On 8 October 2026, Balıkesir University hosted the EcoLingua Closing Summit at the Şehit Öğretmen Aybüke Yalçın Conference Hall, Necatibey Faculty of Education. The event brought together the project team, partner representatives and university colleagues to share the EcoLingua journey and consider how its outputs can continue to support environmental awareness in English language education.
Recognizing a Shared Contribution
The closing programme combined welcoming addresses, a certificate ceremony and opportunities for partners to reflect on their work. The ceremony recognised contributions to EcoLingua, while group photographs marked the collaboration between the coordinating institution and its partners.
Coordinated by Balıkesir University, the partnership includes the University of Burgos in Spain, the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy, Vilnius University in Lithuania, Gaziantep University and Özlüce Rasim Özdenören Anadolu İmam Hatip Lisesi in Türkiye.
International perspectives
The international guest-speaker programme featured Prof. Mario Pace from the University of Malta; Dr. Mihaela Gligor from the “George Barițiu” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy; Monami Nag, Principal of A P Nagar Atulkrishna Roy Vidyayatan in India; and Dr. Saikat Banerjee from Jamalpur College, Munger University, India. Their scheduled online session connected the summit with perspectives from language education, environmental awareness and school practice.
Reflecting on the EcoLingua journey
The programme included partner presentations from Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Bursa and Gaziantep under the theme “Reflection: The EcoLingua Journey.” These presentations provided a shared space for reviewing the partnership’s experiences and the development of resources connecting ecological themes, digital pedagogy and English language teaching.
Keeping the outputs in use
The afternoon programme focused on a Project Outputs and Sustainability Roundtable. Its agenda addressed how partners would use EcoLingua outputs after the project, sustain their contribution to teacher education and explore future cooperation. This emphasis on continued use connects the closing event with the project’s wider aim: helping educators make environmental issues a meaningful part of language learning.
We thank our partners, guest speakers and colleagues for their contributions to the EcoLingua Closing Summit and to the shared work behind it.
EcoLingua Curriculum: Digitally Enhanced Pedagogy for Integrating Environmental Issues into Language Teaching is an Erasmus+ KA220-SCH project co-funded by the European Union. Project number: 2024-1-TR01-KA220-SCH-000245616.