Storytelling and Self-Translation: Ecolinguistic Perspectives in Language Teaching for Inclusion

The narrative device, through its flexibility and capacity to accommodate diverse cultural and individual experiences, fosters intercultural communicative language teaching via creative strategies. This allows for the transformation of the intercultural perspective, very often stopped at a theoretical stage, by implementing it in inclusive processes aiming at participatory citizenship. In the eco-perspective of critically (re)thinking the “stories that we live by” (Stibbe 2015) and increasing the quality of the stories we can live on, a series of guided classroom activities allows students to learn through an experiential process of shared creative practice, involving all receptive, productive and interactive/communicative language skills. This study examines the integration of storytelling and self-translation within an ecolinguistic framework for second/foreign language (L2/FL) teaching, with a particular focus on inclusion and participatory citizenship. Through a case study involving 76 primary education student-teachers in a COIL project, the extent to which narrative creation and self-translation activities can enhance linguistic competence while developing ecological consciousness was investigated. Data were collected through reflective forum contributions, collaborative productions, and peer feedback. Results indicate that participants demonstrated significant improvements in language skills, cultural awareness, and environmental consciousness. The project produced 28 original stories across diverse narrative structures, with participants developing enhanced ICT competences and intrinsic motivation. Findings suggest that combining storytelling with self-translation creates inclusive learning environments that accommodate diverse learning needs while fostering critical ecological awareness. The approach shows particular promise for heritage language learners and students with special educational needs. Implications for language pedagogy emphasize the need for ecolinguistically informed practices that connect language learning to broader environmental and social concerns.