thus, conspiracy theories are typically labelled as heterodox knowledge (Butter 2020; Hepfer 2020), even though conspiracy beliefs are apparently held by considerable fractions of populations globally (Sunstein/Vermeule 2009). Their plot focuses on a secret plan that a small group of people carry out. It includes collectively threatening events of a major scale and malevolent inten‐ tions of the (often powerful) conspirators (e.g. Hepfer 2020; Imhoff/Lamberty 2020). A current COVID-19 conspiracy theory, for instance, postulates that Bill and Melinda Gates tried to gain control by inserting microchips via vaccination. In contrast to scientific theories, conspiracy theorists always claim to have discovered the absolute truth. Additionally, believing in such a theory often entails believing in further aspects that are at odds with established knowledge (e.g. that microchips fit into vaccines; Hepfer 2020). Social media have facilitated the wide spread of conspiracy theories. Their participatory functions afford to “disseminate a variety of narratives and points of view” (Stano 2020: 483), which was not possible to that extent before. Ev‐ eryone can become an information broker by collecting, altering, commenting on and sharing information found on the web (Jenkins et al. 2013; Stalder 2017). Examples of these mechanisms are manifold: Fig. 1 presents a message from

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the Telegram channel #QAnon+ re-iterating the “Stop the Steal”1 theory, an Instagram post portraying global warming as a hoax and a Tweet that explains the death of festival visitors as the outcome of a satanic conspiracy.

Fig. 1: Selected social media posts featuring conspiracy content

Additionally, social media allows retreating into networks of like-minded users, e.g. in Telegram channels, Facebook groups and Instagram ’bubbles’ (Schildhauer/Kemper forthcoming). Since users prefer to see and share content that confirms rather than questions their existing beliefs (Del Vicario et al. 2016), these ‛echo chambers’ (Bruns 2019) make it likely that heterodox views are amplified when users frequently encounter, share and express agreement with posts that perpetuate these narratives. Consequently, mediatization has made a constant side-by-side of orthodox and heterodox narratives possible, and with it a constant struggle for the right to determine what is true. As everyone can construct their own narrative, spread it globally and quickly meet like-minded others, trust in traditional mass media is undermined. Instead of being viewed as the one institution that can be relied on for the ’truth’, the authority of mass media is questioned – and in many conspiracy theories, they play the role of one of the culprits. In other words, mediatization can be seen as a catalyst in developing a post-truth society in which no one is a priori a trusted keeper of truth (Mackey/Jacobson 2019). Navigating

1

Under this label, a theory emerged in the context of the 2020 US presidential elections which stated that election fraud had been carried out on a major scale in order to ‛steal’ the election victory from Trump; a series of rallies was carried out by Trump supporters under this slogan (Homans 2022).

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this post-truth world and avoiding the traps of conspiracy theories constitutes a considerable challenge. Language classrooms should equip students with the means to do so (Antos/Ballod 2019) in order to avoid the mental health consequences outlined in the next section.   2.2 The Psychological Dangers of Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories appeal to three motives that are key to human existence. The epistemic motive constitutes the need for “a stable, accurate and internally consistent understanding of the world” (Douglas et al. 2020: 182). This motive is supported by various psychological mechanisms and dispositions: ● The human brain’s capacity to deduce patterns is coupled with the disposi‐ tion of some to see connections where they do not exist (illusory pattern reception, van Prooijen et al. 2018). This constellation meets with a core principle of conspiracy theories: the notion that everything is connected (Butter 2018). ● People tend to believe that events of a certain magnitude need an equally formidable explanation (proportionality bias, e.g. Lamberty/Knäble 2020). Unsurprisingly, Michael Butter (2018) identifies the slogan “nothing is random” as another core premise of conspiracy theories. ● Finally, Michael Butter’s third slogan – “nothing is at it seems” – connects to the need of some people to find simple answers rather than live with complexity and ambiguity (Marchlewska et al. 2018). The existential motive describes people’s need for feeling “safe and secure […] and to exert control over their existence as autonomous individuals” (Douglas et al. 2020: 183). Conspiracy theories may promise a feeling of being in control: Adepts have discovered the conspiracy and are, thus, in the position to take action against it; besides, they have the agency to oppose official narratives (Imhoff/Lamberty 2020). This motive also offers an explanation for the tendency of under-privileged groups such as ethnic minorities (Goertzel 1994) and people with lower education (Douglas et al. 2016) to be most2 vulnerable to conspiracy theories as these may especially perceive their lives to be controlled by others. The social motive is the need to feel good about oneself and in-groups. Conspiracy theories allow to strengthen in-group ties by setting up an enemy (e.g. Goertzel 1994). At the same time, people enjoy the feeling of being unique

2

Of course, conspiracy belief can also affect the more privileged strata of society, as contemporary examples show.

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– for instance, knowing about a secret only a few others know about (Lantian et al. 2017), thus being truly awakened and enlightened (Lamberty/Knäble 2020). Most fittingly, the former English stand-up comedian Russell Brand greets his followers with the phrase “Hello you five point nine million awakening wonders” in his YouTube videos (e.g. Brand 2022), in which he proposes various conspiracy theories. All these motives may be triggered by negative emotional experiences such as anxiety, fear and anger (Douglas et al. 2020), which makes conspiracy theories likely to emerge in times of social unrest and uncertainty, such as the economic crisis following the Roaring Twenties, the 9/11 aftermath, and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, conspiracy theories seldom keep their promises. This is particularly true for existential motives. Believing in the generic plot entailing a powerful group at work (see above) paradoxically entails acknowledging losing rather than gaining control. Additionally, believing in conspiracy theories creates distrust in the ‛rest’ of society, especially established political and educational institutions, which leads to further feelings of alienation and isolation.

Fig. 2: Simplified model of psychological mechanisms related to belief in conspiracy theories (adapted from Imhoff/Lamberty 2020)

These mechanisms can result in a downward spiral (Imhoff/Lamberty 2020) as illustrated in Fig. 2: In search of control, people find an illusion of control in the ability to reject the mainstream narrative with their alternative, at the same time feeling good about knowing more than others and being part of an enlightened group. However, their belief also tells them they are powerless and that potentially everyone else may be conspirators (or under their influence).

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This activates existential and social motives again and, thus, leads further down the rabbit hole. Accordingly, Karen M. Douglas et al. (2020: 186) conclude that “conspiracy theories might […] actually make people feel worse.” The result may either be increased isolation, inactivity, and apathy due to an impression of being overpowered. Alternatively, the belief may lead to radicalization and (violent) political action to regain a sense of control. Adolescence appears to be a crucial phase in that regard. It is considered a phase of “increased emotional instability […], which increases rates of anxiety” (Jolley et al. 2021: 501) – a near-perfect breeding ground for conspiracy beliefs considering, for example, the existential motive outlined above. Recent research indicates that it is around the age of fourteen that conspiracy beliefs start to take hold (Jolley et al. 2021), which is especially alarming as adolescence is also essential for identity development, with peers and others becoming more important for defining one’s identity (Abels 2007). Consequently, adolescents are particularly vulnerable as far as the social motive above is concerned. As a result, the mechanisms outlined in Fig. 2 constitute a serious threat to adolescents. Additionally, adolescence is a phase in which conspiracy beliefs may solidify and become an integral part of one’s identity (Achour 2021), thus having an impact far into adulthood. For these reasons, educational institutions must act before it is too late. 3 Relevance for Foreign Language Education

Luckily, conspiracy theories can be approached with the instruments provided by critical discourse analysis, for instance, when underlying plots, argumenta‐ tive topoi and characteristic structural patterns are analyzed (Römer/Stumpf 2020; Römer 2021). This is precisely where language classrooms come into play: They are where critical digital literacy (Schildhauer et al. 2023) can be fostered, which is deeply rooted in linguistic competencies (Knopp 2020). With English being the lingua franca of the Internet (Richter 2022), it is primarily the English language classroom that has to play its part. This pivotal role of (foreign) language education also becomes evident when considering instrumental, cognitive and affective immunization, and healing strategies that are suggested by relevant psychological literature (Krekó 2020) to be applied before and after an encounter with a conspiracy theory, respectively (Tab. 1).

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Instrumental Strategy •

Avoid conspiracy theories

Cognitive Strategies • • • •

Improve logical & analytical thinking (En)counter selected arguments Uncover logical / factual inconsistencies Meta-reflection

Affective Strategy •

Reduce feelings of uncertainty, mistrust, lack of control

Tab. 1: Immunization/healing strategies for conspiracy theory encounters (adapted from Krekó 2020)

As the previous sections have shown, the instrumental strategy – avoidance of conspiracy theories – may not be feasible anymore. The cognitive strategies are mainly based on the insight that practicing logical and analytical thinking skills can help reduce the impact of conspiracy theories as it is rather quick-and-in‐ tuitive thinking that leads people to adopt them. This can be achieved by fact checking, encountering, analyzing, and debunking selected arguments as well as by reflecting on conspiracy content to realize what further adjustments to our worldview it entails. These square well with the focus on critical digital literacy pointed out above and may be coupled with the affective strategy of reducing the trigger emotions. 4 Practical Examples

  4.1 Fact Checking

Under the heading of text- and media competence, the foreign language classroom can be the place where learners investigate the factual basis of current conspiracy theories (Antos/Ballod 2019). The online portal snopes.com (Fig. 3), for instance, lists current theories and provides well-researched information countering the key arguments. It also contains an article debunking the Satanic ritual theory mentioned in Fig. 1, for example. Working with such a portal can empower learners and give them a feeling of control: They can fact-check independently and are not dependent on the instructor to tell fact from fiction. Thus, this cognitive strategy may also address affective factors relevant to conspiracy theory vulnerability.

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Fig. 3: Fact-checking on snopes.com

Fact-checking could also include uncovering the key logical fallacy of con‐ spiracy theories: the assumption that a massive conspiracy can occur and simultaneously remain a secret. David Grimes (2016), for example, draws on mathematical models to estimate the number of people who would need to be involved in anti-science conspiracies (Tab. 2). Conspiracy

Est. number of people involved

US moon landing

411,000

Climate change

405,000

Unsafe vaccinations Cancer cure suppressed

22,000 714,000

Tab. 2: Estimated numbers of conspirators involved in some anti-science conspiracy theories (Grimes 2016)

It is unlikely that hundreds of thousands of conspirators can all keep a secret without a leak. However, it may be difficult for lay people to understand how David Grimes reached his results, so using his numbers may require some trust in him as an expert. Thus, while fact-checking on portals such as snopes.com is most suitable as a healing strategy (after an encounter), David Grimes’ data can serve best as an immunization strategy (as trust in experts may be undermined by a conspiracy theory encounter).

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4.2 Analyzing Conspiracy Plots and Topoi

Those who spread conspiracy theories usually make use of certain recurring argument structures (topoi, Tab. 3).  Topos

Formula

Authority

The CT is true because certain renowned institutions / people say so.

Irrefutable Evidence

The CT is true because a wealth of evidence proves this.

Manipulation

Because the government / the media manipulate public opinion, the public opinion is wrong.

Cui Bono

The conspiracy exists because someone can profit from it.

Tab. 3: Selected topoi used in conspiracy theories (adapted from Breil et al. 2018)

These topoi constitute an analytical tool that can, for example, be applied in a critical analysis of Donald Trump’s Capitol Hill speech on January 6, 2021, in which he articulates the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theory. The core of the speech can be illustrated by the following passage: All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media. […] We will stop the steal. (AP News 2021)

Throughout the speech, the topoi (Tab. 3) are all present (Tab. 4): Topos

Example from Trump’s Speech at Capitol Hill

Authority

“And I was told by the real pollsters – we do have real pollsters – they know that we were going to do well and we were going to win.”

Irrefutable Evidence

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve amassed overwhelming evi‐ dence about a fake election.”

Manipula‐ tion

“As you know, the media has constantly asserted the outrageous lie that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. You ever seen these people? While there is no evidence of fraud. Oh, really?”

Cui Bono

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing.”

Tab. 4: Argumentative topoi in Trump’s Capitol Hill speech (quoted from AP News 2021)

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After analysing the underlying plot and argumentative topoi, learner groups could also reflect on how Trump’s speech appeals to the conspiracy belief motives: It offers an alternative explanation for an undesirable reality (epistemic motive), incites fear of a country collapsing with the Democrats in power (existential motive) and repeatedly refers to an in-group identity (social motive).   4.3 Fostering Discourse Competence

Fact-checking and critical analysis could also be combined in the framework of Wolfgang Hallet’s (2008) concept of discourse competence, the ability to identify, reflect on and participate in discourses. Learners first encounter some selected conspiracy theories, analyse, and reflect on them. The knowledge gained in this step can be used to re-engage with the discourse about conspiracy theories: For instance, students could create social media posts (e.g. Fig. 3) in which they share their expertise on how to identify conspiracy theories – or key arguments against certain selected and fact-checked current theories (Schildhauer/Gerlach 2023).

Fig. 4: Cover slide of an example Instagram post on conspiracy theories (our own example)

In doing so, learners could (re-)gain a sense of achievement and control. The approach would also be in line with the transformative goals of a critical

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foreign language pedagogy (Gerlach 2020), which emphasises the necessity of implementing critical topics and initiating social change in language classrooms.   4.4 Challenges

Dealing with conspiracy theories also involves several challenges. For example, the familiarity backfire effect describes the phenomenon that a particular belief is strengthened by frequently encountering it (Krekó 2020). It may, therefore, be advisable to work first with conspiracy theories that are unlikely to immediately affect the students’ lifeworlds. Ty’s TikTok video mentioned in the introduction and Trump’s Capitol Hill speech might provide better material for students in English language classrooms worldwide than local and highly current conspiracy theory material (e.g. related to COVID-19). Further, some conspiracy theories are resistant to factual information, which makes debunking them difficult. This is particularly true for the climate change hoax theory, which considers scientists the actual conspirators (Douglas/Sutton 2015): The scientists are said to fake their climate-related studies to justify their existence and gain further funding for their research by inciting climate hysteria. In these cases, immunization via the tools introduced above may be helpful, while healing can prove extremely difficult (Nocun/Lamberty 2021). Additionally, people tend to reject any efforts to persuade them if they feel that they are being lectured and limited in their freedom (reactance, Krekó 2020). This resistance can be strengthened if in-group identities are involved. This again can be a particularly sensitive issue for adolescents: What if their peer-group or family is connected to a conspiracy theory? Depending on the individual positioning of learners, identity conflicts could be potential results. These challenges also call for a particularly sensitive form of classroom interaction – and profound research into what that could look like. 5 Conclusion

This chapter has argued that conspiracy theories are omnipresent in the digital age and, thus, readily available to adolescents. They appeal to essential psycho‐ logical motives and may constitute a severe mental health issue when they lead their believers, particularly adolescents, into powerlessness and alienation. Adolescents are not only especially vulnerable to conspiracy theories, but they are also in a phase of their lives in which such beliefs can become a solidified part of their identity, thus having an impact far into adulthood. Therefore, the chapter has suggested several strategies to be implemented in the English language

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classroom to immunize students against conspiracy theories or heal them from previous encounters. Much conceptual and empirical research is required to elaborate the concepts which could only be sketched here. Using Ty’s words: We need to talk about this. References Abels, Heinz (2007). Interaktion, Identität, Präsentation: Kleine Einführung in interpre‐ tative Theorien der Soziologie. Wiesbaden: VS. Achour, Sabine (2021). Politische Bildung als Transmitter der Demokratie: Demokratie muss man machen – Neun Appelle zur politischen Bildung. In: Zick, Andreas/Küpper, Beate (Eds.), Die geforderte Mitte: Rechtsextreme und demokratiegefährdende Ein‐ stellungen in Deutschland 2020/21. Bonn: Dietz, 311–329. Anton, Andreas/Schetsche, Michael (2020). Vielfältige Wirklichkeiten: Wissenssoziologi‐ sche Überlegungen zu Verschwörungstheorien. In: Stumpf, Sören/Römer, David (Eds.). Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung. 4. Beiheft: Verschwörungstheorien im Diskurs. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, 88–115. Antos, Gerd/Ballod, Matthias (2019). Web und Wahrheit: Vorbemerkungen zu einer Didaktik informationeller Verlässlichkeit. In: Beißwenger, Michael/Knopp, Matthias (Eds.). Soziale Medien in Schule Und Hochschule: Linguistische, Sprach- Und Medi‐ endidaktische Perspektiven. Berlin: Peter Lang, 23–57. AP News (2021). Transcript of Trump’s speech at rally before US capitol riot. AP NEWS. 2021. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-sieg e-media-e79eb5164613d6718e9f4502eb471f27 (last accessed: 28.10.2022). Breil, Laura/Römer, David/Stumpf, Sören (2018). ‘Das weltweite Wetter-Projekt Chem‐ trails ist, und darüber herrschen wohl kaum Zweifel, ein Multimilliarden-Dollar-Un‐ ternehmen’: Argumentationsmuster innerhalb der Chemtrail-Verschwörungstheorie. Aptum. Zeitschrift für Sprachkritik und Sprachkultur 14 (3), 239–258. Bruns, Axel (2019). Are filter bubbles real? Cambridge, MA: Polity. Butter, Michael (2018). ‘Nichts ist, wie es scheint’: Über Verschwörungstheorien. Berlin: Suhrkamp. Butter, Michael (2020). Conspiracy theories in American history. In: Butter, Mi‐ chael/Knight, Peter (Eds.). Routledge handbook of conspiracy theories. London/New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 648–659. Del Vicario, Michaela/Bessi, Alessandro/Zollo, Fabiana/Petroni, Fabio/Scala, An‐ tonio/Caldarelli, Guido/Stanley, H. Eugene/Quattrociocchi, Walter (2016). The spreading of misinformation online. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (3), 554–559.

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Douglas, Karen M./Cichocka, Aleksandra/Sutton, Robbie (2020). Motivations, emotions and belief in conspiracy theories. In: Butter, Michael/Knight, Peter (Eds.). Routledge handbook of conspiracy theories. London/New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 181–191. Douglas, Karen M./Sutton, Robbie M. (2015). Climate change: Why the conspiracy theories are dangerous. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71 (2), 98–106. Douglas, Karen M./Sutton, Robbie M./Callan, Mitchell J./Dawtry, Rael J. Dawtry/Harvey, Annelie J. (2016). Someone is pulling the strings: Hypersensitive detection and belief in conspiracy theories. Thinking & Reasoning 22 (1), 57–77. Gerlach, David (2020). Einführung in eine Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Ger‐ lach, David (Ed.). Kritische Fremdsprachendidaktik: Grundlagen, Ziele, Beispiele. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 7–31. Goertzel, Ted (1994). Belief in conspiracy theories. Political Psychology 15 (4), 731–42. Grimes, David R. (2016). On the viability of conspirational beliefs. PloS One 11 (1), e0147905. Hallet, Wolfgang (2008). Diskursfähigkeit heute: Der Diskursbegriff in Piephos Theorie der kommunikativen Kompetenz und seine zeitgemäße Weiterentwicklung für die Fremdsprachendidaktik. In: Legutke, Michael K. (Ed.). Kommunikative Kompetenz als fremdsprachendidaktische Vision. Tübingen: Narr, 76–96. Hepfer, Karl (2020). ‘Alternative Wirklichkeiten’ und die Sehnsucht nach dem Absoluten: Wie Verschwörungstheorien unsere Filter für unsinnige Erklärungen Unterlaufen. In: Stumpf, Sören/Römer, David (Eds.). Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung. 4. Beiheft: Verschwörungstheorien im Diskurs. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, 4, 9–31. Homans, Charles (2022). How ‘Stop the Steal’ captured the American right. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/19/magazine/stop-the-steal.html (last accessed: 21.10.2022). Imhoff, Roland/Lamberty, Pia (2020). Conspiracy beliefs as psycho-political reactions to perceived power. In: Butter, Michael/Knight, Peter (Eds.). Routledge handbook of conspiracy theories. London/New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 192–205. Jenkins, Henry/Ford,Sam/Green, Joshua (2013). Spreadable media: Creating value and meaning in a networked culture. New York/London: New York University Press. Jolley, Daniel/Douglas, Karen/Skipper, Yvonne/Thomas, Eleanor/Cookson, Darel (2021). Measuring adolescents’ beliefs in conspiracy theories: Development and validation of the Adolescent Conspiracy Beliefs Questionnaire (ACBQ). British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 39 (3), 499–520. Knopp, Matthias (2020). Sprache – Der Blinde Fleck im Mediengebrauch und der Diskus‐ sion um Medienkompetenz (?). k:ON – Kölner Online Journal für Lehrer*innenbildung 1 (1), 81–96.

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Promoting Digital Media Competences by Addressing Cyberbullying in the EFL Classroom

Ben Opitz

1 Introduction

Today, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok shape social structures, political institutions and educational systems (KMK 2016; Vosoughi et al. 2018). Digital technologies profoundly impact how language is used to communicate within and across cultures and further provide a plethora of motivating and authentic materials for the English language classroom (Alter, 2021). Fostering digital media competences has therefore become an increasingly relevant goal within ELT (Lütge et al. 2021). At their best, digital technologies improve teaching and learning processes and contribute to overall physical and mental well-being within English language teaching (ELT, Lütge et al. 2021). To harness these potentials, however, students need to acquire the skills to safely navigate information and communication technologies (ICT) to avoid threats to their physical and mental health (Müller/Schwarz 2020; Shakya/Christakis 2017). This contribution reviews empirical research findings on cyberbullying and discusses the role of online safety in the context of digital competence acquisition in teacher training and English language teaching (ELT). Further, it presents practical lesson plan ideas generated and implemented in the context of an innovative seminar format designed to foster subject-specific digital competences of prospective English language teachers called the digital Teaching and Learning Lab Seminar (dTLLS). The dTLLS has been implemented and evaluated under the guidance of Michaela Sambanis at the Department Didaktik des Englischen at the Freie Universität Berlin as a constituent of the BMBF-funded project K2teach-know how to teach.

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2 The Mechanics of (Cyber)bullying and Mental Health Consequences

Adolescence represents a critical developmental phase that lays the foundation for future health and well-being (Biswas et al. 2020: 1; Mestre-Bach et al. 2021). This also has implications for educational institutions, as they play a major role in shaping the development of adolescent learners by, for instance, addressing and preventing major public health problems, such as bullying (Armitage 2021; Mestre-Bach et al. 2021). Bullying can be defined as “repeated victimization within a power-imbalanced relationship” that can take the form of different harmful behaviors ranging from name calling to physical and verbal abuse and can increase the risk of poor health, social and educational outcomes in childhood and adolescence (Armitage 2021: 1). Formative experiences gathered during adolescence are increasingly in‐ formed by online communication. Unfortunately, cyberbullying, which is closely related to traditional bullying (Mestre-Bach et al. 2021) affects a growing number of students today. Cyberbullying can be defined as: any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others. (Tokunaga 2010 as cited in Kwan et al. 2020: 73)

While traditional bullying predates times of ubiquitous digital media access, cyberbullying transcends and amplifies the effects of traditional bullying in numerous ways. To begin with, humiliating materials can easily be distributed to a wide audience using social media platforms (Perren et al. 2012). Moreover, differing levels of technological knowledge, limited possibilities of escape and the option of posting anonymously at any time and place exacerbate the harmful consequences of bullying (Perren et al. 2012: 284). Table 1 presents a synthesis of classifications of different types of cyberbullying. However, new social media platforms continuously evolve alongside novel forms of cyberbullying, rendering an all-encompassing definition impossible.

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Types of Cyberbullying Reference

Type of Cyberbullying Definition Harassment

“Repeatedly sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages […] to public forums, chat rooms […]”

Denigration

“Distributing information about another person which is derogatory and untrue […]”

Flaming

“Online ‛fighting’ or an intense argument using electronic messages […]”

Impersonation

“Breaking into an email or social net‐ working account and using that person’s online identity to send or post vicious or embarrassing materials […]”

Masquerading

“Pretending to be someone else by creating fake email addresses or instant messaging names […]”

Pseudonyms

“Using an alias or nickname online to keep their identity secret […]”

Outing and Trickery

“Public display or forwarding of personal communications such as text messages, emails or instant messaging […]”

Cyber Stalking

“This is a form of harassment. Repeatedly sending messages which include threats of harm or are highly intimidating […]”

Exclusion

“[…] actions that specifically and intention‐ ally exclude a person from an online group” (Willard 2006 as cited in Li et al. 2012: 7)”

Catfishing

“[…] tricking people into relationship by creating false identities […]”

Slamming

“[…] bystanders engaging in harassment that they did not initiate […]”

Sexting

“ […] distributing sexually suggestive im‐ ages […]” (Christolm 2014, as cited in Betts 2016: 20)

Chadwick (2014: 4)

Li et al. (2012: 7)

Betts (2016: 20)

Tab. 1: Types of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is further considered to be a contributing factor to the develop‐ ment of mental health disorders (Bottino et al. 2015; Hellfeldt et al. 2019; Kwan

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et al. 2020; Zhu et al. 2021). However, strategies for preventing and coping with cyberbullying, such as teacher support and the promotion of digital competences (Armitage 2021; Hellfeldt et al. 2019; Livingstone et al. 2021; Mestre-Bach et al. 2021; Zhu et al. 2021) have important implications for the English language classroom (Lütge et al. 2021). Table 2 presents an overview of research that has identified associations between cyberbullying and negative mental health outcomes in adolescents as well as potential protective factors, such as support through teachers and schools. The Link Between (Cyber)bullying and Mental Health Reference

Study design

Associations between Protective (cyber)bullying and factors against negative mental cyberbullying health outcomes

Survey participation in 30 middle schools (6th through 8th grades) in the United States. (Hinduja/Patchin 2010 as cited in Chad‐ wick 2014: 19)

“The serious long-term effects of cyberbullying, such as the higher prev‐ alence of youth depres‐ sion, anxiety and lower self-esteem […]” (2014: 19).

“School culture has a significant im‐ pact on cyberbul‐ lying […]” (2014: 20).

Cross-sectional sample of young adolescents attending Hellfeldt et community and al. (2019) private schools in Sweden. Self-re‐ porting via web ques‐ tionnaire.

“higher levels of cy‐ berbullying relates to higher levels of depres‐ sive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and lower levels of subjective well-being” (2019: 2).

“[…] perceived so‐ cial support from family and from teachers reduce the probability of de‐ pressive and anxiety symptoms” (2019: 1).

Systematic mapping review identifying systematic reviews in‐ vestigating cyberbul‐ Kwan et al. lying and mental (2020) and psychological outcomes in young people.

“Mental health out‐ comes associated with cyberbullying include: Depression, suicidality, anxiety, hostility and aggression, substance misuse/use, self-harm and ADHD” (2020: 77).

“Moderating fac‐ tors included: dem‐ ographics, school factors, parenting/ family factors, per‐ sonality traits/ temperament” (2020: 77).

“Review of litera‐ ture related to the effects of cyberbul‐ lying on adolescent health across multiple studies worldwide” (2014: 143).

“Adolescents who are targeted via cyber‐ bullying report in‐ creased depressive af‐ fect, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal behavior, and

“enhancing adoles‐ cents’ empathy and self-esteem, de‐ creasing adoles‐ cents’ problem be‐ haviors, promoting warm, nurturing

Chadwick (2014)

Nixon (2014)

Cyberbullying in the EFL Classroom

Systematic review of literature. A total of 63 international studies were included. Zhu et al. (2021)

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somatic symptoms” (2014: 143).

relationships with their parents […]” (2014: 151).

“adolescents with mental health problems, such as depression, borderline personality disorder, eating disor‐ ders, sleep deprivation, and suicidal thoughts and suicide plans, were more likely to be associ‐ ated with cyberbullying victimization” (2021: 6).

“protective factors against cyberbul‐ lying included: em‐ pathy and emo‐ tional intelligence, parent-child rela‐ tionship, and school climate” (2021: 6).

Tab. 2: The link between (cyber)bullying and mental health

The findings outlined in Table 2 indicate that schools may play a significant role in the protection against the harmful consequences of cyberbullying. As “English is the language of digital technology and the internet” (Alter, 2021: 144), it is important to consider how English language teachers might be able to contribute in meaningful ways to the prevention of cyberbullying, by, for instance, supporting students in developing digital competences to safely navigate online environments by addressing this topic in ELT. 3 Strengthening English Language Learners’ Digital Immune Systems

An important goal for educational institutions in the 21st century is fostering both (language) teachers’ and learners’ digital competences, which includes the ability to navigate online environments safely (KMK 2016; Redecker/Punie 2017). To promote students’ digital competences effectively, teachers must first acquire the necessary skills for teaching with and about digital technologies themselves. Therefore, the interplay between teachers’ and students’ digital competences will be examined further in this section. Numerous frameworks for digital competences are discussed in the literature (Sgolik et al. 2021). The Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCom‐ pEdu, Redecker/Punie 2017) is an influential model initiated by the European Commission that is used as a point of reference for the current article. The DigCompEdu provides “a general reference frame to support the development of educator-specific digital competences in Europe” (European Commission n.d.;

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Redecker/Punie 2017, for in-depth discussions of this model, see Sgolik et al. 2021; Lütge et al. 2021). While the DigCompEdu primarily describes teachers’ digital competences, the dimension Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence describes those aspects that are relevant for fostering students’ digital competences, includes the ability to navigate online environments safely and maps onto the facets outlined within the closely related Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, which essentially lays out the competences that students, as future citizens, should acquire during their education and development (Vuorikari et al. 2022: 1). Christiane Lütge et al. (2021) argue that the successful implementation of the DigCompEdu in teacher training, however, requires subject-specific adaptations. Furthermore, core objectives of ELT, such as acquiring intercultural communicative competence, involve the development of corresponding digital skills. According to Grit Alter (2021), digital technologies considerably change social and cultural contexts and this in turn, has profound implications for ELT. For example, intercultural communicative competence today entails the ability to “manage online risks in view of self and others (data security, manipulation, mobbing, addiction)” (2021: 158). Therefore, teacher training programs should focus on equipping student teachers with suitable tools for promoting digital competences of learners in their respective subject-specific contexts. This includes equipping English language learners with the digital competences to combat cyberbullying (Lütge et al. 2021). The idea that digital competences may protect against the harmful conse‐ quences of cyberbullying is further supported by a systematic evidence review of research by Sonia Livingstone et al. (2021) that investigated the relationship between digital skills and tangible outcomes in 12- to 17-year-olds, such as behaviors related to coping with cyberbullying. Therein, the authors state that digital skills were positively linked to coping behaviors online (such as privacy behavior, deleting unwelcome messages, blocking senders […] more digitally literate children were more likely to delete messages and block senders when experiencing cyberbullying or unwelcome sexting. (Livingstone et al. 2021: 12)

Promoting digital competences of English language learners thus not only supports the pursuit of subject-specific learning objectives but might also help protect students against risks related to online communication outside of the EFL classroom.

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4 Addressing Cyberbullying in the EFL Classroom – A Sample Lesson Plan Designed and Implemented by dTLLS-Participants

Preparing future English language teachers for fostering school students’ digital competences requires effective teacher training programs. Seminar formats focusing on combining theory and practice have shown to be effective for promoting prospective teachers’ professional competences (Rehfeldt et al. 2020; Seibert et al. 2019; Klempin et al. 2019) and digital competences (Burger/Elsner 2020; Sprenger/Surkamp 2020). The present contribution presents a sample lesson plan that has been created in the context of a related seminar titled the digital Teaching and Learning Lab Seminar (dTLLS) that aims to promote subject-specific digital competences of prospective English language teachers and addresses the topic of cyberbullying in the context of ELT. The general structure of the dTLLS is inspired by the so-called learning lab seminars, wherein student teachers develop teaching sequences, engage in field practice, reflect on their teaching and adapt lesson plans in groups (Klempin et al. 2019, for an in-depth description of the dTLLS and corresponding materials, see Opitz/ Sambanis, 2023). The previously cited global prevalence of online bullying (Zhu et al. 2021) speaks to the role of such phenomena in school students’ daily lives and underscores the importance of addressing cyberbullying in English language classrooms. Equipping prospective English language teachers with the abilities to implement the topic of cyberbullying in ELT through teacher training programs such as the dTLLS is thus crucial. Against this backdrop, the following sample lesson plan, which dTLLS-participants have designed for school students based on model lesson plans (Dausend 2020; Klett Verlag n.d.) and implemented in the teaching and learning labs presents practical ideas for implementing the topic of cyberbullying in advanced EFL classrooms. It encourages school students to develop digital media competences in line with the DigCompEdu (Facilitating Learners’ Digital Competence) and the DigComp 2.2 (Safety) by reflecting on personal behaviors in digital environments, consequences of indi‐ vidual actions and strategies for preventing and combatting cyberbullying. In doing so, students further develop skills relevant to intercultural communicative competence, as they are confronted with challenges associated with digital forms of (intercultural) communication (Alter 2021). To introduce the topic, teachers show suitable short video clips (for example, videos “create no hate” and/or “Teen Voices: Hate Speech Online” that are freely available on YouTube). While the video is playing, teachers note down quotes taken from the clip (e.g. “everybody has a part to play”, CreateNoHate 2022, 01:45) as well as the strategies mentioned for combatting cyberbullying (e.g.

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“Stop, Block, Tell”, as mentioned in CreateNoHate 2022, 01:02) in speech bubbles as a scaffold for the subsequent classroom discussion of the video. Afterwards, teachers initiate a plenary discussion that results in a mind map briefly outlining a definition of cyberbullying, different types of cyberbullying, and strategies for countering related harmful consequences. Subsequently, teachers introduce a worksheet, which contains short stories in English about real-life cases of cyberbullying. In groups, students read and discuss the short stories and develop strategies for preventing and combating cyberbullying based on the stories outlined in the worksheet while drawing on the mind map created in the initial phase of the lesson. For instance, students could build on the three strategies mentioned in the introductory video clip (e.g. “Stop, Block, Tell”, CreateNoHate 2022, 01:02) by applying these to the short stories and trying to come up with additional strategies for preventing harmful consequences of online bullying. Finally, students create short storyboards outlining up to three steps for countering cyberbullying, such as, for example, blocking users, taking a break from social media, and reporting harmful contents. These steps could be complimented by illustrations, pictures, emojis, like buttons, chat messages and other objects. In addition, students might receive phrases for scaffolding the discussion (e.g. “In my opinion…”, “I can/can’t share this opinion because…”, “Blocking users is helpful when…”, “Taking a break from social media can be helpful when…”, “Posts should be reported when…”). The final phase involves the presentation and discussion of storyboards created by student groups during the lesson. The storyboards can be used for establishing classroom rules for preventing cyberbullying that have been generated and agreed upon as a class. To make these rules accessible to all students, future projects could translate storyboards into other languages to create multilingual anti-cyberbullying rules for the classroom. 5 Conclusion

As argued above, digital technologies and associated phenomena, such as cyberbullying, permeate school students’ daily lives and should not be ignored in the EFL classroom. The global prevalence of cyberbullying and its consequences require educational institutions to respond by addressing these challenges head on and providing resources for its prevention and management. This, however, requires the development and implementation of suitable teacher training programs to provide prospective English language teachers with the abilities to incorporate digital technologies into teaching practices and foster their students’ digital competences. By presenting a sample lesson plan based

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on products designed and implemented by participants in the dTLLS, we hope to inspire fellow educators to address these important issues in ELT practices. References Alter, Grit (2021). Diversifying cultural learning in the digital age. In: Lütge, Chris‐ tiane/Merse, Thorsten (Eds.). Digital teaching and learning: Perspectives for English language education. Tübingen: Narr, 143–167. Armitage, Richard (2021). Bullying in children: Impact on child health. BMJ Paediatrics Open, 5:e000939, 1–8. Betts, Lucy R. (2016). CYBERBULLYING – Approaches, consequences and interventions. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Biswas, Tuhin/Scott, James G./Munir, Kerim/Thomas, Hanna J./Huda, M. Mamun/Hasan, Md. M./de Vries, Tim D./Baxter, Janeen/Mamun, Abdullah A. (2020). Global variation in the prevalence of bullying victimization amongst adolescents: Role of peer and parental supports. EClinicalMedicine 20, 1–8. Bottino, Sara M. B./Bottino, Cássio M. C./Regina, Caroline G./Correia, Aline V. L./Ribeiro, Wagner S. R. (2015). Cyberbullying and adolescent mental health: Systematic review. Cadernos de Saú de Pública, 31 (3), 463–475. Burger, Claudia/Elsner, Daniela (2020). Digital English Lab – Digitale fachdidaktische Kompetenzen erwerben durch Kooperatives Forschendes Lernen im Lehramtsstu‐ dium Englisch. In: Niesen, Heike/Elsner, Daniela/Viebrock, Britta (Eds.). Hochschul‐ lehre digital gestalten in der (fremd-)sprachlichen LehrerInnenbildung: Inhalte, Meth‐ oden und Aufgaben (Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik, 1. ed.). Tübingen: Narr, 19–37. Chadwick, Sharlene (2014). Impacts of cyberbullying, building social and emotional resilience in schools. Cham/Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London: Springer. Common Sense Education. (2022, 16.9.). Teen voices: Hate speech online. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vUdWpwLv10 (last accessed: 08.09.2022) CreateNoHate. (2022). Cyber bullying: Create no hate (German Subtitles). Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMl1t7NtFmE (last accessed: 08.09.2022) Dausend, Henriette (2020). Digital unterrichten – Klasse 5–10: Apps & Co. im Engli‐ schunterricht gezielt einsetzen – Fertige Stundenentwürfe – Kopiervorlagen. 3. ed. Berlin: Cornelsen. Hellfeldt, Karin/López-Romero, Laura/Andershed, Henrik (2019). Cyberbullying and psychological well-being in young adolescence: The potential protective mediation effects of social support from family friends and teachers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Publich Health 17 (45), 1–16.

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Section 4: Teachers and Teacher Education

Understanding the Ecology of Language Teacher Well-Being: Theory and Practice

Sonja Babic & Sarah Mercer

1 Introduction

Well-being is “something everyone seemingly aims for and arguably has a right to” (Price/McCallum 2016: 2). Indeed, well-being is declared one of the “fundamental rights of every human being” (WHO 2022, para 2) that should be supported and promoted by individuals, institutions, organisations, and communities alike. The topic of well-being has become of global interest, especially in the context of the global pandemic crisis, which has further highlighted the significance of well-being for everyone’s health (WHO 2022) – including teachers and their learners (MacIntyre et al. 2022). In this chapter, we touch upon the ways in which well-being has been conceptualised and researched to date, and we suggest taking an ecological perspective to view well-being in general and language teacher well-being in particular. Taking an ecological perspective means understanding well-being not only as determined by individuals’ psychologies and their subjective expe‐ riences, but as contextually situated and influenced by people’s environments (Mercer 2021). The chapter also draws on positive psychology (PP) as a branch of psychology focusing on how and why people flourish (Seligman 2011). In particular, we explore PP interventions (PPIs) to offer practical suggestions for language teachers and institutions to boost and maintain teachers’ (own) well-being. In addition, we also suggest ideas about how these PPIs could be adapted and utilised in classrooms with language learners. 2 Theoretical Background: Towards an Understanding of Well-Being

Well-being can be broadly defined as “a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning” (Ryan/Deci 2001: 141); however, due to its multifaceted nature, it has defied a ubiquitous definition. The way we define

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and understand well-being influences our individual and collective actions and ways of functioning. To date, two main traditions have been employed: hedonic and eudemonic (Ryan/Deci 2001). These are “relatively distinct, yet overlapping, perspectives that revolve around two distinct philosophies” (Ryan/ Deci 2001: 143). Hedonic views on well-being conceptualise it as a relative ratio between positive and negative affect and life satisfaction, including individuals’ subjective evaluations of their own positive and negative emotions – also known as subjective well-being (SWB) (Diener/Ryan 2009). The eudemonic approach defines well-being as encompassing individuals’ sense of meaning, self-actualisation, and the extent to which they are leading fully functioning and meaningful lives. Martin Seligman (2011) has proposed the most prominent model of the eudemonic approach to well-being to date, outlining five com‐ ponents of human flourishing: Positive and negative emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment; summarised as PERMA. Hedonic and eudemonic traditions can be described as having a “final common path of the elements of wellbeing” (Seligman 2018: 333). Both ap‐ proaches emphasise personal or subjective perspectives, while placing little focus on the individuals’ environments and objective determinants of well-being (Mercer 2021). Although individuals do have agency to impact their own well-being, it is also influenced by systemic and contextual factors (La Placa et al. 2013). According to the WHO (2012), well-being consists of “two dimensions, subjective and objective. It comprises an individual’s experience of their life as well as a comparison of life circumstances with social norms and values” (p. 9). Consequently, more recently, scholars have started to acknowledge the dynamic and complex interplay between psychological, social, contextual, and temporal factors in determining individuals’ well-being (see, for example, Price/ McCallum 2016; Mercer 2021; Sulis et al. 2021). Educator well-being is typically determined by teachers’ own subjective experiences and evaluations of the quality of their lives, as well as the nature of and perception of contextual factors, such as their schools, available resources, and relationships with their head teachers, colleagues, students, and parents (Sulis et al. 2023). Additionally, well-being is not static. It can be influenced by a variety of contextual factors and it can also change across time. Therefore, to be able to understand language teacher well-being, it is necessary to take a holistic and situated perspective which accommodates both subjective perspectives and an understanding of context and structures as well as dynamism. In terms of practical implications, it also means that both individuals and collectives share responsibility for educators’ well-being and if interventions are proposed, they must empower teachers to take their own self-care actions, but they must also

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advise institutions and policy makers of steps they could take to nurture teacher overall health including well-being. An integrative part of individuals’ overall health is their mental health (WHO 2022). The APA definition of mental health is, “a state of mind characterized by emotional well-being, good behavioral adjustment, relative freedom from anxiety and disabling symptoms, and a capacity to establish constructive relationships and cope with the ordinary demands and stresses of life” (APA n.d.). In some instances, well-being has been equated and used interchangeably with mental health; for example, with SWB, putting these constructs on a single spectrum of individuals’ health (Keyes/Lopez 2002). However, scholars argue that, “well-being is not the absence of mental illness” (Ryan/Deci 2001: 142), nor is “mental health […] merely the absence of high wellbeing” (Keyes/Lopez 2002: 48). Indeed, as we sought to unpack earlier, well-being is a multifaceted construct lying at the intersection of a number of interrelated factors. An absence of mental illness cannot automatically be equated with high well-being. While low well-being could put a person’s mental health at risk, this relationship too is complex and not straightforwardly direct. As such, people’s overall health is likely to be influenced by their experience of their own well-being as well as their mental health. Corey Keyes and Shane Lopez (2002) suggest that those who experience low well-being and mental health issues are floundering, while individuals experiencing high well-being and low mental health issues are likely flourishing in their lives. In this chapter, we specifically focus on the topic of well-being. We reflect on how language teachers can improve their well-being and ways in which they can be supported by their institutions to thrive and flourish in their professions. 3 Relevance of Well-Being for Foreign Language Education

Why does understanding teacher well-being matter? Recent empirical research confirms that the teaching profession is in crisis due the high rates of teacher attrition (Hiver/Dörnyei 2017). This worrying trend can be attributed to reported high levels of stress, unsupportive school leadership, challenging student behaviour, evaluations by inspection bodies, and low levels of well-being – a situation which is likely to have been aggravated by the experiences and consequences of the pandemic (e.g., Mairitsch et al. 2021; Ramberg et al. 2020). Bridget Grenville-Cleave and Ilona Boniwell’s (2012) study found that teachers have lower perceived well-being than those working in other professions, such as social work, health, and human resources. During the Covid-19 outbreak, novel and difficult work conditions critically affected both teacher and learner

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levels of stress, throwing the topic and issue of well-being in education fully into the limelight (e.g., McIntyre et al. 2022). Language teachers share many of the stressors common to all educators’ lives; however, they may also face domain-specific issues such as foreign language anxiety for those who teach an LX (Horwitz 1996), energy-consuming teaching methodologies (Borg 2006), intense emotional labour (Gkonou/Miller 2019), and learners being exposed to language outside of the classroom, potentially making teachers’ role increasingly obsolete from learner perspectives (Haukås/Mercer 2021). All of these factors can have a negative impact on language teacher wellbeing. While teachers deserve high well-being just as anyone does, learners and whole schools also benefit from high teacher well-being. Research has shown that teachers with high wellbeing experience higher job satisfaction and better work life-balance (Dreer 2021), are more engaged (Greenier et al. 2021), cultivate better relationships within their professional lives, and tend to have students who achieve higher grades (Spilt et al., 2011). Indeed, teacher and learner well-being are interlinked, they depend on each other as well on the ecologies in which they are situated. Therefore, aiming to reduce teacher burnout and bolster their well-being is essential and an invaluable goal for all stakeholders in education. 4 Practical Interventions for Well-Being Inspired by Positive Psychology

In order to make practical suggestions for attending the wellbeing of language teachers including their learners, we turn to positive psychology (PP) and positive psychology interventions (PPIs). Positive psychology is an approach to psychology which seeks to empirically understand human flourishing with a focus on an appreciation of how strengths, traits, and institutions can contribute to individual and collective well-being. It emerged to provide a balance to solely deficit and weakness models of psychology with the aim of understanding strengths, positivity, and flourishing alongside challenges and difficulties. PPIs can be defined as intentional activities or treatment methods aimed at enhancing individuals’ positive experiences, feelings, behaviours, and cognitions as opposed to addressing mental health issues or disorders (Sin/ Lyubomirsky 2009). The objectives of PPIs are to “promote levels of well-being or build upon or draw out a person’s existing strengths” (Keyes/Lopez 2002: 50). Sonja Lyubomirsky and Kristin Layous (2013) suggest that while a proportion of individuals’ well-being is influenced by individual dispositions, it is also

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under a person’s own control to a certain degree. For instance, some of the PPIs, such as writing gratitude letters, practicing mindfulness, and practicing optimistic thinking have been shown to increase individuals’ well-being (Sin/ Lyubomirsky 2009). Martin Seligman and colleagues (2005) reported that three interventions in particular have been found to increase participants’ happiness and these include gratitude visits, three good things (positive writing), and utilising signature strengths (positive parts of our personalities that generate feelings of authenticity and engagement). In another study, Nancy Sin and Sonja Lyubomirsky (2009) conducted a meta-analysis of 51 interventions with over 4200 participants to understand whether and which PPIs enhance wellbeing. Their findings revealed that PPIs indeed improve people’s well-being. Similarly to Martin Seligman et al.’s (2005) findings, those that received most empirical evidence to date include gratitude and positive writing, kindness, and mindful‐ ness (Sin/Lyubomirsky 2009). For these reasons, in this chapter, we have chosen to focus on practicing gratitude and kindness as approaches that teachers and their institutions could practice to enhance teacher well-being. These activities could also be adapted and used with students in the classroom.   4.1 Activity 1: Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude can be defined as feeling thankful and appreciative for the things in life that we believe have a positive effect on us (Emmons/Shelton 2002; Watkins et al. 2009). Practicing gratitude is one of the most widely utilised and empirically researched PPIs (Sin/Lyubomirsky 2009) with evidence showing clear benefits for well-being from engaging regularly in gratitude practices (e.g., Emmons/Shelton 2002; Layous et al. 2012; Lyubomirsky/Layous 2013). Lúzie Fofonka Cunha et al. (2019) explored the effects of gratitude interventions on 1337 individuals’ well-being and mental health. The study found that grati‐ tude increased participants’ positive emotions, life satisfaction, and subjective happiness, while it decreased negative emotions and depressive symptoms. Gratitude does not involve ignoring negatives, but it is concerned with investing energy and consciousness in focusing on and seeking out the positives in one’s daily life. As humans have a natural tendency towards a negativity bias, doing these practices regularly can help an individual gain more emotional balance by becoming aware of the positive experiences and aspects of one’s life. To express their gratitude in the workplace, teachers could write notes to their colleagues who they are grateful for in some way, or they could keep a gratitude journal. The journal could be about any aspects of their lives they feel thankful for, which can include their students, colleagues, families, friends, but

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also their wider ecologies, such as their communities and country of residence. To provide guidance for teachers, we draw on the Greater Good in Education’s (GGIE 2022) suggestion to propose the following steps for keeping a gratitude journal:

Fig. 1: Gratitude practice for teachers (adapted from GGIE 2022)

Teachers could also practice these five steps with their students and redesign these to fit the students’ needs. For instance, at the beginning or at the end of the class, teachers could ask students to reflect on their day or lesson and identify at least one pleasant moment, which they could write about in their gratitude journals. The following day, students could open their journals and recall the positive emotions and experiences from the previous day or class. This may serve to boost positive emotions before the lesson begins. Indeed, students can be encouraged to revisit their gratitude journal at any point if they feel they need an uplift. Importantly, there are also suggested ways in which institutions and leader‐ ship could express gratitude to teachers. For instance, GGIE (2022) suggests utilising school meetings to thank teachers for their efforts and devotion, and to draw on specific examples that happened that week in order to make these

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practices meaningful and authentic. Students could be asked to write thank you letters for their teachers, which school leaders could distribute to the teachers during a staff meeting. Gratefulness to teachers could also be shown by actively listening to them and employing efforts to resolve any issues, help teachers, and remain on their side. Expressing gratefulness to teachers should not be a one-off activity but instead practiced regularly throughout the school year.   4.2 Activity 2: Practicing Kindness

Practicing kindness is about “behaviors that benefit other people or make others happy, usually at some cost to oneself” such as “helping a friend write a paper […] or writing a thank-you note to a former professor” (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005: 125). Conducting acts of kindness can boost individuals’ altruistic perceptions of themselves and their communities, increase their sense of cooperation and good fortune, while making a positive impact on their well-being (e.g., Fritz et al. 2019; Lyubomirsky et al. 2005). Research shows that the kindness-focused PPIs increase well-being across contexts, professions, and life phases – from early childhood to late adulthood (e.g., Curry et al. 2018). For example, Oliver Scott Curry et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis of 27 studies which focused on the kinds of effects acts of kindness have on well-being and found that prac‐ ticing kindness has positive effects on individuals’ well-being and relationships regardless of age, sex, and control conditions. In educational contexts, studies suggest that students whose teachers show kindness also exhibit empathy and pro-social behaviour (Haslip et al. 2019). As such, encouraging students to practice kindness may have benefits “beyond personal happiness, as prosocial behavior predicts academic achievement and social acceptance” (Layous et al. 2012: 1; see also, Post 2014). Kristin Layous et al. (2012) explored how acts of kindness influence 9- to 11-year-olds. They found that the students got happier and more popular among their peers; while in another study (Fritz et al. 2019), 14- to 15-year-olds in addition to getting happier also reported healthier eating habits and willingness to become a better person. Given that practicing kindness has beneficial effects for individuals of all ages and life phases, both teachers and their learners could practice kindness to benefit their own well-being and the well-being of others around them. To practice kindness, teachers could try to do one act of kindness per day for a week. They may decide to put this at practice in different contexts: at work, in their personal and professional relationships, or with strangers. For instance, at work, teachers can give a meaningful and purposeful compliment to one of their colleagues, bring snacks to share with other teachers, offer to

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help and/or mentor a new colleague, or send an email to their previous teachers who helped them grow as an individual and a professional. Meanwhile, teachers could keep a record of their experiences, emotions, and other people’s reactions, which can help them to savour the positivity surrounding their acts of kindness. Naturally, if the act of kindness becomes an automated routine done out of sense of obligation, rather than a genuine source of wanting to engage kindly with others and feeling the positive emotional boost from doing so, then the well-being effects are not likely to be present. Teaching students how to practice kindness can enhance their well-being (e.g., Haslip et al. 2019). For instance, a teacher could introduce a ‛kindness month’, during which the teacher and students could perform one act of kindness per day and share their ideas and experiences with each other. It is important to stress that acts of kindness need not cost anything or be grand gestures, simply sharing a pencil with a peer or sitting with someone who is alone, could be acts of kindness. It is worthwhile having students reflect on the meaning of the term kindness and recalling the last time they did something nice for someone else or experienced kindness from someone else and how this made them feel. The focus of acts of kindness could be general or within the school or the language class specifically, which is likely to also contribute to positive group dynamics. Creating and maintaining a workplace that encourages kindness is a worthy goal for school leadership and the wider school ecology and doing so may result in all stakeholders being kinder to each other and feeling better and happier (GGIE 2022). Inviting teachers for a relaxing social event at the school for no particular reason other than bringing teachers together and showing appreciation could be a random act of kindness school leaders may consider. Moreover, simply asking teachers “how can I be of help?” or actively trying to reduce their workload as much as possible will signal that the teacher is being cared for and appreciated by their schools. 5 Conclusion

This chapter has briefly outlined the nature of well-being and considered a small illustrative number of PPIs that could be utilised by teachers and their institutions to enhance well-being experiences. While research shows that PPIs overall increase individuals’ well-being, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Kristin Layous (2013) remind us that, “certain types of activities are better for certain types of people” (p. 60); in other words, there is what is known as a ‛person-activity fit’. As such, teachers are encouraged to try out different PPIs in order to

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realise what works best for them and their students. Finding the positive practice that one enjoys will predict whether and how often they will engage with as well as how much happiness they will draw from it (ibid.). At the institutional level, PPIs have to be prudently thought out, repeated throughout the school year with individual teachers but also as group activities to promote a sense of community and collegiality, and to foster positive relationships in the school. Consciously taking the time to devote to positive practices across teachers’ professional domains is likely to bring benefits for the practicing individuals and institutions. However, a word of caution needs to be introduced as research warns of the possibility of hedonic adaptation, which may happen if a PPI is overly repeated (Lyubomirsky 2022). Therefore, we suggest that both teachers and their institutions can seek to practice a variety of PPIs beyond those suggested here. An especially important context for beginning work on PPIs and ways of consciously working on self-care and well-being is pre-service teacher education. If we expect early-career teachers to remain in the profession for the long-term and flourish in their roles, we need to also prepare them with the skills and competences to understand issues surrounding the topics of well-being, burnout, and mental health. Alongside a critical discussion of systemic and individual factors affecting well-being and a sensitivity to recognising characteristics of burnout, it would be empowering to also provide early-career teachers with concrete, empirically-proven strategies to help them protect, nurture, and enhance their well-being throughout their professional lives. Teaching them about these topics and such skills early in their careers should be a regular part of pre-service education as it already is in many other caring professions such as health care or social work. Essentially, seeking out ways to practice well-being and foster positivity across school ecologies – both pre-service and in-service – is now more important than ever – well-being is the foundation of good practice, and the sooner all relevant stakeholders realise, accept, and internalise this, the sooner we can hope for satisfied, engaged, and healthy teachers and learners which should be the hallmark of all good education systems. Indeed, we believe that “everyone deserves the chance to thrive” (WHO 2022: vii) – in school and in all walks of life. References APA (n.d.). https://dictionary.apa.org/mental-health (last accessed: 24.02.2023) Borg, Simon (2006) The distinctive characteristics of foreign language teachers. Language Teaching Research 10 (1), 3–31.

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Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in the University Language Classroom

Eva Seidl & Jelena Petrović

1 Introduction

This chapter reports on a collaborative project aimed at raising mental health awareness and promoting well-being among higher education students learning a foreign language. Since the project was undertaken in the summer term of 2021 (from March to June), it coincided with the COVID-19-lockdown-induced need for online learning and teaching. Regardless of pre-pandemic, pandemic or post-pandemic times, learning a language is always a “long-term, gradual acquisition process, necessitating perseverance, optimism and resilience” (Mac‐ Intyre et al. 2019: 262). During the pandemic, however, optimism and resilience were much-needed qualities in both students and teachers alike to best cope with uncertainties and anxieties within and beyond the classroom. In discussing teaching excellence in higher education, Margaret Wood and Frank Su (2022: 143) highlight how the pandemic-driven collective experience of insecurity and the sense of shared threats and vulnerabilities have raised awareness of the importance of a care and relation-based pedagogy, as discussed below. A care and relation-based pedagogy takes into account feelings, emotions and relatedness in higher education, which is also relevant to the practice of collegiality among academics (Wood/Su: 142), who much too often act as “isolated operatives” (Nixon 2008: 121). During the pandemic, students were not the only ones who missed lively, light-hearted face-to-face encounters and on-site instead of online interaction with their peers. As for peers, many academics also missed the hustle and bustle of their workplace environment or a coffee chat between classes with their colleagues and academic friends. So, when the call to submit papers for a symposium on mental health in foreign language education (26–27 November 2021) was issued by three German universities, we seized the opportunity to engage with this topic actively. Our intention was twofold. In emotionally challenging times, we wanted to be there for our

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students and, secondly, for each other as colleagues.1 On the one hand, we wanted to provide moral support for our students by encouraging them and offering them a toolkit with language learning-related activities that enhance their mental health and well-being.2 This goal matches Katarzyna Papaja’s (2022: 223) findings about emergency remote teaching, which underscore the importance of the teachers’ attitude towards students, for instance, showing empathy and encouraging them to think positively. Positive thinking in the face of adversity, as proposed by positive psychology (Seligman 2011), was one thing teachers needed as much as their students. Thus, embarking on this joint project also fulfilled our second intention: staying in touch and collaborating virtually on a topic that we considered meaningful and worthwhile. Eileen Honan (2017: 21) aptly describes this spirit of sustaining collegiality: “We need to remind ourselves of the joy of community, of collaboration, not collaboration because we have to do it, or it’s strategic, or important for our careers, but seeking out those with collective interests”. Our joint interest in promoting students’ mental health and well-being in difficult times was the springboard for this collaboration. Its theoretical background is described, followed by our pedagogic approach and the educational context of the mental health activities, which will be discussed and complemented by students’ perspectives. The chapter ends with concluding remarks on how mental health and well-being could be addressed in a post-pandemic higher education. 2 Theoretical Background

Katarina Froebus and Daniela Holzer (2022: 7) remind us that many higher education teachers will remember the exceptional situation of emergency remote teaching as just a short episode in a long-standing teaching career. In contrast, however, these online terms may have constituted a big part of many students’ lives. Being a student can best be described as an intense state of becoming or being on a journey where university teachers have “the privilege to cross [students’] paths, provide them with questions, contexts and other tools through which they can interact and make sense of their worlds” (Valcke et al. 2021: 69). This temporality of the student status makes it all the more important to consider in which classroom activities we engage for the relatively short period of time that we work, think and act together (Valcke et al. 2021: 69). 1 2

During this time, we were teaching German L2 (author 1) and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Russian L2 (author 2) at two different Austrian universities. Throughout this chapter and in line with Burns et al. (2020) and Arslan et al. (2022), we use the terms mental health and well-being interchangeably.

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Recent studies that define university students as a high-risk population for mental health issues (Burns et al. 2020; Kemp/Fisher 2022; Arslan et al. 2022) emphasise the importance of identifying and strengthening students’ resources and coping strategies in challenging times. In a similar vein, Jan Kinchin and Naomi Winstone (2017: 212), in their discussion of resilience and pedagogic frailty, highlight the significance of “proactively working to foster resilience, rather than reactively dealing with difficulty”. Consistent with this argument, Danielle Burns et al. (2020) make a case for higher education institutions to learn from the pandemic for potential future challenges and crises. This could be done by drawing greater attention to the impact of loneliness on the student population and by diversifying services suited for a variety of student demographics (Burns et al. 2020: 8). Undoubtedly, the recent collective trauma experienced by the global (academic) community had an enormous psychosocial impact. However, the world of academia could also rebuild better and stronger after the pandemic. Important lessons learnt during this period could be used to improve or develop a supportive ethos and culture, together with easily available mental health services and (online) resources, encompassing the entire university population. In this regard, a study by John Field and Natalie Morgan-Klein (2014: 105) found that more attention should be given to students with mental health issues, who sometimes receive less support than those with disabilities. In any case, what was found to significantly promote mental health and well-being during the pandemic were students’ resilience, hope, and optimism (Arslan et al. 2022: 931). Students and teachers were all in this together. Therefore, any care-based approach to higher education that strives to foster a culture of relation-based pedagogy (Wood/Su 2022) could positively impact students’ well-being. During the pandemic, the strengths and the benefits for support of a variety of concepts became particularly evident. For instance, both the above-mentioned pedagogic frailty (Kinchin/Winstone 2017) and Edward Brantmeier’s (2013) ‛pedagogy of vulnerability’ do not imply to indicate signs of weakness, but rather of courage and strength. The basic assumption of a pedagogy of vulnerability is the importance of taking risks – risks of self-disclosure, of change, of not knowing and of failing, which requires courage (Brantmeier 2013: 96). If educational encounters are based on mutual respect and understanding, trust and care, they can strengthen our sense of shared vulnerability – the latter having been sharply felt during the pandemic. Such educational experiences can foster our capacity for empathy and compassion. For Richard White (2017: 30), compassion should be the focus of any student-teacher relationship. In line with proponents of pedagogic frailty and vulnerability, he considers compassion a strength rather

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than a weakness. Compassion allows us “to see the world as it really is – as a field of interdependence and impermanence – where nothing is completely separate or self-contained” (White 2017: 26). Disturbing experiences of adversity, uncer‐ tainty, and unpredictability, together with isolation and disconnection during the pandemic brought to the fore the importance of connecting with others in meaningful, positive relationships. 3 Educational Context of our Mental Health Project

This section provides some background information on the mental health activities presented later in the chapter. We are both adjunct faculty, i.e. university lecturers with precarious short-term contracts, a fact that often causes insecurity and uncertainty. Over the years, we have established a close friendship while teaching German (L2) at the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Graz. Due to contractual constraints, however, in summer term 2021, the second author of this chapter did not teach at that university but at the University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Joanneum Graz).3 Irrespective of our different teaching assignments, during the lockdown in 2021, we undertook a collaborative project on mental health and well-being. By doing so, we could also strengthen our academic friendship while, at the same time, reflecting on our pedagogic approach. Regarding the scholarly discourse on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, we agree with Gerda Hagenauer and Simone Volet (2014: 371) that the student-teacher relationship should be an integral part of any quality-related research. At university, such relationships are formed between adults, whereas in the school context, the educational encounter involves an adult and a child or an adolescent. Another distinctive feature of tertiary education is the much less frequent teacher-student interactions. Concerning our language classes, it seems evident that if they take place only once a week, then the approachability of lecturers is relevant not only for the student-teacher relationship but also “for an overall feeling of connectedness to the university and preventing students from becoming alienated from the university” (Hagenauer/Volet 2014: 378). In pandemic-induced learning and teaching conditions, the occurrence and the quality of meaningful online interactions were even more important to prevent students from losing the connection to their alma mater. In a study with translation students’ perceived emotional highs and lows due to COVID-19,

3

The languages she taught during this lectureship were Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Russian.

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Eva Seidl (2022: 5) concluded that rather than widening the distance between teachers and students, the pandemic equally affected students and teachers as vulnerable, fundamentally interrelated human beings, thus bringing them even closer together. Our pedagogic approach is based on the conviction that relationships consid‐ erably impact students’ experiences of higher education. In this context, Peter Felten and Leo Lambert (2020: 17) identified four relationship-rich principles for tertiary education: every student must (1) experience genuine welcome and deep care, (2) be inspired to learn, (3) develop a web of significant relationships, and (4) explore questions of meaning and purpose. These principles are related to a solid commitment to listening to students that matches Edward Brantmeier’s (2013: 96) call on teachers to “open yourself […], co-learn, admit you do not know, and be human”. During the global health crisis, teachers and students alike experienced what it means not to know what the immediate future holds or how long the suffering would last. Therefore, teacher approachability (Brooks 2012) was more important than ever. Julia Brooks (2012) conceives of it as “to teach like a mountain”, which calls for “the quality of presence, concern for students’ experiences of emotional exposure, and a firm, genuine and gentle composure that expresses to the student ‛I hear you’, ‛I’m right here’, and ‛I’m not going anywhere’” (p. 114, italics in original). The latter statement encapsulates the very essence of COVID-19 lockdown conditions with severe restrictions on social gatherings or travelling opportunities. The way Margaret Kumar (2021: 267) describes her approach to online teaching during the pandemic is very much in line with how we tried to be there for our students: “[…] we spent a few minutes before a class session, or a breakout room activity to network and bond with the students through conversation about situational circumstance, the general situation, how things were going, health and well-being.” But why should we discuss well-being and mental health in the higher education language classroom? Sarah Mercer et al. (2018: 24), in their discussion of a framework of Positive Language Education, argue as follows: The wellbeing of learners and teachers should not be considered an optional extra but is a fundamental foundation of the skill sets both need to cope in their personal and professional lives in the future. The language learning context is ideally positioned to facilitate the learning of wellbeing through language use and learning.

In Positive Language Education (PLE), which integrates linguistic and non-lin‐ guistic aims, well-being should be an approach and an outcome of education that, essentially, “should be per se a positive learning experience” (Mercer

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et al. 2018: 13). The ‛Mental Health Project’ that will be discussed in the following sections was our attempt to offer students a positive language learning experience in not so positive times. 4 Mental Health Project

As mentioned at the outset, a call for papers for a symposium on mental health in L2 education was the decisive factor for our engagement in this project during the summer term of 2021 when we had teaching assignments at two different Austrian universities. Table 1 illustrates the context of our collaboration, aimed at enhancing students’ educational experiences despite the emotionally challenging lockdown situation.  

Eva Seidl (Author 1)

Jelena Petrović (Author 2)

Institution

University of Graz, Depart‐ ment of Translation Studies

University of Applied Sci‐ ences (FH Joanneum Graz), Campus LinguaNEUM

Language classes

German L2 (CEFR: C1)

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian L2 and Russian L2 (both, CEFR: A1.2)

Participants

18 (age range: 19-36)

B/C/S: 7 and Russian: 8; to‐ gether 15 (age range: 19-51)

Online platform

Moodle

MS Teams

General conditions Compulsory part of the degree Additional qualification to a program ‛Transcultural Com‐ variety of degree programs munication’ Objectives of the collaboration

1. Integrating linguistic and non-linguistic aims (PLE)4 2. Raising mental health awareness 3. Fostering a culture of care and relationships in academia

Tab. 1: Context of the collaboration and the project

The following discussion combines both language classes taught by the second author, so that we can contrast a similar number of participants, i.e. 18 (Transla‐ tion Studies) with 15 (Campus LinguaNEUM). In order to integrate language use and learning we provided all project-related documents in the target language German for the students of German as L2 (Translation Studies). At Campus LinguaNEUM, except two, all 15 participants were German L1 speakers. To 4

PLE stands for Positive Language Education as described in section 3.

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guarantee equal access among all students, we provided all documents in English as well. In fact, in order to make the engagement with the topic as easy as possible, students from both universities could access the documents in both languages. Generally speaking, what constituted a strong motivator for our collaboration was the wish to react to Sarah Mercer’s (2021a: 17) conclusion that very few language teachers “explicitly teach well-being competences such as how to care for themselves physically and mentally, care for others beyond their immediate social circle, and the planet as a whole”. When planning our mental health activities, we drew on Martin Seligman’s (2011) ‛PERMA + health model of wellbeing’ as described by Sarah Mercer (2021b: 1). Flourishing, according to this model, results from the interaction of five elements of well-being, namely, positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. We were also inspired by Tammy Gregersen et al.’s (2016) report on increased well-being scores after a language learning intervention based on positive psychology exercises.   4.1 Mental Health Project: Outline and Overview

The overall project timeline and single project steps are illustrated in Table 2. As Table 2 shows, we spent week one to four of the summer term of 2021 to plan and organise the project by means of regular virtual meetings via videocalls. We used them to share ideas on separately reviewed literature and to fix the scheduled procedure. Finally, in early April, we kicked off the project by emailing our respective course participants, including general information on the ‛Mental Health Project’, its outline and the tools we wanted to use. Students were assured confidentiality and were instructed that participation was voluntary and anonymous, and that, due to lockdown conditions, the surveys and activities were exclusively online and specifically designed for self-reflection and self-organisation.

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16-week-courses German L2, Bosnian/Cro‐ atian/Serbian L2, Russian L2

Timeline

Action plan

Tools: em‐ bedded in Moodle and MS Teams

week 1-4

March to April

preparation   and organisa‐ tion by the two authors

 

week 5-6

mid-April

survey #1 on current status

33 (18+15)

week 7-8

end of April

survey #2 + ac‐ questionnaire, tivities on joy joy of living-in‐ of living creasing activi‐ ties

11 (6+5)

week 9-10

mid-May

survey #3 + ac‐ questionnaire, tivities on coping strat‐ coping egies, YouTubevideo on laughter yoga, book tips, self-test on inner drivers

12 (9+3)

week 11-12

end of May survey #4 + ac‐ tivities on one’s life journey

week 13-14

no input; but reflection time for students

week 15-16

end of June evaluation survey #5

questionnaire

questionnaire, self-reflective activities on one’s life journey

questionnaire

Partici‐ pants: total number of 33 (18+15)

16 (10+6)

9 (5+4)

Tab. 2: Project timeline

As for the tools, we used the survey tool “LimeSurvey” provided by the Univer‐ sity of Applied Sciences. As the project proceeded, students were informed about each survey via email, containing a link to the survey and the respective activities. In addition, all the questions of the surveys as well as the activities were made available as a PDF file on the respective online learning platform. Completing the survey and reading the activities took approximately ten to fifteen minutes. Since students were given two weeks to respond each time, their engagement with the reflective questions and awareness-raising activities could be relatively freely scheduled.

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4.2 Surveys and Mental Health Awareness-raising Activities

A total of five surveys, created by the authors, were sent out, as shown in Table 2, with awareness-raising activities attached to three of the surveys, i.e. numbers two, three and four.5 The first survey on students’ current status consisted of 15 closed-ended and five open-ended questions concerning, inter alia, physical and mental health, well-being and resilience, stress triggers and the perceived impact of the pandemic on their lives.6 The survey was completed by all 33 participants, and the results were discussed in the project team via videocall. There, we slightly adapted the subsequent surveys and activities to adequately respond to the needs and experiences of the respondents. This flexibility allowed us to subsequently offer mental health activities that addressed some aspects that the students mentioned in the first survey, such as lack of motivation or high frustration levels. The second survey, which also included awareness-raising activities, dealt with one’s joy of living. Here, we asked nine closed-ended questions and six open-ended questions about students’ perception of their joy of living, about the topics of gratitude, optimism, and whether language learning brings joy to them. In terms of activities, one could, for example, engage in a relaxing mental journey by reliving beautiful memories or complete sentences beginning with ‛I am confident that …’ or ‛I am really looking forward to …’. A total number of 11 out of 33 participants completed this second survey. Coping was the topic of the third survey, completed by 12 out of 33 partici‐ pants and including ten closed-ended and six open-ended questions as well as awareness-raising activities. We aimed to provide positive stimuli such as book recommendations, coping strategies for difficult times or by suggesting self-care activities such as laughter yoga or a self-test on personal inner drivers. The fourth survey, consisting of ten closed-ended and four open-ended questions, was the last one (together with survey numbers two and three) that included awareness-raising activities and was dedicated to a reflection of one’s life journey. Participants were invited to look back on past experiences and the impact of critically important ‛relevant others’ in their lives. Activities included stimuli to reflect on life goals, one’s vision of life, or decision-making processes.7 This survey was completed by 16 out of 33 participants. The fifth and final 5 6 7

Various online resources were helpful in getting ideas, as well as Bea Engelmann (2019). All the surveys are available on request from the authors. For example, students rated on a scale ranging from ‛totally agree, rather agree, rather disagree to disagree’ statements such as ’I am currently content with my life’ or ’I find the current situation regarding COVID-19 stressful’. In an awareness-raising activity, students were invited to reflect on questions such as ‛What do you want to achieve and experience? What do you need for that? Who could help you to accomplish that?’.

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evaluation survey was designed as participants’ feedback to the project team. It consisted of six closed-ended and six open-ended questions and was completed by nine out of 33 participants. As for the varying and sometimes relatively small number of participants, this was not considered problematic. After all, the whole project was just an offer to our students to engage with mental health and well-being in the context of language learning. Having provided a brief overview of the surveys and activities, we will now discuss the most important project outcomes. 5 Findings: Project Outcomes and Students’ Perspectives

This section refers to the project timeline in Table 2 that involved a total of five surveys with awareness-raising activities attached to three of them (i.e. numbers two, three and four) which were distributed to a total number of 33 students between mid-April and end of June during the summer term of 2021. It provides insights into students’ perspectives (1) on the status of their well-being at the beginning of the project, (2) on the notion of the joy of living, (3) on coping strategies, (4) on their life journey, and (5) on the project in general. One important overall finding is that the respondents clearly distinguished between pre-pandemic and pandemic times.   5.1 Survey #1 on the Current Status of Well-Being

In the first survey on their current status in mid-April 2021 completed by all 33 participants, students reported bad physical conditions, feelings of loneliness and loss of control, burnout syndrome, anxieties, high academic workload and time pressure, academic performance-related stress, sleeping problems, difficulty managing inner and outer high expectations, lack of motivation, low levels of concentration but high levels of frustration. One question in this survey focused on the actual use of self-care strategies, and students mentioned a number of them, such as healthy diet, physical activity, tidying up and cleaning, cooking, regular sleeping patterns, music, reading, writing, singing, studying and online social interactions. Their answers confirm Sarah Mercer et al.’s (2018: 11) claim that well-being is “the foundation for effective learning and a good life more generally”. In addition, the frequent references to the value of cleaning one’s room or healthy cooking match Grażyna Wąsowicz et al.’s (2021) findings on the critical role of psychological flexibility (defined as acceptance and action in a given situation) for mental health in challenging times. They posit that

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it “may give individuals a better sense of coping with a difficult situation by completing tasks and fulfilling daily responsibilities” (Wąsowicz 2021: 5).   5.2 Survey #2 on the Joy of Living

When students in the second survey reflected on their lives and the joy of living, they, i.e. 11 out of 33, mentioned to be grateful for health and financial conditions as well as for their relationships with family and friends. Their answers, furthermore, fully confirm Sarah Mercer et al.’s (2018: 21) argument that “learning a language can be thought of as a way in itself of enhancing wellbeing”. Interestingly, in our student data, the question of whether or not language learning brings joy was answered affirmatively by all participants, irrespective of the language class being mandatory (Translation Studies) or voluntary (Campus LinguaNEUM).   5.3 Survey #3 on the Topic of Coping

In the third survey, focusing on coping, a total of twelve out of 33 students reported having to cope, among other things, with an overwhelming workload, with pressure to perform and achieve academically, and with a decreased sense of humour in the online academic environment. However, they mentioned a variety of successful coping strategies such as self-care, perseverance, inner serenity, practising mindfulness, social contacts, spending time in nature, or relaxation and breathing exercises.   5.4 Survey #4 on One’s Life Journey

The most interesting insights that we gained from the fourth survey, with its focus on one’s life journey and completed by 16 out of 33 respondents, were that many students reported a pandemic-induced lack of enjoyment, a sense of dullness, a lack of drive and enthusiasm, a loss of interest in their studies, and a generally negative outlook on life due to insecurities linked to career prospects and future employment precariousness. Within both student samples, some students actually contemplated a change of degree program. In order to counter potential program changes and drop-outs, Katrin Obst and Thomas Kötter (2020) offer several suggestions to foster students’ sense of belonging to a particular study program. They recommend, for example, strong student-teacher relationships and explicitly pointing out how course contents are related to the curriculum and to future employment prospects.

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Concerning mental health and well-being, they suggest that the stronger students’ identification with their studies, the better their resilience in stressful times (Obst/Kötter 2020: 148). This was also confirmed by Eva Seidl (2021) in a study with translation students’ sense of academic belonging and experience of resilience during pandemic-induced online teaching.   5.5 Survey #5 on the Project in General

The findings from the final survey are based on the modest number of nine out of 33 respondents. Their feedback was very positive. The overall project was evaluated as relevant and important, and the single activities as refreshing and deeply satisfying. Students positively evaluated the anonymous and individual approach since they could choose whether or when to engage with the self-re‐ flective activities. Some of them mentioned the sustainable impact of the project as they downloaded the PDF files for future use. What is more, one student found the project to be eye-opening and of vital importance to sensitise those studying and working in higher education for mental health issues that are seldom apparent. Another student emphasised the value and gift of ‛savouring’, i.e. being fully present in positive experience, which he or she especially enjoyed in the stimuli to reflect on precious memories, suggested in the fourth survey on one’s life journey. The following student statement from the evaluation survey underscores the importance of addressing mental health in an educational setting: Mental health is an important issue not only during pandemic times but now it is more important than ever. Unfortunately, it is often considered a taboo. In my view, the activities can have a positive impact on one’s mental health, without having to open oneself up to a therapist. (Campus LinguaNEUM, participant #2)

Evidently, our work as university-level language teachers aligns with the requirements of higher education pedagogy, but we are not therapists. In line with Rachel Plews and Laura Zizka (2021: 142), however, we consider it essential to make space to address the difficulties students might face by acknowledging their feelings and emotions while balancing these socio-emotional aspects with covering academic content. 6 Discussion and Implications

The university classroom lends itself particularly well to combining students’ professional and personal development with Positive Language Education

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(Mercer et al. 2018), thus striving to achieve linguistic and non-linguistic goals. Considering that well-being is a teachable skill (Mercer et al. 2018), we are well-positioned to influence our students’ well-being as language teachers. With the benefits of both parties in mind, the application of principles of positive psychology in the language classroom could “facilitate the flourishing of both students and teachers alike” (MacIntyre 2021: 6). Future initiatives on mental health and well-being in language education could benefit from recent developments in existential positive psychology, or positive psychology 2.0. Contrary to traditional positive psychology, this trajectory posits that sustainable well-being – in addition to a focus on enhancing happiness – depends on humans’ capacity to embrace and transcend suffering (Wong et al. 2022). This means that suffering can increase our resilience by deepening our character strengths and broadening our capacity to cope. In our view, the collective experience of the pandemic has provoked many of us to reflect on the meaning of life, death, suffering, and on how best to cope with the latter. Future classroom-based initiatives could also facilitate mindfulness practice to promote a positive mental state of inner peace by integrating elements of positive psychology and principles of the ‛Language of Peace Approach’. This approach is based on six peace dimensions: inner, interpersonal, intergroup, intercultural, international and ecological peace (Gregersen/MacIntyre 2021). Concerning mental health, Tammy Gregersen and Peter MacIntyre (2021: 180) point out that “[j]ust as peace is not simply the absence of conflict and violence, psychological health is not simply the absence of mental illness”. The students in our project reported that during the pandemic, their well-being was positively influenced by optimism, gratitude, physical activity, social cohesion and nature connectedness. All these elements are reflected in Andrew Kemp’s and Zoe Fisher’s (2022: 6) ‛whole health’ approach in that “adopting a relational approach to well-being by connecting to self, others and nature will be instrumental for driving much needed societal transformation in response to major societal challenges”. However, reflecting on individual, collective and planetary well-being should not be restricted to the classroom level. Ultimately, and by analogy with a ‛whole health approach’, higher education institutions should implement a ’whole uni‐ versity approach’ to improve the health outcomes of all university community members. Institutions should value students’ perceptions and experiences and actively engage them in developing mental health and well-being strategies. One of the reasons for this is that students with and without lived experience of mental ill-health are experts by experience (Baik et al. 2019).

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7 Concluding Remarks

The findings of this project suggest that the language classroom in higher education is well suited to support students in practical, socio-emotional, and academic matters. Nonetheless, in a similar future project, time should also be dedicated to discussing mental health and well-being directly in the classroom. What is more, in terms of balancing socio-emotional aspects with covering course content, the project documents could be adapted according to the respective language class – in our case, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Russian – a decision that depends on the students’ language proficiency level. Regarding general circumstances, this project took place during a lockdown in the summer term 2021. However, even in post-pandemic times, we need to remember that each student may face different challenges inside and outside the language classroom that influence their academic work. Thus, intentional efforts are required to create a motivating and energising learning and teaching atmosphere of safety, respect, and belonging. Such an atmosphere could be enhanced by following the twelve principles as shown in Table 3, i.e. our personal acronym for mental health. M

- Motivation: Meaningful interactions can motivate

E

- Energy: Engage in reflective practice to stay energised

N

- Names: Try to remember students’ names

T

- Trust: Promote an atmosphere of trust and respect

A

- Ally: Be one for vulnerable students

L

- Listening: Listen to students’ concerns

  H

- Happiness: Boost happiness in your classroom through random acts of kindness

E

- Emotions: Do not underestimate the role of emotions

A

- Adults: Treat your students as such

L

- Learning: Learn from your students

T

- Teachers: Teachers matter as they can influence students’ lives

H

- Health: Health literacy matters

Tab. 3: Mental health in a nutshell

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We hope that by embarking, together with our language students, on a learning journey on the importance of mental health and well-being in academia, we were able to live up to at least some of the twelve principles in Table 3 and, more importantly, to value our students’ experiences and raise their mental health awareness. References Arslan, Gökmen/Yildirim, Murat/Karataş, Zeynep/Kabasakal, Zekavet/Kilinç, Mustafa (2022). Meaningful living to promote complete mental health among university students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 20, 930–942. Baik, Chi/Larcombe, Wendy/Brooker, Abi (2019). How universities can enhance student mental wellbeing: The student perspective. Higher Education Research & Develop‐ ment 38 (4), 674–687. Brantmeier, Edward J. (2013). Pedagogy of vulnerability: Definitions, assumptions, and applications. In: Lin, Jing/Oxford, Rebecca L./Brantmeier Edward J. (Eds.). Re-envi‐ sioning higher education. Embodied pathways to wisdom and social transformation. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 95–106. Brooks, Julia G. (2012). To teach like a mountain. In: Oxford, Rebecca/Lin, Jing (Eds.). Transformative eco-education for human and planetary survival. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 101–115. Burns, Danielle/Dagnall, Neil/Holt, Maxine (2020). Assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on student wellbeing at universities in the United Kingdom: A conceptual analysis. Frontiers in Education 5, 1–10. Engelmann, Bea (2019). Therapie-Tools Resilienz. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz. Felten, Peter/Lambert, Leo M. (2020). Relationship-rich education. How human connec‐ tions drive success in college. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Field, John/Morgan-Klein, Natalie (2014). Disability and learner identities in Scotland. In: Finnegan, Fergal/Merrill, Barbara/Thunborg, Camilla (Eds.). Student voices on inequalities in European higher education. Challenges for theory, policy, and practice in a time of change. London/New York: Routledge, 98–108. Froebus, Katarina/Holzer, Daniela (2022). Universitäre Online-Lehre: Machtverschie‐ bungen und neue Disziplinierungsräume. Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at 44–45, 1–11. Gregersen, Tammy/MacIntyre, Peter D. (2021). Acting locally to integrate positive psychology and peace: Practical applications for language teaching and learning. In: Oxford, Rebecca L./Olivero, María Matilde/Harrison, Melinda/Gregersen, Tammy

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(Eds.). Peacebuilding in language education. Innovations in theory and practice. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 179–195. Gregersen, Tammy/MacIntyre, Peter D./Meza, Margarita (2016). Positive psychology ex‐ ercises build social capital for language learners: Preliminary evidence. In: MacIntyre, Peter D./Gregersen, Tammy/Mercer, Sarah (Eds.). Positive psychology in SLA. Bristol et al: Multilingual Matters, 147–167. Hagenauer, Gerda/Volet, Simone E. (2014). Teacher-student relationship at university: An important yet under-researched field. Oxford Review of Education 40 (3), 370–388. Honan, Eileen (2017). Producing moments of pleasure within the confines of the neoliberal university. In: Riddle, Stewart/Harmes, Marcus K./Danaher, Patrick Alan (Eds.). Producing pleasure in the contemporary university. Rotterdam et al.: Sense Publishers, 13–24. Kemp, Andrew H./Fisher, Zoe (2022). Wellbeing, whole health and societal transforma‐ tion: Theoretical insights and practical applications. Global Advances in Health and Medicine 11, 1–16. Kinchin, Ian M./Winstone, Naomi E. (2017). Pedagogic frailty. Opportunities and chal‐ lenges. In: Kinchin, Ian M./Winstone, Naomi E. (Eds.). Pedagogic frailty and resilience in the university. Rotterdam et al.: Sense Publishers, 211–225. Kumar, Margaret. (2021). COVID-19, the crossing of borders, new knowledge systems and their relationship to higher education systems. In: Kumar, Margaret/Welikala, Thushari (Eds.) Teaching and learning in higher education: The context of being, interculturality and new knowledge systems. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. 261–274. MacIntyre, Peter D. (2021). Exploring applications of positive psychology in SLA. In: Budzinska, Katarzyna,/Majchrzak, Olga (Eds.). Positive psychology in second and foreign language education. Cham: Springer, 3–17. MacIntyre, Peter D./Gregersen, Tammy/Mercer, Sarah (2019). Setting an agenda for positive psychology in SLA: Theory, practice, and research. The Modern Language Journal 103 (1), 262–274. Mercer, Sarah (2021a). An agenda for well-being in ELT: An ecological perspective. ELT Journal 75 (1), 1–8.  Mercer, Sarah (2021b). Focus paper on student wellbeing. Oxford: OUP. Mercer, Sarah/MacIntyre, Peter D./Gregersen, Tammy/Talbot, Kyle (2018). Positive lan‐ guage education: Combining positive education and language education. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition 4 (2), 11–31. Nixon, Jon (2008). Towards the virtuous university. The moral basis of academic practice. New York: Routledge. Obst, Katrin U./Kötter, Thomas (2020). Identifikation mit dem Studiengang als Ansatz‐ punkt für Resilienzförderung bei Studierenden. Beiträge zur Hochschulforschung 42 (1–2), 148–161.

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“But, Are You Really Fine?”: Reconstructing Mental Health through a Critical Literacy Lesson Developed by Pre-Service Teachers of English

Eleni Louloudi

1 Introduction

Mental health, despite its importance as a social justice topic, has oftentimes been neglected in school education, because of its “controversial” character and the fear of it becoming “too difficult” for both teachers and students (Becker et al. 2022). This neglect, however, further perpetuates the consideration of mental health as taboo, instead of opening up a conversation to support both students and teachers. This work should not only include raising awareness and building empathy, but most importantly, understanding, analyzing, and deconstructing the problematic narratives around mental health, which are still prominent in discussions, texts, social media, advertisements, and our cultural worlds in general (Vasquez et al. 2019). This deconstructive perspective reflects understandings of critical literacy (Luke 2014; Gerlach 2020; Pandya et al. 2022;) in that it aims to give the necessary tools to both students and teachers to recognize unjust, normative structures and biases, question these and then work towards reconstructing better narratives together. This critical lens becomes necessary when dealing with tabooed issues such as mental health because it can help students and teachers move from an awareness-related stance to an active rebuilding of a more just society (Pandya/Ávila 2014). This article investigates ways pre-service English teachers have worked towards deconstructing problematic mental health narratives in language education and, furthermore, reconstructing new ways of dealing with the topic in the classroom using a critical literacy framework in the context of a university seminar. In doing so, methodological steps for the English classroom are proposed and connected to some necessary reflections for (English) teacher education.

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2 Theoretical Background

  2.1 Critical Literacies and English Language Education

Social justice topics, such as mental health, have been linked to English language education both in theory and in practice through sociocultural and critical perspectives of literacy. In the 1960s, as Kathy Mills (2015) observes, Vygotsky’s fundamental argument that language is impacted by social relations, while also “functioning as a tool for shaping, controlling and interacting with one’s social and physical environment” (2016: 20) paved the way for a sociocultural perspective on literacy. Subsequently, the New Literacy Studies (NLS) made this argument more relevant to the teaching and learning of literacy as a socially situated practice (for example Street 1984, Gee 1992.). Studies influenced by NLS underlined that literacy is not merely a collection of cognitive skills (Mills 2015), but linked to what people do with literacy (Barton/Hamilton 2000) not only in a text-based sense, but in relation to “values, attitudes, feelings and social relationships” (Perry 2012: 54). Within the spectrum of sociocultural literacies, critical literacy studies devel‐ oped distincitively and focus on the examination and deconstruction of power relations in texts and text structures (Louloudi forthcoming). Critical literacies are defined as the ability to analyse, deconstruct, and ultimately take action against normative forms of power and authority in our society (Luke 2014). To do so, students and teachers together learn to question and critique various types of materials with regard to how they may be perpetuating existing biases, how they represent sociocultural categories (for example race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion etc.), whose voice is dominant, whose is not, and why. The final goal of this deconstruction is to first transform oneself and then take collective action to change unjust power structures. This praxis-reflection can take various forms of advocacy in and out of the classroom – for instance, by opening up spaces for further discussion, writing letters, and creating campaigns (Yoon 2016; Louloudi forthcoming). In ELT, critical literacy practices are defined as “an attitude to language teaching” (Akbari 2008: 276) that aims to put the sociopolitical implications described above at the center of learning and teaching cognitive knowledge skills. In other words, students still learn how to read and write (and reflect, and create, and communicate etc.; UNESCO 2017) in English, while also being confronted with questioning the status quo and the normative structures that come with this learning. This is particularly important in the teaching of English, not only because its global spread leads to its consideration as a Lingua

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Franca (Zehne 2023) but also because this dominance positions English “as both instrument and commodity, as a form of capital and as a complex sociolinguistic field in globalised cultural and economic exchange” (Luke/Dooley 2011: 857).   2.2 Critical Literacy, Discomfort and Emotional Labour

A fundamental part of critical literacy practices is the confrontation with and the analysis of emotions that arise through the deconstruction of problematic narratives (Boler/Zembylas 2003). The engagement with sociopolitical topics is bound to the immersion of emotional responses which are central to the examination of power structures, biases, and normative ways of thinking (Lewis 2014; Lewis/Tierney 2013). From a sociocritical perspective, there is a variety of theories that deal with the methodological integration, deconstruction, and embracement of emotions in the (English) classroom. Sarah Benesch (2012) theorizes emotions from a sociopolitical perspective, particularly drawing from radical definitions of the Critical (Luke 2004) and the connection of emotion and power (Boler/Zembylas 2003) and their significance for the English classroom. In doing so, she explores her own socioemotional history, showing the importance of self-(praxis)-re‐ flection1 in understanding, analyzing, and theorizing feeling and effect. She furthermore proposes activities which highlight the role of the English language teacher and their emotional labor in provoking questions of sociopolitical power in the classroom (Benesch 2012; 2017; 2020). Emotional labor from a critical perspective has been examined by Megan Boler and Michalinos Zembylas (2003) as a pedagogy of discomfort. Pedagogies of discomfort bring together sociopolitical power and emotion both from the perspective of the teachers and the students. More specifically, they aim to “recognize and problematize the deeply embedded emotional dimensions that frame and shape daily habits, routines, and unconscious complicity with he‐ gemony” (Boler/Zembylas 2003: 118). This emotional investment is profoundly connected to the feelings arising through critical inquiry (shame, guilt, resent‐ ment, nostalgia, loss, fear, anger, apathy, resentment, hope etc. (Zembylas 2012), the deconstruction of one’s biases, privileges, disadvantages, and general beliefs and the identification of one’s role in societal transformation. Engaging in and reflecting on these feelings with the goal to change personal attitudes and 1

Praxis-reflection, after Mitzi Lewison et al. 2002, describes the practical step needed for “taking action and promoting social justice” (2002: 383–384) – hence, the focus is not only on the understanding and analysis of emotions but on reflecting on how to engage in actions towards social justice.

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habits but also societal rules and norms is part of emotional labor. For instance, analysing and deconstructing a beloved fairytale, such as the Little Red Riding Hood, in regard to the representation of women and their characteristics in the story can oftentimes cause discomforting feelings of frustration and anger. These can relate to both dismantling an otherwise ‛comfortable’ childhood story but also to realizing what societal aspects we often not put into question when reading materials in general. To work towards social justice goals, embracing this discomfort in the (English) classroom is not only beneficial, but necessary. Through this, (English) teachers engage in a two-level discomfort: first, understanding, analyzing and sharing their emotions about the respective sociopolitical issue (for example, racism, sexism, mental health) together with their students and second, in doing so, also letting go of their ‛traditional’ role as knowledge-keepers, sharing their potential inexperience and becoming part of the learning journey themselves. In that quest, the role of language education has been highlighted by many researchers (Ennser-Kananen 2016; Porto/Zembylas 2020; König/Lou‐ loudi forthcoming). This is not only because, in many cases, it helps establish a “third space” (cf. Hallet 2002; Freitag-Hild 2018) where discomforting feelings can potentially find traction more easily, but also because it can highlight how one’s own social engagement can have an immediate effect on communities on a global – yet tangible – level (Larsen-Freeman 2018). As Johanna Ennser-Ka‐ nanen argues, “while hardly anyone will ever be ready for the pain of cultural conflicts, appropriate linguistic and socio-emotional scaffolding is important in the world language classroom to make the dark sides of culture intellectually, linguistically, and emotionally tangible to our students” (2016: 561–2).   2.3 Critical Literacy and Mental Health

To turn the aforementioned elements into concrete classroom practice, various frameworks have been proposed that address both the content (Yoon 2016; Lewison et al. 2002) and the methods of critical literacies (McLaughlin/DeVoogd 2004). The framework suggested by Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd (2004), for instance, expands on four instructional steps to take together with students: 1) engaging students’ thinking by introducing the topic and selecting the materials with them, 2) guiding students’ thinking by asking critical thinking questions such as “what message does the text/material try to convey?”, “who is in the text and who is not?”, “is this how other media also represent the topic?”, 3) extending students’ thinking by connecting it to their personal lives

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and experiences, and 4) praxis-reflecting with them to identify ways of personal and communal engagement for the respective issue2. These methodological steps are framed within sociopolitical content, and in particular with a reference to social justice topics. Mental health through a critical literacy lens means, for example, that students and teachers question and deconstruct 1) how well-being and mental health matters are represented in our society as well as school culture through various media of communication, 2) the biases and norms and conventionalities around what it means to be mentally healthy or mentally ill, and 3) the intersectional character of mental health (for example, as connected to racism or sexism) and its depiction in school materials. This could entail analyzing the very definition of mental health by the World Health Organization (WHO), which distinctively links it to work productivity3, or instead of to questioning how self-care is portrayed on Instagram and TikTok by millions of influencers. Even though these seem necessary steps to be taken in a classroom envi‐ ronment, mental health as a sociopolitical topic has not yet received enough attention in the critical literacy discourse. However, this does not reflect the significance of the topic both to teachers and to students, also considering the long-lasting impact of Covid-19 beyond classroom. In one of the few studies that have dealt with mental health as a critical topic, Margaret McAllister (2006) investigated how a critical literacy approach can prove to be beneficial for nursing education in that it can help build a framework of questioning power and deconstruct the stigma of mental health matters. This included deconstructing how mental illness has historically been represented in various sociocultural domains (art, literature, music, film) in order to also draw on the importance of popular culture and how it “shapes our actual or expected mental health experiences” (McAllister 2006: 428). Similarly, a critical approach to mental health for language teaching also means analysing, deconstructing and reconstructing how mental health matters are represented in pop culture, however with a distinct focus on the use of language (from grammar and syntax to vocabulary) as a tool to potentially manipulate and perpetuate existing biases or challenge these. For this to work optimally, critical literacy practices need to be seen as continuum pedagogies,

2 3

See also Louloudi et al. 2021; Louloudi forthcoming. for more concrete examples with this framework. PAHO/WHO define mental health as the “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (PAHO/WHO 2022: online)

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with an emphasis on the role of teacher education in preparing future educators to take upon criticality. 3 Critical Literacy in Teacher Education: The Context of the Seminar

The aforementioned theoretical elements of critical literacies informed my own practices in English language education at Bielefeld University. The seminar discussed here was grounded in the principles of critical literacy pedagogies for ELT (Chang-Bacon et al. 2022; Luke 2014). It emerged as part of the project “Critical Cultural and Digital Literacy in English Language Teaching” funded by the programme “NRW curriculum 4.0” (Louloudi et al. 2021; König/Louloudi forthcoming; Louloudi/Schildhauer forthcoming 2023. The aim of the seminar was to help students understand, deconstruct, and reimagine sociocultural learning in the English language classroom, with a focus on digital artifacts and materials. The structure of the course, which was offered for five semesters, is depicted in the following table:

Tab. 1: The structure of the university seminar Critical Cultural and Digital Literacy (as found in König/Louloudi forthcoming)

As shown in the table above, the three main blocks of the seminar addressed 1) theoretical foundations on sociocultural and critical learning, with a particular focus on connection to digital literacy (Pandya 2019); 2) practical implications, with emphasis on the development of teaching units about social justice topics

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and 3) the final development and presentation of critical lesson plans by the students. Even though this structure was pre-defined, an integral part of the seminar was that the students decided on the exact topics, materials, and methods used each semester together with the teacher. This means students were not only introduced to critical literacy as a method for their future classrooms (Janks 2010; Pandya/Ávila 2014) but were professionalized within these principles themselves, living the framework of practice (by McLaughlin/DeVoogd 2004) to which they were introduced. In doing so, critical literacy was approached as a continuum – for all ages and disciplines – and as an educational environment– not as isolated learning incidents, but as a holistic approach to language education (Vasquez 2004). For my university classroom practice, this translated into paying attention to who my audience is both as learners and as individuals and centering their voices and experiences. In that, I needed to take a step back from my traditional, knowledge-keeper teacher role and engage in the same way my students were guided to do. This led me to sharing my own experiences and thoughts about the sociopolitical issues we deconstructed, however not as the head of the class, but as another member of the seminar. This change of role helped establish a comfortable environment, in which students felt “included” as well as “safe” to share their personal feelings and concrete experiences (taken from the course’s evaluation; see König/Louloudi forthcoming). What we engaged in is a form of critical discomfort (Ayers 2014) both from a methodological (focus on student-centered milieus) and from a content-related point of view (focus on sociopolitical issues). This is how mental health was also approached: both as critical socioemotional learning, through a pedagogy of discomfort (Boler/Zembylas 2003), and as a topic to be deconstructed. In the five semesters that the course was offered, mental health was the most popular social justice topic among my students both at the beginning of the seminar and in their final presentations.4 The following lesson plan on mental health was created as a final presentation by my students Nina Menzel and Chelsea Wahner5. 4

5

At the beginning of the seminar, students were asked to select three social justice topics they would like to see represented in the course based on their interests. These topics were used to build critical literacy lesson plans for their future English classrooms –first by the teacher (and with their involvement) and then as final lesson plan presentations which they created about sociopolitical topics of their choice (see also König/Louloudi forthcoming). Nina Menzel and Chelsea Wahner presented a revised version of this lesson plan in our student conference “Teachers for Social Justice” in September 2022 (https://teachersta

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The lesson plan: The students used the framework by Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd (2004) mentioned above to build a teaching unit of four steps for secondary ELT (engaging, guiding, extending, and praxis-reflecting), proposing activities as well as possible tools. Since the focal point of the seminar was on the use and role of digital artifacts to question our (digital) cultural worlds (Ávila/ Pandya 2013), the students focused on introducing digital materials (songs, videos, e-newspapers etc.) in combination with more traditional, analogue ones (textbooks, literary works etc.). Taking into consideration the English curriculum for secondary schools (Sek II)6, they defined the whats, hows and whys for the sequence, as shown in the following table: What do I want to do?

Topic: mental health and toxic positivity Cognitive and metacognitive goals: • practice open discourse and present their thoughts in a comprehensible manner • write formal/ informational texts and create posters • understand and analyse certain statistics • evaluation of own self-reflection in relation to mental health matters

How do I want to do it? Materials & Tools: Social Media accounts (e.g. Instagram and TikTok), Padlet and mindmap tools, statistics, books, articles etc. Methods: Problem posing, action research, four corner method, lit‐ erary analysis, lyrics analysis etc. Why do I want to do it? Opening up a conversation about mental health and its representation in our everyday life   Deconstruction of problematic views and reconstruction of a more realistic, inclusive narrative Tab. 2: Indentifying the whats, hows, and whys of lesson planning for critical literacy

6

kingaction.wordpress.com/ ). Chelsea Wahner wrote a paper (Prüfungsleistung) about the proposed lesson plan: this table presented here took into consideration all these three modified versions. The students noticed and commented that mental health is not explicitly mentioned as a topic in the English Kernlehrplan SEK I &II in NRW. However, they argued that it needs to be introduced under the general, umbrella terms of Menschenrechtsbildung and Werteerziehung (KLP 2014: 10) as well as part of media competences (for example “Medien in ihrer Bedeutung für den Einzelnen und die Gesellschaft” (KLP 2014: 31).

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The lesson plan proposed below follows the paradigm of the Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd (2004) instructional framework as presented before. For engaging their students’ thinking, the pre-service teachers proposed an activity that aims to introduce students to the topic by having a discussion about their usual answers to the question “Are you doing fine?”. The guiding questions strive to help them reflect on how truthfully they usually answer this question and if they think there are any (societal) expectations hidden in their answer. For the guiding step, this question is already explored as connected to their own experiences both in relation to their everyday life and the media they consume. This is then brought in connection to their school life through problem-posing questions about their textbooks and the way these potentially deal with mental health matters. To develop their students’ thinking, the pre-service teachers proposed an alternative of the four-corner-method in which different groups of students receive (or bring with them) different media to deconstruct (for example social media or literary works). In their action research, they look into how mental health is portrayed (for example what language is being used to describe mental health and illness or what attitudes are normalized) in these different forms of communication. They then compare their results and the emotions that arose from their research. Finally, to reflect, students have proposed a school project where students create a podcast to make their research results visible and advocate for better (more authentic) representation of mental health in the media. The table below details these steps: Steps of the Procedure framework

Modes and tools

Engaging students’ thinking

Introductory activity: Identifying the problematic   Good morning! Everybody doing fine today? → Do you always answer truthfully?

In-class discussion

Guiding students’ thinking

Guiding activity: First step → problem-posing questions to guide students regarding their answers in the previous step and their overall engage‐ ment with information about mental health   Second step → connecting it to the school context by analysing textbooks

Discussion in groups and collection of ideas in a Padlet.   In groups, students work with the textbook to identify how mental health is being por‐ trayed.

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Extending students’ thinking  

Students work with an alternative of the Four Corners Method: Four different media are investigated in comparison to what was found previously in the textbooks: How is mental health represented on social media, in newspaper articles, in literature, and in music?  

Four groups of students are formed with different tasks and guiding ques‐ tions.   As a final step, students present their findings in a form of presentation of their choice.

Praxis-re‐ flecting ac‐ tivity

Letting others know what they learned by creating a school project.  

Students work together to create a podcast and think of ways to dissem‐ inate the information.

Tab. 3: The proposed lesson plan on mental health (based on McLaughlin & Devoogd 2004).

As presented in the table, to engage students’ thinking, the teacher can introduce the topic by asking if everyone is fine and how they are doing today. To identify how students approach these inquiries, three guiding questions posed by the teacher can help: 1) has anyone ever gotten or expected the answer “No, I am not okay?”, 2) do you always answer truthfully and 3) why do you think that is. Students and teacher can have an in-class discussion and note down some of their answers. To guide students’ thinking, problem posing questions can help them further engage with the results of the previous discussion, for example: Have you ever felt obliged to say that you are okay even though you were not? If yes, why do you think that is? This question can function as a first level identification and analysis of personal biases as related to the potential tabooing of issues of well-being and mental health. To link their personal experiences to a broader context and to their everyday life practices, as well as the materials with which they engage, a further problem posing question can be used: What content do you consume that deals with mental health in one way or another? Here, students can work in pairs and collect their answers in a Padlet. Once students have gathered their ideas about general materials they consume, the discussion can become more school-oriented through the question: Have you previously talked about mental health in school? In what context? To help them determine and reflect on their school context, an activity can be organised where students look through their English textbook guided by the question: How is mental health being portrayed? After collecting images and/or texts, students can analyse those, guided by the questions: What message do these texts/pictures convey? What is their purpose? As a further analysis step, the teacher can bring in older

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textbooks (e.g. Camden Town 6, 2009) and students can compare the different perspectives in time. What is more, the same steps can be taken to investigate the portrayal of mental health in other disciplines, for instance in the Biology textbooks. To extend students’ thinking, students can work towards identifying the potential different perspectives on mental health that come from a variety of media. In doing so, the teacher can organise student groups based on interest in the respective medium, following an alternative to the Four Corners Method: each of the four groups will be assigned one medium of the following, always keeping in mind the results of the textbook analysis: ●

Social media (TikTok/Instagram/Youtube) Different videos can be pro‐ vided, with positive as well as problematic examples of mental health representation, or students can bring in their own materials. ● Newspaper articles: Students get (or look for) an article about mental health, including some statistics about the topic of mental health issues among teenagers and analyse these (e.g. how language is used to address issues of mental health). ● Literature: A chapter of the YA novel 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (2007) can be provided; alternatively, students could be asked to bring what they are currently reading. ● Music: Analysing song lyrics (for instance with the programme Genius) and comparing them; a song for example “Listen Before I Go” by Billie Eilish. Next to the general guiding questions (What message do these texts/pictures convey? What is their purpose?), each group will work with individual tasks depending on their materials. As an example, the first group could be given the Youtube video Do All Teens Think the Same by Jubilee and work with the following questions: 1) Do we share the views of the teens in the videos? 2) Can we identify with these matters? How does this connect to our lives (or no)? 3) Do we think social media can influence one’s mental health? How yes, how no? and 4) What would we change about our experiences/attitude online? Once the group work is completed, students present their findings in a form of presentation of their choice. As a final step and to disseminate their results, students can create a school podcast to report their findings and invite a dialogue with other stakeholders in and out of school. This could turn into a project, for example a Mental Health Week, where students could share their presentations (videos, podcasts, posters etc.) with the rest of school, invite experts, or even build a bigger project to continue the conversation and establish connections among disciplines.

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4 Discussion

The lesson plan displayed above presents one idea of how students interpreted the theoretical and practical implications of critical literacies introduced in the seminar. While there are many positive aspects that can be taken from this overall experience both for the students and the teacher, there are also some critical points that should be addressed: The use of the framework: In general, students applied the framework of practice by Maureen McLaughlin and Glenn DeVoogd (2004) to their own lesson plan in a very creative way. Their ideas went beyond a simple reproduction of the teacher’s lesson plans proposed in class (see Tab. 2) and integrated a personal perspective through the selection of materials with which they themselves identified. What is more, their ideas negotiated both theoretical implications explained in class as well as curricular elements necessary for their future classrooms. Even though this was similar for many students who participated in the seminar, it is not directly a guarantee for success for all seminars that might introduce similar contents. This is an essential clarification, considering that the seminar format will be published as an open educational resource (OER) and teacher educators will have access to the course’s structure and materials. While this can be a great opportunity for someone who would like to teach a similar seminar, there is also danger in simply transferring the published information to a different context without taking into consideration the situatedness of critical literacies (Louloudi 2022; Louloudi forthcoming; Luke 2014). This translates into the context-specific interactions with the students as well as “the personal responses, the different attitudes and processes of negotiation including the critical discomfort” (König/Louloudi forthcoming.). Critical discomfort: As mentioned above, a vital part of the seminar, and critical literacy practices in general, is embracing feelings of discomfort. Students not only participated in a critical discomfort themselves, but also took into consideration ways to integrate possible emotional responses of the future students in their lesson plan, for instance, through questions about their own experiences. Although this is a great idea of how to engage in critical discomfort in the classroom, it comes with many risks, specifically when mental health is the topic under discussion. Sharing personal experiences with mental health can lead teachers to misinterpret or outdo their part in listening and helping students deconstruct problematic narratives, prompting themselves to treat mental health issues. Teachers are not and cannot be seen as mental health professionals; the aim of such a lesson plan is to reinforce the deconstruction of biases and not give medical advice.

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The role of the digital: An important part of both the seminar and the proposed lesson plan is the use of digital materials. In the lesson plan, the students have included a variety of social media as materials to be deconstructed, but also as cultural artifacts to help reconstruct mental health narratives (see also Louloudi & Schildhauer forthcoming 2023). Considering that students spend an extensive number of hours online, the use of such materials is not only a good addition but necessary. Moreover, there are also great advantages in combining these digital materials with analogue ones and, in particular, literature. Literary characters can offer a holistic representation of one’s story in sometimes more humane ways that social media, or even introduce and discuss what “official histories keep in silence” (Nel 2017: 77). Reflection of the students: Finally, an essential part of the seminar was this of constant (weekly) reflection both on the topics addressed but also on the methods, tools and materials used in the seminar. In their feedback, students overwhelmingly spoke about a learning environment of trust that was collectively built, pointing to a “safe space” milieu, where their (oftentimes discomforting) thoughts and feelings were embraced and not dismissed (see also Louloudi/Schildhauer forthcoming 2024). This is an integral part of critical practices: for critical discomfort to be practiced, all participants should first feel safe and welcomed in their learning environment. Even though all these elements have shown great potential for being trans‐ ferred to school education as well, there are no data thus far that follow the actual application in the classroom, mainly because students of this seminar were in very early semesters in their studies. However, a great number of participating students have taken upon projects (e.g. BA- and MA-theses) that aim to explore classroom application in the near future. 5 Conclusion

Mental health as a topic has been sidelined in the field of (language) educational studies because of the potential difficulties it poses to students and teachers. However, such perspectives help sustain problematic narratives about the topic instead of opening up ways to more inclusive understandings. Critical literacy practices can provide a deconstructive lens, helping students and teachers identify, analyse, and critique perpetuated biases and work on the reconstruction of more just narratives. The proposed lesson plan by students, who were part of critical literacy practices, shows ways in which mental health could be addressed in a language classroom. The focus on digital materials underlines the topicality and relat‐

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ability of the topic and the emphasis on students’ own experiences draws attention to the investigation of discomforting feelings, as a necessary direction of critical learning. Nevertheless, the direct implementation of such a lesson plan is not by itself a critical literacy practice, because, in its current state, it takes no consideration of the situated context of each classroom, the particular characteristics of students, and their own life experiences. Critical literacy practices are not meant to be “universal” (Luke 2014: 29) but rather dynamic, metamorphic, and adaptable to the situatedness of each classroom. Nonetheless, such examples are significant in starting to build a system that embraces criticality, because they can provide students and teachers with tools and ideas that help them break down the sometimes overwhelming goals of social justice. Building a continuum of critical education ought to start with preparing pre-service teachers to teach for social justice and help them understand their role in educating democratic citizens.   Acknowledgements

This paper would not have been possible without the lesson plan idea of my students, Nina Menzel and Chelsea Melanie Wahner as well as another three members of my seminar Cultural and Digital Literacy in ELT who presented their original idea as a group in WS20/21. Even though the version presented here is more catered to the presentation of Nina and Chelsea during our student conference Teachers for Social Justice (SoSe 2022), my sincere gratitude goes to the whole group for their wonderful ideas, continuous engagement, and critical reflection skills even during the testing times of the pandemic. I learned and continue to learn a lot from you, and I look forward to accompanying your teaching journeys! References Akbari, Ramin (2008). Transforming lives: Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms. ELT Journal 62 (3), 276–283. Ávila, Julianna/Pandya, Jessica Zacher (Eds.) (2013). Critical digital literacies as social praxis: Intersections and challenges. New York: Routledge. Ávila, Julianna/Pandya, Jessica Zacher (2014). Making the road by talking: Moving critical literacies forward. In: Pandya, Jessica Zacher/Ávila, Julianna (Eds.), Moving critical literacies forward: A new look at praxis across contexts. New York: Routledge, 1–16. Ayers, Rick (2014). Critical discomfort and deep engagement needed for transformation. Democracy and Education (22) 2, 1–4.

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Editors and Contributors Roman Bartosch is Professor of Teaching Anglophone Literatures and Cul‐ tures, Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Teaching in the Humanities and Co-Director of the research hub for Multidisciplinary Envi‐ ronmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH) at the University of Cologne, Germany. Sonja Babic is a lecturer at the University of Vienna in the field of English Language Teacher Education. She holds a PhD in Teacher Education acquired at the University of Graz. Her work experience includes being a lecturer, a pre- and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Graz, as well as working on several internationally funded research and educational projects in English language teaching and learning psychology, global citizenship, and multilingualism. Daniel Becker is senior lecturer and Post-Doc researcher in English language education at the University of Münster. His research interests include mental health education, literary and cultural learning, as well as digital game-based language learning. Maria Eisenmann is Professor of EFL Teaching at Würzburg University. Her research interests lie in the fields of global education, (digital) media literacy as well as teaching literature including individual differences. She has published widely in the fields of critical environmental literacies as well as digital and literary literacy in the EFL classroom. Stefanie Fuchs (PhD) looks at English teaching from several perspectives: after teaching at school in Thuringia, she worked as a postdoc research assistant at Leibniz Universität Hannover, LMU Munich, and as a substitute professor at the University of Regensburg. Since September 2022, she has been working as teacher again. Her research focuses on grammar and vocabulary teaching, project-based language teaching, and diversity. In addition, she is interested in cross-institutional teacher education. David Gerlach is Professor of English Language Education at the University of Wuppertal (Germany). His research focuses on (English) language teachers

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and language teacher education and professional development, particularly in the context of inclusive and critical language teaching. Nadine Krüger is a lecturer at the Chair of TEFL Methodology at Würzburg University. Her research and teaching interests lie in the fields of early foreign language education, using literature in the EFL classroom and global education. Eleni Louloudi is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English Language Education at Bielefeld University. In her PhD research, she investigated teachers’ perspectives of critical literacies in Canada and in Europe comparatively. Her research interests include critical literacies, social justice education, translan‐ guaging, children’s literature and ethnographic methodologies. Christian Ludwig is currently visiting professor at the Freie Universität Berlin. His research interests include the use of literature and digital media in English as a foreign language education as well as the practice of positive psychology in foreign language teaching. Veronika Martinez has been working as a Physical Education and English teacher at a vocational school in Aalen since 2011. In her degree thesis she focused on body images of adolescents in relation to the media. Her research interests focus on comics and graphic novels. Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology. Her research interests include all aspects of the psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area. Ben Opitz is currently a student teacher in Berlin, Germany. His research focus is on digital media in the English as a foreign language classroom. Jelena Petrović is a language teacher (German as Second language and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) at the Campus LinguaNEUM at the University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria. Michaela Sambanis is Professor and Chair of English Didactics in the Institute for English Language and Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin. In her work, she combines evidence from didactics, neuroscience and psychology and encourages the dialogue between researchers and practitioners. Her focus currently lies on positive factors (resilience, flow, etc.), embodied cognition, and on performative teaching and learning.

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Peter Schildhauer is a lecturer (Akademischer Rat) at Bielefeld University’s department of English Language Education and Teaching. Besides ELT class‐ room interaction, his current research interests include (critical) digital literacies with a particular focus on social media algorithms as well as conspiracy theories in English Language Teaching. Eva Seidl is a German language teacher at the Department of Translation Studies and at the Centre for Language, Plurilingualism and Didactics (treffpunkt sprachen) at the University of Graz, Austria. She writes and presents widely on issues of international higher education and Translation and Interpreting-ori‐ ented Language Learning and Teaching (TILLT). Theresa Summer is Associate Professor of English Language Education/TEFL at the University of Bamberg, Germany. Her research and teaching interests include learner perspectives, critical language pedagogy, pop culture, grammar, and global education. She is co-editor of the journal English 5-10 and part of the competence network lernen:digital. Kristin Weiser-Zurmühlen is a lecturer (Akad. Rätin) at University of Wup‐ pertal’s department of German L1 education research and teaching. Her current research interests include digital media and democracy education with a focus on critical reading skills and conspiracy theories in the German Language classroom and the professional development of teachers. Valentin Werner is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Bamberg, Germany. He researches and teaches in the areas of applied linguistics (esp. learner Englishes and application of linguistic findings in language education), media linguistics, sociolinguistics, language variation and change (esp. World Englishes), and stylistics. Caroline Zehne is a lecturer in the English Language Education Department at Bielefeld University. Her research interests include Global Englishes for and in English Language Teaching (ELT), language ontologies and ideologies, inclusion in ELT, as well as the use of (video) games in and for ELT.

Ludwig / Summer / Eisenmann / Becker / Krüger (eds.) Mental Health in English Language Education

Mental health has become a growing concern in today’s society, with schools emerging as focal points for addressing this topic. The present volume takes this as a starting point to explore the relevance of curricula and competencies, texts and materials, (digital) culture and communication, and teacher education in the context of mental health and English language education. This, for instance, includes insights into interrelated topics such as gender, climate change, stress, and conspiracy theories. A variety of texts including multimodal novels, video games, and songs provides practical impulses for integrating mental health related topics into English lessons. As such, this volume brings together scholars from various fields who discuss the relationship between mental health issues and English as a foreign language learning from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives.

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www.narr.de

ISBN 978-3-381-11461-0

Christian Ludwig / Theresa Summer / Maria Eisenmann / Daniel Becker / Nadine Krüger (eds.)

Mental Health in English Language Education