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Band 48 · Heft 2 Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik / Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik / Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Narr Francke A�empto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0) 7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0) 7071 97 97 11 info@narr.de \ www.narr.de \ narr.digital Author Guidelines All submissions undergo double-blind peer review. To prepare your submissions please refer to the AAA style sheet available at h�ps: / / elibrary.narr.digital/ journal/ aaa Please submit your contribu�ons to: AAA-editors@narr.de To enquire about publishing a special issue please contact: AAA-editors@narr.de. For subscrip�on informa�on please contact: abo@narr.de. Editors / Herausgeber: innen Alexander Onysko, Ulla Ratheiser, Werner Delanoy Editorial Assistant / Redak�on Eva Triebl Editorial board (alphabe�cal) / Mitherausgeber: innen (alphabe�sch): Sibylle Baumbach Marcus Callies Marta Degani Alwin Fill Walter Grünzweig Sarah Herbe Walter Hölbling Julia Hü�ner Allan James Cornelia Klecker Ursula Kluwick Benjamin Kremmel Andreas Mahler Chris�an Mair Georg Marko Frauke Matz Simone Pfenninger Peter Siemund Ute Smit Laurenz Volkmann Max von Blanckenburg Werner Wolf Libe García Zarranz Founding editor / Erstherausgeber Bernhard Ke�emann Introduction: Exploring paths to mental health in English Language Education Daniel Becker and Frauke Matz ............................................................................151 Mental Health Literacy quest or Three reasons why: Using hypertext fiction to foster Mental Health Literacy Sean Holt .............................................................................................................157 Addressing the effects of racism in English Language Education with graphic novels Silke Braselmann ..................................................................................................187 The role of digitality for neurodivergent English language learners: Agency and well-being within and outside the ELT classroom Carolyn Blume and Jules Bündgens-Kosten ............................................................213 How about a little noise? Hearing, listening and mindfulness in the EFL listening classroom Jens-Folkert Folkerts .............................................................................................239 Gaming till you drop: The representation of video games and gaming disorder in contemporary German EFL textbooks Daniel Becker .......................................................................................................257 English language education in times of adversities: Supporting students’ communicative agency and resilience in the context of polycrisis Frauke Matz.........................................................................................................277 Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Agenda: Advancing Anglophone Studies Ein alphabetisches Autor: innenverzeichnis der Jahrgänge 1 (1976) bis 45 (2020) finden Sie unter https: / / elibrary.narr.digital/ journal/ aaa. An alphabetical list of authors who published in volumes 1 (1976) to 45 (2020) can be found at https: / / elibrary.narr.digital/ journal/ aaa. Indexing: Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Clarivate Analytics / Web of Science), CNPLinker, Ebsco, IFS (Informationszentrum für Fremdsprachenforschung), J-Gate, Journal TOCs, JSTOR, MLA, NAVER Academic, Naviga (Softweco), Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, ProQuest, Scimago (SJR), Scopus (Elsevier), Series and Publishers, SJR (Scimago Journal & Country Rank), Ulrichweb, Worldcat (OCLC) Anfragen, Kommentare, Kritik, Mitteilungen und Manuskripte werden an die Herausgeber: innen erbeten (Adresse siehe Umschlaginnenseite). Erscheint halbjährlich. Bezugspreis jährlich: print € 105,00 / print + online € 125,00 (Vorzugspreis für private Leser: innen € 77,00 / € 96,00) zuzügl. Postgebühren. Einzelheft € 59,00. Die Bezugsdauer verlängert sich jeweils um ein Jahr, wenn bis zum 15. November keine Abbestellung vorliegt. © 2024 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5, 72070 Tübingen eMail: info@narr.de Internet: www.narr.de Die in der Zeitschrift veröffentlichten Beiträge sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Alle Rechte, insbesondere das der Übersetzung in fremde Sprachen, sind vorbehalten: Kein Teil dieser Zeitschrift darf ohne schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages in irgendeiner Form - durch Fotokopie, Mikrofilm oder andere Verfahren - reproduziert oder in eine von Maschinen, insbesondere von Datenverarbeitungsanlagen, verwendbare Sprache übertragen werden. Printed in Germany ISSN 0171-5410 ISBN 978-3-381-10811-4 Covid-19, climate change, political upheavals, pluralism of gender identities, increasing pressure to keep up with others on social media - today’s world harbours many conflict zones which put a severe strain on collective and individual mental health. In fact, amidst a growing sense of uncertainty about personal and social futures, serious mental disorders such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder have become leading health concerns among adolescents worldwide (World Health Organisation [WHO] 2021). In the United States, for instance, 17% of teenagers already suffer from depression on a regular basis (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] 2020), while in Germany the number of clinical treatments for adolescents increased tenfold since the early 2000s (Statistisches Bundesamt 2023). These alarming numbers furthermore coincide with an increase in teenage suicide cases by 56% over the past few years (Curtin 2020), which demonstrates that mental health (among teenagers) rapidly finds its way into the realm of global issues that need to be urgently addressed in the 21 st century. The urgency of this issue becomes even more apparent when considering that, despite rising numbers of mental disorders, knowledge about mental health and its current challenges is still rather limited. As Jorm points out, so far, mental health has been rather tabooed and “has received much less attention” than physical health in public discourse, leading to a significant lack of mental health literacy in the general population (2012: 231). In other words, many people still do not have the “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management, and prevention” (Jorm et al. 1997: 182) and, therefore, are often ill-equipped to react appropriately and supportively when mental health issues occur in their own family or peer group. Instead, mental health concerns are perceived through the lens of misconception and cliché as, for example, the - Deutschland-Barometer Depression indicates: According to this survey, about one fifth of all participants believed that taking a holiday or eating chocolate might cure depression (Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe 2017). Despite the rise of mental disorders today, thus, there is a lack of awareness of what they actually are, and it is in this context of utterly disregarding the severity of contemporary mental health issues that the need for education becomes most visible - because, after all, confronting the current wave of mental disorders can only be successful if individuals are prepared for the task. In the context of this necessary mental health education, schools play a most pivotal role. Bagnell and Santor, for example, state that schools are the most prominent institution to accompany teenagers through puberty as a time of significant change and “life stress” (2015: 50). Since many mental disorders first manifest in adolescence (see, e.g., Weist et al. 2015), schools can therefore directly intervene when teenagers are most vulnerable. According to the Empfehlung zur Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention in der Schule by the Kultusministerkonferenz [Standing Conference of the Ministers of Culture, KMK] (2012) this educational intervention is to be fulfilled by all school subjects alike, with each subject making a specific contribution based on its topical and curricular framework. Every subject then, as Trumm adds, is tasked to address the “mechanisms by which young people are hindered in their developmental process and which have a long-term impact on their lives” (2014: 142; trans. D.B. & F.M.) and, in doing so, can support a more sustainable mental health awareness and education. Yet, since the KMK called to action more than ten years ago, not much has happened and the trail of mental health education in Germany went rather cold. Thus, next to individual public and extra-curricular initiatives (e.g., mind-matters.de) and a few most recent studies (see Becker et al. 2022; Ludwig et al. forthcoming), the question of how to implement mental health related matters in different school subjects has not been extensively addressed so far. In this context, the present volume is to be understood as an attempt to ‘refuel’ the call and, given the development of mental disorders over the last decade, to shed some new light on how mental health can be negotiated in the subject of English language education. For that purpose, the individual contributions take different theoretical and empirical perspectives on how mental health is already addressed in contemporary language education and, more specifically, how different areas and goals of the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom lend themselves to implementing mental health education in the future. The special issue thus combines insights from foreign language education research with developments in mental health education to provide a new perspective on the opportunities and necessities of English language teaching in the 21 st century. In the first contribution of this special issue, Sean Holt conceptualises ways in which hypertext fiction (HTF) could be included in EFL classrooms to discuss and promote Mental Health Literacy (MHL) with secondary school learners. Focusing on the potential of literary pedagogy, his paper first explores both the potential and the limitations of the concept of MHL, highlighting how digital fiction can serve as a resource for promoting positive mental health. He then offers valuable insights for both academics and educators working in the ELE context on how to approach and discuss such challenging issues related to mental health in current teaching and learning practices. In doing so, he also identifies the potential of HTF to facilitate both critical reflective reading and expressive writing approaches in which new multimodal designs can support engagement with mental health issues. In the second paper, Silke Braselmann starts from experiences of racism that can lead to a wide range of mental health problems for racialised learners. With a focus on raising awareness of the impact of racism on the mental health of racialised learners in the German secondary school context, she contributes to the establishment of anti-racist English language teaching. She uses graphic novels as multimodal, multi-semiotic and highly engaging texts to link mental health literacy (recognition and identification of mental health conditions) with racial literacy (deeper understanding of concepts of race and racism). Bringing these literacies together in the English classroom, she argues, can make the harmful effects of racism visible, promotes awareness and understanding, can destigmatise and actively address potential mental health disorders in racialised learners. Carolyn Blume and Jules Bündgens-Kosten approach the field of mental health through the lens of neurodivergent English language learners. Some forms of neurodivergence, such as Autism and ADHD, are associated with reduced mental health due to an absence of well-being. Their paper explores how the integration of digitally mediated communication can meet the needs of learners for agency to foster well-being, while at the same time promoting the development of communicative competence. While important for all language learners, they examine how both digitality and agency are particularly relevant for neurodivergent learners, who often use English as an online lingua franca to bridge their authentic interests and unique interactional preferences. Finally, the authors briefly consider some implications for the EFL classroom in their concluding section. In his contribution “Hearing, listening and mindfulness in the EFL listening classroom”, Jens Folkerts focuses on a specific area of competence and points out that when students are asked to focus on listening, they are engaged in cognitively very demanding tasks. The still predominant focus on students’ comprehension performance often involves the use of tasks and settings that may induce anxiety about listening to foreign languages and may increase mental distress. He therefore points out that the provision of a learning environment that is mindful of students’ mental health is central, as being constantly surrounded by noise can stress students and affect their ability to learn and work well. His paper aims to develop a mindful approach to EFL listening instruction in order to support students in coping with noise-related stress, learning to listen in a foreign language and reducing foreign language listening anxiety. Daniel Becker approaches the field of mental health from a different perspective, focusing on the representation of video games in contemporary German EFL textbooks in relation to gaming disorder. Using thematic discourse analysis, he examines the negative portrayal of digital games in current German EFL textbooks and demonstrates that they are portrayed as a matter of addiction and mental illness. In doing so, he unpacks the role of textbooks as gatekeepers that may discourage classroom teachers from including such games as learning materials in the EFL classroom, despite their great potential for language learning. Frauke Matz explores on a thematic level what it might take for the language classroom to be a space to supporting students in becoming (communicatively) resilient in times of polycrisis. Using three recent UNICEF studies as a starting point to illustrate the current situation and prospects of children and young adults globally, she examines the challenge of how English language education can aid language students in discovering their voice while building resilience during adverse times. Before all these contributors will present their ideas, this introduction closes with a short remark on terminology. When addressing the broad topic of mental health in English language education, the present volume refers to the definition of mental health as provided by the World Health Organization: Mental health is 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. […] Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders. It exists on a complex continuum, which is experienced differently from one person to the next, with varying degrees of difficulty and distress and potentially very different social and clinical outcomes. (2022: n. p.) Based on this definition, the volume furthermore uses related terms such as mental distress or mental disorder, which are defined according to the mental health pyramid as suggested by the initiative mental-health-literacy.org:  Mental distress: “Refers to the common, expected, and normal response to the stresses of everyday life. Mental distress is normal, expected, and happens to everyone”;  Mental Health Problem/ Issue: “Refers to the reactions we have to huge life challenges that may task our ability to adapt. Mental health problems may be substantial and prolonged but they are not mental disorders and they do not require medical treatment”;  Mental Disorder/ Illness: “Refers to clinically diagnosed illnesses. Mental illnesses require evidence-based treatments provided by properly trained health care providers” (2022: n.p.). World Health Organisation (2021). Adolescent Mental Health. [online] https: / / www.who.int/ news-room/ fact-sheets/ detail/ adolescent-mental-health [Februrary 2023]. Bagnell, Alexa & Darcy Santor (2015). The Future of Teaching Mental Health Literacy in Schools. In: Marc D. Weist, Stan Kutcher & Yifeng Wei (Eds.). School Mental Health: Global Challenges and Opportunities. Cambridge: CUP: 46-60. Curtin, Sally C. (2020). State Suicide Rates Among Adolescents and Young Adults Aged 10-24: United States, 2000-2018. National Vital Statistics Report 69 (11): 1-9. Jorm, Anthony F., Ailsa E. Korten, Patricia A. Jacomb, Helen Christensen, Bryan Rodgers & Penelope Pollitt (1997). Mental Health Literacy: A Survey of the Public's Ability 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. [KMK] Kultusministerkonferenz (2012). Empfehlung zur Gesundheitsförderung und Prävention in der Schule. [online] https: / / www.kmk.org/ fileadmin/ ver oeffentlichungen_beschluesse/ 2012/ 2012_11_15-Gesundheitsempfehlung.pdf [April 2023]. Mental Health Literacy (2022). Language Matters: The Importance of When We're Talking About Mental Health. mentalhealthliteracy.org. [online] https: / / mentalhealthliteracy.org/ product/ using-the-right-words/ [February 2022] [SAMHSA] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2020). Highlights for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. [online] www.samhsa.gov/ data/ sites/ default/ files/ 202110/ 2020_NSDUH_Highlights.pdf [February 2023]. Statistisches Bundesamt (2023). Immer mehr Kinder und Jugendliche leiden an Depressionen. [online] https: / / www.www.destatis.de/ DE/ Themen/ Gesellschaft- Umwelt/ Gesundheit/ depression-kinder-jugendliche-imfokus.html [July 2023]. Stiftung Deutsche Depressionshilfe (2017). Deutschlandbarometer Depression 2017. [online] https: / / www www.deutsche-depressionshilfe.de/ forschungszentrum/ deutschland-barometer-depression/ 2017 [April 2023]. Trumm, Tanja (2014). Dem Schweigen Worte geben: Wege der Annäherung an Tabu und Tabuisierung im Deutschunterricht. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag. World Health Organisation (2021). Adolescent Mental Health. [online] https: / / www.who.int/ news-room/ fact-sheets/ detail/ adolescent-mental-health [February 2022]. World Health Organisation (2022). Mental Health. [online] https: / / www.who.int/ news-room/ fact-sheets/ detail/ mental-health-strengthening-our-res ponse [July 2023]. Daniel Becker and Frauke Matz English Department University of Münster This contribution investigates in what way digital narratives, such as hypertext fiction (HTF), could be conceptually integrated in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms to discuss and promote ‘Mental Health Literacy’ (MHL) among secondary level learners. Through the analysis of the potential offered by HTF, a well-established but often overlooked type of digital literature characterised by decision making through hypertextual links (similar to Choose-Your-Own- Adventure books), the author examines how the distinct affordances of the genre can support the development of MHL in the EFL context. To do so, this contribution first explores the possibilities and limitations offered by the concept of MHL for being embedded into English Language Education (ELE) with a focus on the potential offered by literature education. Based on this approach, it sheds light on the ways digital fiction, but also other forms of literature, can be utilised as authentic language resources to promote positive mental health as well as the concept of MHL. Overall, this article contributes towards the body of literature that offers insights for both researchers and educators working within the ELE context on how to approach and discuss such difficult topics related to mental health in current practices of teaching and learning. It furthermore stresses the potential of HTF for being used to facilitate critical reflective reading as well as expressive writing approaches in which novel multimodal designs can support the engagement with mental health struggles. 1 The title being a homage to the story Depression Quest (2013) and the novel Thirteen Reasons Why (2017). - With the high prevalence of mental health challenges around the world (WHO 2020), which are likely to rise post COVID-19 (see, e.g., Mayne 2020; Pies 2020), the concept of MHL is growing in importance for schools. However, despite the increasing visibility and awareness of mental disorders 2 , they continue to be heavily stigmatized topics, with stigma here describing negative attitudes directed towards people with mental disorders based on negative social (re)presentation (Neto et al. 2017: 737). To address negative perceptions, decrease discrimination, and foster open discussions while promoting awareness, the integration of MHL into different school subjects seems a valuable endeavour with ELE being an ideal space for authentic language discourses given the discipline’s openness to incorporate diverse issues. This article proposes that one possibility to advance MHL in ELE is through meaningful cognitive and emotional engagement with digital narratives and their (re)presentation of mental disorders. To highlight the potential of digital literature, this article first discusses how literature can support the development of empathy, facilitate critical investigations into the (re)presentation of mental health topics, and enhance students’ understanding of mental disorders as medical conditions. By considering the theoretical framework of MHL and drawing on a broad understanding of texts (KMK 2012a: 20), it investigates the parallels between the concept of MHL and literature teaching in the EFL secondary classroom, offering a rationale for areas of opportunities (term borrowed from Atkins et al. 2010: 47) which allows teachers to address mental health topics. As presenting all relevant aspects in their complexity goes beyond the scope of this article (and the author’s expertise as an ELE researcher), they are intended as starting points for discussing subject-specific opportunities and challenges as to how teachers in ELE can and cannot foster MHL by asking: 1. How can MHL be conceptualised in the context of English language education? 2. How can aspects of MHL be integrated in practices of English language education? The second part of this contribution examines the theoretical intersections and practical implications of employing HTF within ELE. It explores how this digital genre can enable students to actively engage with, and possibly 2 The term mental disorder is used to refer to a person suffering from one or more clinically diagnosable condition that affect their mental health. Other terms like mental illness, psychological issues/ problems, or behavioural disorder may also be used (see, e.g., van Beveren et al. 2020: 1366; Bishop et al. 2021: 18). create, complex digital stories where novel design elements provide opportunities for reading and writing about personal struggles. By considering the more unique affordances of the HTF genre, the article shows its suitability for developing MHL in literature teaching, with the final part exemplifying some of these possibilities with the HTF story Depression Quest (2013). Originally proposed by Jorm et al. (1997), MHL was defined as the set of “knowledge and beliefs which aid in [the] recognition, management and prevention [of mental disorders]” (1997: 182) and has since developed into a key topic for research, policy, and practice (Sweileh 2021: 3-4). One aspect the concept stresses is that in comparison to physical or bodily based ideas of health, the knowledge and attitudes towards the factors that negatively impact mental health are less acknowledged in society (see Jorm, Christensen & Griffiths 2006; also Sweileh 2021: 4). Subsequently, mental disorders are less recognized and treated, leading to a variety of other negative outcomes, such as family/ interpersonal problems, reduced life expectancy, increased health concerns, poorer educational or vocational success, and possibly suicide (see, e.g., Mcluckie et al. 2014: 1; Wei et al. 2014: 1649; Heath, Smith & Young 2017: 543). Although Jorm (2015, 2020) speaks of MHL as being a form of “knowledge”, only occasionally deviating from this denomination, he clarifies that this “knowledge” is not (and never has been) theoretical (2020: 146). Instead MHL is a form of knowledge that is proactive and supports either one’s own mental health or that of others (Jorm 2020: 155). Based on a recent definition by Jorm (2020: 146) MHL includes the knowledge of how to prevent (self-help strategies) and identify mental disorders (signs and symptoms), how to seek treatment (being aware of treatment options/ professional help), and how to support others (see Figure 1). MHL can be broadly distinguished into higher or lower levels. A low level of MHL means that mental disorders are not discussed in public discourses and left to mental health professionals. As these cannot help everyone affected they have to focus on chronic or extreme cases (Jorm 2000: 399), making low MHL “a significant barrier [for] receiving treatment” (Bishop et al. 2021: 13) that is associated with higher rates of stigmatisation. A high level of MHL in contrast is assumed to combat the aforementioned negative effects and to support healthier lifestyles (Neto et al. 2021: 66). It furthermore includes non-professionals as active participants in the discourse, i.e., also teachers and students, as discussing topics of MHL is argued to support self-help, early intervention, and community-based care and might severely reduce mental disorders (Sørensen 2020: 40). As MHL can be informed by a variety of sources, ranging from personal experiences and media reports towards scientific evidence and expert knowledge (Jorm 2000: 398), it can consequently also be informed by literature encountered in ELE. By integrating MHL in ELE, educators can thus contribute to an understanding of mental health as being important for an individual’s overall health and take up such topics which are of great relevance to adolescents. A comprehensive conceptualisation of the concept can be viewed in Figure 2. As has been shown, MHL is important for students as it emphasizes the importance of recognizing mental health as a part of everyday live. The review by Sweileh (2021: 4) shows that it is increasingly discussed in relation to adolescents, which is hardly surprising given that this is a vital stage of biological, cognitive, psychological, emotional and social development which influences lifelong self-governance, health-promoting attitudes, and actions (Bröder & Carvalho 2020: 55). These are critical for preventing, identifying, and effectively treating mental disorders (Wei et al. 2014: 1649). However, despite being recognized in their importance, the mental health needs of adolescents are often neglected (Merikangas et al. 2010). Consequently, schools are increasingly discovered as spaces for both the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders (see, e.g., Kutcher, Wei & Coniglio 2016; Bröder et al. 2019). While originally developed for adults, MHL has thus been extended to include adolescents (see Kutcher et al. 2016; Jorm 2020) as unhealthy opinions, perceptions, and attitudes towards mental health and disorders can be positively changed in this age group (Ball et al. 2019: 4), which provides a compelling argument for integrating positive MHL in schools. Although early definitions of MHL focused on the downsides of mental disorders, newer ones incorporate the long-term gains of ‘positive mental MHL can be broadly distinguished into higher or lower levels. A low level of MHL means that mental disorders are not discussed in public discourses and left to mental health professionals. As these cannot help everyone affected they have to focus on chronic or extreme cases (Jorm 2000: 399), making low MHL “a significant barrier [for] receiving treatment” (Bishop et al. 2021: 13) that is associated with higher rates of stigmatisation. A high level of MHL in contrast is assumed to combat the aforementioned negative effects and to support healthier lifestyles (Neto et al. 2021: 66). It furthermore includes non-professionals as active participants in the discourse, i.e., also teachers and students, as discussing topics of MHL is argued to support self-help, early intervention, and community-based care and might severely reduce mental disorders (Sørensen 2020: 40). As MHL can be informed by a variety of sources, ranging from personal experiences and media reports towards scientific evidence and expert knowledge (Jorm 2000: 398), it can consequently also be informed by literature encountered in ELE. By integrating MHL in ELE, educators can thus contribute to an understanding of mental health as being important for an individual’s overall health and take up such topics which are of great relevance to adolescents. A comprehensive conceptualisation of the concept can be viewed in Figure 2. As has been shown, MHL is important for students as it emphasizes the importance of recognizing mental health as a part of everyday live. The review by Sweileh (2021: 4) shows that it is increasingly discussed in relation to adolescents, which is hardly surprising given that this is a vital stage of biological, cognitive, psychological, emotional and social development which influences lifelong self-governance, health-promoting attitudes, and actions (Bröder & Carvalho 2020: 55). These are critical for preventing, identifying, and effectively treating mental disorders (Wei et al. 2014: 1649). However, despite being recognized in their importance, the mental health needs of adolescents are often neglected (Merikangas et al. 2010). Consequently, schools are increasingly discovered as spaces for both the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders (see, e.g., Kutcher, Wei & Coniglio 2016; Bröder et al. 2019). While originally developed for adults, MHL has thus been extended to include adolescents (see Kutcher et al. 2016; Jorm 2020) as unhealthy opinions, perceptions, and attitudes towards mental health and disorders can be positively changed in this age group (Ball et al. 2019: 4), which provides a compelling argument for integrating positive MHL in schools. Although early definitions of MHL focused on the downsides of mental disorders, newer ones incorporate the long-term gains of ‘positive mental health’ (Sampaio, Gonçalves & Sequeira 2022: 2), a paradigm shift also recognized by Jorm (2020: 146-147). Bjørnsen et al. (2017), who explicitly refer to their concept as positive MHL, found it to be a “significant explanatory variable of mental well-being” (Bjørnsen et al. 2019: 114). In their systematic review of the concept, Carvalho et al. (2022: 3) identified positive MHL to consist of six constructs: the competence to solve problems and have feelings of self-actualisation, being able to obtain and maintain personal satisfaction, feeling autonomous, being capable of relating to others, self-control, and showing a prosocial attitude (see Figure 3).                         Three of the aspects connect quite directly to ELE. Experiencing school mastery seems like a goal all subjects should support, for example by providing scaffolding. Likewise, pro-social attitudes and the acceptance of others relates to the development of intercultural communicative competence (KMK 2012a: 19; CEFR 2018) whereas the development of empathy is a possible goal/ function of literature in ELE. Other aspects can certainly also be approached, for example to communicate one’s emotions and feelings in English could be seen as a form of self-actualisation, whereas the ability to engage with others aligns with developing communicative competence, highlighting some possibilities how MHL could be taken up in ELE. Following the brief conceptualisation of MHL, this section considers how the concept could be approached in ELE. As MHL describes the complex interplay of skills, knowledge and attitudes, teachers and educational researchers may find it easier to view MHL as a competence (see Sørensen 2020: 44-45 for how the two concepts overlap) consisting of attitudes, behaviours, and skills (which would align with the conceptualisation of the CEFR). The question remains however, how MHL aligns with the conceptual foundation of ELE. While generally making students more knowledgeable and mindful of mental disorders is in itself no small undertaking, it is not reflected in the current syllabus of teaching a foreign language. 3 What is proposed in the following is not envisioned as a stand-alone program but a thought experiment on how MHL could be incorporated in subject-specific teaching and learning. This approach might be characterised as “school friendly […] [having been] designed to be delivered by existing school resources (primarily teachers) within existing school activities” (Kutcher, Wei & Hashish 2016: 164). Studies by Perry et al. (2014) or Mcluckie et al. (2014) highlight the merits of such approaches. Consequently the idea outlined asks how MHL could be embedded into everyday teaching and learning (see Wei et al. 2014: 1654) while being:  Age, development, and language appropriate.  Teachable by teachers in their usual teaching practices.  Designed with familiar pedagogical and subject-specific approaches. These considerations build upon Becker (2021: 141), who discussed the conditions of the German curricula and the grounds on which topics of mental health could be approached in ELE. While references to mental health are absent in the curricula, he did identify a tendency to exclude such aspects in favour of a “rationale of market competitiveness”, where the “not mentioned” becomes the “not wanted” (Becker 2021: 154; 150- 154). However, he also showed that such topics can be taken up in ELE and although he addresses depression specifically, his reasoning appears valid for MHL as he points out that:  Schools are expected to take an active role in addressing mental health (KMK 2012b: 2).  The German ELE curricula has “free spaces” (among them ICC, expressing feelings or beliefs in English, discussing cultural practices and identities, 3 As mandated by the German Kultusminsterkonferenz: „in die eigenen curricularen Rahmenvorgaben zu integrieren, um so einen fachspezifischen Beitrag zur Förderung gesundheitlicher ‚Alltagskompetenzen‘ […] zu leisten“ (KMK 2012b: 2). Following the brief conceptualisation of MHL, this section considers how the concept could be approached in ELE. As MHL describes the complex interplay of skills, knowledge and attitudes, teachers and educational researchers may find it easier to view MHL as a competence (see Sørensen 2020: 44-45 for how the two concepts overlap) consisting of attitudes, behaviours, and skills (which would align with the conceptualisation of the CEFR). The question remains however, how MHL aligns with the conceptual foundation of ELE. While generally making students more knowledgeable and mindful of mental disorders is in itself no small undertaking, it is not reflected in the current syllabus of teaching a foreign language. 3 What is proposed in the following is not envisioned as a stand-alone program but a thought experiment on how MHL could be incorporated in subject-specific teaching and learning. This approach might be characterised as “school friendly […] [having been] designed to be delivered by existing school resources (primarily teachers) within existing school activities” (Kutcher, Wei & Hashish 2016: 164). Studies by Perry et al. (2014) or Mcluckie et al. (2014) highlight the merits of such approaches. Consequently the idea outlined asks how MHL could be embedded into everyday teaching and learning (see Wei et al. 2014: 1654) while being:  Age, development, and language appropriate.  Teachable by teachers in their usual teaching practices.  Designed with familiar pedagogical and subject-specific approaches. These considerations build upon Becker (2021: 141), who discussed the conditions of the German curricula and the grounds on which topics of mental health could be approached in ELE. While references to mental health are absent in the curricula, he did identify a tendency to exclude such aspects in favour of a “rationale of market competitiveness”, where the “not mentioned” becomes the “not wanted” (Becker 2021: 154; 150- 154). However, he also showed that such topics can be taken up in ELE and although he addresses depression specifically, his reasoning appears valid for MHL as he points out that:  Schools are expected to take an active role in addressing mental health (KMK 2012b: 2).  The German ELE curricula has “free spaces” (among them ICC, expressing feelings or beliefs in English, discussing cultural practices and identities, 3 As mandated by the German Kultusminsterkonferenz: „in die eigenen curricularen Rahmenvorgaben zu integrieren, um so einen fachspezifischen Beitrag zur Förderung gesundheitlicher ‚Alltagskompetenzen‘ […] zu leisten“ (KMK 2012b: 2). literature teaching, see Becker 2021: 148; 144-150) that allow teachers to take up such topics.  Research supports that EFL learners, being non-native speakers, may engage with difficult topics like mental illnesses on a more cognitive-intercultural level, with a lighter emotional response, more reflectiveness, and emotional distance providing a safer space than their L1 (see Keysar, Hayakawa & An 2012; Becker 2021: 147). A starting point for the promotion of MHL in ELE could thus be to take up prominent mental disorders, such as depression, eating disorders or alcohol abuse (Jorm 2020: 147-148) as well as aspects of positive MHL and integrate them into tasks and discussions which are already taking place in the EFL classroom. As adolescents prefer to seek mental health support and information from people they know (see, e.g., Slone, Meir & Tarrasch 2013; Tuijnman et al. 2019), students are likely to want to talk about mental health as this is a significant topic in their daily lives. They may however hesitate to get involved in such topics if they fear being misunderstood or stigmatized (see, e.g., Tariku Seboka et al. 2022: 8160-8161), making stigma reduction a valuable endeavour in ELE. Otherwise, students might refrain from meaningfully engaging with mental health issues or may not take suffering individuals (real or fictional) seriously. Such an unserious treatment of mental disorders is often grounded in a lack of understanding that mental disorders are medical conditions (see van Beveren et al. 2020: 1368). As studies have shown that mental disorders which are frequently depicted in the media are generally better understood (Furnham & Sjokvist 2017: 32), it seems likely that this would also apply to literature. Teachers could thus incorporate how mental disorders are portrayed in the literature used in ELE and analyse these indirect (re)presentations, for example if and how they differ within different literary periods or texts (see Heath, Smith & Young 2017). Taking up such topics in literature education allows teachers to support learning about signs, symptoms, and treatment options as well as aspects of positive MHL (see Figure 1 and Figure 3). Literature in ELE is an important provider of authentic language usage and allows learners to explore (non-)fictional human experiences, worlds, and topics. Despite the trend towards communicative competences having marginalized literature in the CEFR or KMK (see, e.g., Volkmann 2019: 19-20; Weskamp 2019: 118), it remains a central part of language education literature teaching, see Becker 2021: 148; 144-150) that allow teachers to take up such topics.  Research supports that EFL learners, being non-native speakers, may engage with difficult topics like mental illnesses on a more cognitive-intercultural level, with a lighter emotional response, more reflectiveness, and emotional distance providing a safer space than their L1 (see Keysar, Hayakawa & An 2012; Becker 2021: 147). A starting point for the promotion of MHL in ELE could thus be to take up prominent mental disorders, such as depression, eating disorders or alcohol abuse (Jorm 2020: 147-148) as well as aspects of positive MHL and integrate them into tasks and discussions which are already taking place in the EFL classroom. As adolescents prefer to seek mental health support and information from people they know (see, e.g., Slone, Meir & Tarrasch 2013; Tuijnman et al. 2019), students are likely to want to talk about mental health as this is a significant topic in their daily lives. They may however hesitate to get involved in such topics if they fear being misunderstood or stigmatized (see, e.g., Tariku Seboka et al. 2022: 8160-8161), making stigma reduction a valuable endeavour in ELE. Otherwise, students might refrain from meaningfully engaging with mental health issues or may not take suffering individuals (real or fictional) seriously. Such an unserious treatment of mental disorders is often grounded in a lack of understanding that mental disorders are medical conditions (see van Beveren et al. 2020: 1368). As studies have shown that mental disorders which are frequently depicted in the media are generally better understood (Furnham & Sjokvist 2017: 32), it seems likely that this would also apply to literature. Teachers could thus incorporate how mental disorders are portrayed in the literature used in ELE and analyse these indirect (re)presentations, for example if and how they differ within different literary periods or texts (see Heath, Smith & Young 2017). Taking up such topics in literature education allows teachers to support learning about signs, symptoms, and treatment options as well as aspects of positive MHL (see Figure 1 and Figure 3). Literature in ELE is an important provider of authentic language usage and allows learners to explore (non-)fictional human experiences, worlds, and topics. Despite the trend towards communicative competences having marginalized literature in the CEFR or KMK (see, e.g., Volkmann 2019: 19-20; Weskamp 2019: 118), it remains a central part of language education across Europe (Gabrielsen, Blikstad-Balas & Tengberg 2019: 2). While the variety of functions and goals of using literature in ELE are well established (see, e.g., Heinz & Hesse 2014; Delanoy, Eisenmann & Matz 2015; Hallet, Surkamp & Krämer 2015; Lütge 2018; Surkamp & Viebrock 2018), the beliefs and perspectives that inform them have at times ”little in common [...] [and may] even be contradictory or mutually exclusive” (Volkmann 2019: 26). Considering the impact of educational, sociocultural, and literary-theoretical concepts (Weskamp 2019: 110), literature is argued to support Bildung as well as the development of multiliteracies, functional communicative, cognitive aesthetic and intercultural competences (Figure 4). Elaborating on all these aspects would go beyond this article, but three prominent ones are discussed in the following and related to MHL. These are the development of empathy and reflection capabilities, the opening of the literary canon (topicand multimodality-wise) and the critical analysis of (re)presentation (for topics of mental disorder and health) in literature (which could be extended to media in general). These developments have become possible, as conceptions of what constitutes literature have changed significantly with a growing awareness of the importance of multimodal literary forms (see Heinz 2020) and the ongoing incorporation of literature with a non-capital ‘l’ from non-core English-speaking countries, 4 (see McRae 1991) opening up new topics; including taboo issues (see Becker, Summer & Ludwig 2022). Literature education in ELE has a long tradition of being linked to the development of empathy as it is well-established that fictional texts evoke emotional responses (see, e.g., Delanoy 2005; Bredella 2012). Bearing in 4 Referring to the wide variety of literary texts and not only those that are considered as part of the canon of high Literature and to be of intellectual, aesthetic or cultural value (such as poems or plays by Shakespeare). mind that students often treat fictional characters like actual beings (Volkmann 2019: 24), engagement with literature can enable a variety of activities, for example acts of identification, the negotiation of different perspectives, critical considerations of moral questions or analytical procedures investigating the narrative design (Volkmann 2019: 24). Koopman and Hakemulder propose such literary-born “insight[s] into human nature” to be distinguishable as either offering insights into the nature of others (what they refer to as empathy) or into one’s own nature (what they refer to as reflection; 2015: 82). A comparable distinction between the affective and cognitive is echoed in the field of psychology, with empathy describing different ways of understanding (see, e.g., Shamay- Tsoory, Aharon-Peretz & Perry 2009). Emotional empathy is the process of affectively relating to the experiences of others (feeling them yourself), whereas cognitive empathy underscores the mental process of imagining the situation of another (their feelings, views, etc.) with an objective perspective/ emotional distance (Furnham & Sjokvist 2017: 32). While both analytical and emotional reading approaches are valuable (see Alsup 2015), the sensitive nature of mental disorders might itself provide an argument that the focus in ELE be best placed on the cognitive side of empathy development. It connects well with the goal of providing opportunities for reflection (see Figure 5) and does not facilitate feelings of powerlessness amongst students. 5 Although both processes take place and cannot be omitted in reading, their development does not happen on its own as they need to be facilitated (Gabrielsen, Blikstad-Balas & Tengberg 2019: 2; see also Volkmann 2019: 31) through careful task-design(s), mindful text and topic selection(s), and by considering the individual learners. In conclusion, in its subject-specific function literature provides students with aesthetic second-hand experiences of fictional (potentially extreme) situations. These can be taken up to promote active reading experiences that encourage engagement with mental health from the “relatively secure position” of the text (Delanoy 2005: 57) and align with the function of empathy development (an important predictor of MHL, Furnham & Sjokvist 2017: 38). Here the wider understanding of literature furthermore allows for new topics and multimodal forms. In addition to fostering empathy, the incorporation of diverse topics and formats appears beneficial for promoting MHL within ELE. As pointed out by Becker (2021: 146-147), the genre of young adult literature (YAL) has 5 In this regard, empathy in literature can be a double-sided sword, disregarding the fictional and how authors guide ideas and reactions with literary devices or the portrayal of stereotypes. Volkmann (2019: 30) notes that empathy can be used to evoke negative effects and feelings in the reader. taken up mental disorder/ health topics with novels like Thirteen Reasons Why (2017) or Looking for Alaska (2006). Both novels present teachers with possibilities and challenges on how to discuss issues like suicide or depression, where difficult teaching situations might occur with students identifying with characters suffering from depression or when discussing negative coping strategies presented in the text. Regarding their discourse competence, students might also need guidance on, for example, how to write a characterisation for a depressed character without engaging in stereotyping practices. Additionally, the multimodal opening of the literary canon might support MHL. A study by Tse et al. (2015) suggests that developing multimodal literacies assists students in critically reflecting upon (mental) health information in digital formats. Graphic novels or interactive narratives might similarly support this development. Overall, less restrictive ideas of what literature can be allows not only for topics like mental health to be embedded into ELE but also for new (digital) forms of linguistic and multimodal (re)presentations to be considered. Social representations of mental health represent a discourse of collective power which shapes how such topics are conveyed and talked about (Neto et al. 2017: 736). Studies on mental health reporting in newspapers revealed, for example, that negative depictions account for 39% of reporting in the US (Corrigan et al. 2005), with Thornicroft et al. (2013) identifying a similar level in England. Literature is here argued to equally shape (and having been shaped) by discourses of what constitutes good and bad mental health but is less direct in its portrayal (see Mar & Oatley 2008; Richmond 2014). While the idea of literature as a mirror is well-established, literature is not an objective (re)presentation (see Volkmann 2019: 31). Consider for example, the portrayals of illness in classical novels like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) or Mrs. Dalloway (1925) in contrast to The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) or Thirteen Reasons Why (2017). By selecting appropriate texts that allow students to engage with topics of mental healthm, MHL can be taken up in ELE. Here literature can then be a valuable instrument for promoting MHL where the depiction of characters with mental disorders can lead to learning about symptoms. Teachers could also reflect on the (re)presentations of mental disorders in literary texts and how it supports or breaks down misconceptions. Building upon the three aspects, how this can be done is explored in the following section with the digital genre of HTF. Similar to how the invention of the printing press made the reproducible written word the medium of choice for knowledge distribution and literary experiences, advancements in technology have made multimodal forms like digital storytelling 6 (e.g., television, movies, interactive stories, computer games, etc.) commonplace in the 21 st century (Smed et al. 2021: 10). Digital literature broadly refers to a category of storytelling that is intentionally produced with technology and meant to be consumed on digital devices (e.g., computer screens, smartphones, etc.). Unlike e-books which are electronic copies that mirror their paper origin (Heinz & Hesse 2014: 89), digital-born forms utilize their technological possibilities for new forms of storytelling. This allows for crafting and presenting narratives that would have been “unthinkable with the materiality of print and pagebound books” (Lütge et al. 2019: 521). A digital-born text consequently “would lose something of its aesthetic and semiotic function if it were removed from that [digital] medium” (Bell & Ensslin 2011: 311). The development of MHL for adolescents has recently seen a focus on utilizing such digital formats, for example so-called ‘serious games’ (see Michael 2006). Broadly defined as games where the goal goes beyond simple enjoyment, these are close to Aarseth’s notion of ‘ergodic literature’ as requiring non-trivial effort to take part in reading (1997: 1). According to Jorm (2020: 154), ‘serious games’ 7 can increase adolescents participation in mental health topics and might better reach younger males, who are less drawn to traditional offers. HTF seems to be able to fulfil a similar function and its inclusion in ELE might open new ways to approach difficult issues such as MHL. 6 I speak generally of storytelling, because it describes the most fundamental form of narrative experience; the telling of (non)fictional experiences for a variety of purposes such as explanation, escapism, entertainment, etc. 7 An example might be SPARX, see https: / / landing.sparx.org.nz/ . Furthermore, keeping in mind the expansive view of literature and the significance of multimodal practices in ELE, incorporating new storytelling formats such as HTF can allow educators to promote a more nuanced understanding of how the written word (which after all remains central in society) can be linked with other modes of meaning-making (see, e.g., Kress & van Leeuwen 2010; Bezemer & Kress 2016; Bateman, Wildfeuer & Hiippala 2017; Cope et al. 2017). In this regard, HTF is a distinctive textbased genre of digital fiction, which can easily be multimodally supported. This makes it an ideal ‘stepping stone’ genre for ELE which can be used for the development of digital literacy and other multiliteracies. Figure 6 outlines how students might move from traditional written print-based forms of communication to other forms of multimodal meaning-making, where teachers would support the development through meaningful engagement with different text types, such as HTF, that rely strongly on the written word but include other modes to support their writing (e.g., visual ones). The question remains, however, why educators should consider using HTF to foster MHL, especially as it is a genre most people have either not heard of or know only as the digital counterpart of the once popular Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) books. Following a brief overview of the genre, the next section outlines its suitability for contributing to MHL. Hypertext, coined by Theodor Nelson, describes the linking of digital texts (so-called nodes) into an interwoven environment, where hyperlinks establish purposeful connections between digital files with the most well-known example being the internet (Ensslin & Skains 2017: 2). Building upon this textual linking capability, HTF is the use of links for storytelling purposes which allow the reader to influence the story (see Holt 2022: 47; see Screenshot 1). The HTF authoring platform Twine and its associated community has been repeatedly identified in the research literature as being noteworthy in its dealing with sensitive and difficult issues (see, e.g., Friedhoff 2013: 1-2; Harvey 2014: 97; Braganca et al. 2016: 944; Ensslin et al. 2016: 181; Thevenin 2017: 2; Skains 2019: 6; Salter & Moulthrop 2021: 8). Nonetheless, apart from one study (Ensslin et al. 2016), the author has not encountered any investigations that specifically address how HTF created in Twine could be used to support mental health. Considering both HTF and the Twine community through an affordanceoriented perspective, three reasons are presented why such stories are valuable to consider for the development of MHL in ELE. These will be explored in the next sections but are briefly summarised as: 1. The ‘immersion-breaking’ nature of HTF hinders students from becoming too absorbed in the story and provides an extra layer of safe narrative space. 2. The ‘non-mainstream’ community surrounding Twine offers a rich and accessible source of HTF stories that allow educators to bring unusual narratives into the classroom, especially stories that engage in the (re)presentations of mental disorders. This can potentially provide mental health information and function in anti-stigmatising ways. Twine itself might also support expressive/ personal writing in productive approaches in which students create their own stories with the added multimodal possibilities, focusing on personal topics or struggles in their everyday life. 3. Some of the medium-specific affordances of HTF allow the topic of MHL to be experienced within ‘novel narrative designs’ which cannot be encountered in traditional literature. These can offer insights into the multicausal nature of mental disorders. First generation HTF writers, such as Joyce (1990), Jackson (1995) or Moulthrop (1991), used the program Storyspace 8 to create hyperlinked literary texts characterised by non-/ multilinear narrative structures. In these, the reader clicks on a link to interact with the story (or indeed stories) and is thus able to shape the branching narrative, while continuously being “reminded of […] paths not taken, voices not heard.” (Aarseth 1997: 3). The concept of interactive storytelling is intriguing as it allows readers to actively guide the unfolding of narrative events instead of being passive observers (Smed et al. 2021: 3). However, the interactive aspect of HTF simulates autonomy rather than granting it. While the reader is free to choose between links on the surface, the underlying structure between the nodes is still deliberately designed by the author. The reader can thus only navigate the branching story by using the paths provided but is unable to take any actions outside of them (e.g., in Screenshot 1 it would not be possible to take the bottle and throw it). Thanks to this trait, HTF can deliberately heighten and diminish the reader’s awareness of authorial control through the ‘illusion of choice making’. 9 Additionally, with there often 8 As Storyspace predates the internet these stories were sold on disks and referred to as electronic literature. 9 A fitting term one of my students used in her hypertext fiction story. being no traditional ending or final page to reach, it is up to the reader to reach their own conclusion. This search for closure invites the reader to reread the story with different possible purposes, for example, finding the best or most interesting ending or to “understand the story” (Mitchell & McGee 2012: 104). However, as Mangen & van der Weel (2017: 167) note, while scholars interested in HTF (and postmodern literary theories especially, see Ensslin & Skains 2017: 5) suggested several reasons why it should have appealed to readers, it failed to attract public interest. One reason for this marginal status might be that the disruptive tendency of non-linear reading in HTF stands fundamentally at odds with the passive following of a story one associates with literary fiction. Readers favour an immersive reading experience, in which they (often emotionally) engage with characters, plot, and the fictional world while passively following the events drawn up by the author and where the pleasure of reading fundamentally stems from becoming “lost in the book” (Mangen & van der Weel 2017: 171; 168-171). This seems to not occur in HTF, as empirical studies found its active choicemaking component to disrupt the reader’s passive reading; leaving them “frustrated, disoriented, [and] confused” (Mangen & van der Weel 2017: 170). As such, the immersion-breaking characteristic seems to be one reason why the HTF genre was quickly replaced by other digital forms (Smed et al. 2021: 14). Given its non-closure format and immersion-breaking quality, a current trend in HTF leans towards less open-ended narrative designs and the integration of game-like multimodal features (Ensslin et al. 2016: 179), with superior ways of encoding complex data (e.g. music, pictures, etc.) allowing for the easy integration of multimedia elements (Ryan 2006: 148). While decision-making through links remains at the heart of the genre, these technical features support the writing. HTF authoring systems like Twine or Inform7 can thus enable a variety of designs, be they game-imitating (e.g., inventories or status bars), multimodally supported (e.g., visual and audio) or experimental. The Twine community especially has received scholarly and media attention for its use of HTF storytelling in nonmainstream ways to address difficult topics. - Twine is a cost-free, user-friendly, open-source tool developed by Klimas in 2009. It is an HTF authoring program that allows a single person to create interactive choice-based stories by linking text passages within an easy-touse graphical interface. 10 Twine stories are viewed and shared as HTML 10 It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux but can also be used online. Twine and its online resources are primarily written in English but community translations (including German) can be selected. files, a nearly ubiquitous data format readable by any web browser. The platform is built around the idea of removing hardware and knowledge barriers with neither a high-end computer nor experience in coding or programming being required to use Twine (Salter & Moulthrop 2021: 11). The affordances of Twine, its easy creation and HTML sharing possibilities, result in an unrestrictive publication process without any quality control by a publishing authority (unlike the early Storyspace system, see O’Sullivan 2021: 256). 11 Similar to some Fanfiction genres, this allows Twine to take up “taboo content” (Friedhoff 2013: 8) such as MHL. Twine rose to prominence with the so-called Twine revolution, which originated with indie game developer Anthropy (2012) promoting Twine as a tool for the creation and telling of stories that the male-dominated gaming industry would not consider. As a result, Twine has been argued to challenge the “Hegemony of Play” (see Fron et al. 2007: 309; also Harvey 2014: 96) going against the assumptions of themes, design elements, and topics that appeal to the target demographic of digital games, predominantly white heterosexual men (Braganca et al. 2016: 937). Analogous to (re)presentations in literature, games also reflect “normative discourses […] [that] teach […] and reinforce the division between the acceptable and unacceptable” (Peele 2007: 2). Twine’s prominence for engaging in non-mainstream topics is arguably fuelled by its non-commercial and accessible nature (Ryan 2006: 152). Facilitated by the absence of a publishing authority, it is the community that promotes stories. Digital fiction communities reflect in their stories a set of aesthetic, social, and cultural values and practices (Eskelinen, Koskimaa & Di Rosario: 235-236). Twine might consequently be called a tool for resistance (see Braganca et al. 2016, 938), as the community places emphasis on storytelling and not on game-design (with Twine itself referring to any product created within it as a story) and reflects such assumptions in the paratexts and stories that it endorses (Harvey 2014: 97). To summarize, because of its affordances, the characterisation it has received and the authors it has attracted and still attracts, Twine is a prominent storytelling space for difficult topics and non-mainstream (re)presentations, including LGBTQ+ experiences, discrimination, and mental disorders. One prominent example is the Twine story Intake by Maddox Pratt (2012), a brief but fast-paced CYOA-style narrative in which the reader partakes in a conversation with a mental health provider. In the story, the healthcare worker asks the protagonist several questions and the reader selects the answers, simulating a diagnostic conversation. However, only by selecting the correct answers can the reader advance the story. With this mechanism, the story critically explores disempowerment in the mental 11 Which might be why Storyspace authors continue to be referred to as they indicate some sort of sociocultural value, as “we assume, rightly or wrongly, something about self-published literature” (O’Sullivan 2021: 256). health context. Another example is the (semi-)fictional piece Conversations With My Mother (2013) by merritt kopas who identifies as a trans woman. Here, the reader selects the answers of the author’s mother during a conversation with her daughter while discussing the gender transition, having to choose language elements (such as pronouns or name), as well as conversation topics to engage in or to omit, making it a story about discovering someone’s queerness. Additionally, HTF writing favours small-scale explorative choice-making, which Salter (2016: 1) notes make it suitable for portraying emotional discourses, especially with the accessible affordances of Twine. As a result, HTF lends itself quite naturally to writing about personal topics (Hudson 2014). This particular characteristic of Twine stories has led some to refer to them as “personal games” (Harvey 2014: 98-99) or to view them as forms of “expressive writing” (Ensslin et al. 2016: 195). Such a writing format might be interesting to consider for creative writing in ELE. In such a productive approach, students could be encouraged to first produce a suitable situation for a decision-based story. They would then need to imagine possible (realistic) choices and their outcomes while reflecting on their effects and interplay within a branching narrative. Additionally, learners would need to carefully plan and connect these choices and consider if and how to portray or enhance them multimodally before creating the final product. In structural terms, this would be a complex creative writing undertaking that also allows students to integrate and bring important personal topics into the classroom in a novel narrative format. Moreover, the community aspect of digital literature writing might be important to consider (Peterson et al. 2022: 1950). Like adolescents who engage in fanfiction writing find digital affinity groups (Jacobs 2013: 3), digital fiction spaces like Twine are also “community centred” (Eskelinen, Koskimaa & Di Rosario: 235). Students who created HTF in school may decide afterwards to engage with the community, for example by publishing stories. As the Twine community is considered supportive of newcomers and open to discussing challenging subjects, this might lead to other forms of contact with MHL-related topics. - Finally, HTF conventions can display narratives with novel ways of (re)presenting mental health. In her study on how Twine stories encourage empathy interaction, Salter (2016) identified several Twine/ HTF characteristics which resonate with mental health topics. As these features are difficult to portray in a vacuum, they will be outlined in connection to the HTF story Depression Quest (2013) as to how they could be discussed with learners of English. The prominent (and contextually complex 12 ) HTF Depression Quest (2013) created by Quinn, Lindsey, and Schankler narratively simulates the experience of suffering from depression. The story is text-based and only lightly multimodally supported with music and a selection of images (photographs at the top of the page) reinforcing a gloomy atmosphere. The first page of the story is notably situated on a metatextual level and gives contextual information where the authors outline the intention of the story, provide a trigger warning, and supply links to real-life mental health providers and an emergency contact number. The story begins on the second textual node, with the reader being introduced to the character’s situation and background information being available through a number of links. In the typical form of HTF, the reader follows the protagonist (who suffers from undiagnosed depression) and at pre-defined points selects choices for them to advance the story. Right from the start, one choice, notably the seemingly healthiest one given the situation, is crossed out and unavailable), forcing the reader to select what they believe to be the next best option: 1. Order some food, grab a drink, and hunker down for a night of work. 2. Reluctantly sit down at your desk and try and make yourself do something 3: Turn on the TV, telling yourself you just need a quick half hour to unwind from work 4: Crawl into bed. You're so stressed and overwhelmed you couldn't possibly accomplish anything anyways. This limitation continues throughout the story and as some outcomes are difficult to anticipate, the reader might (often unintentionally) pick options that worsen the depression. This in turn restricts more options and allows the mechanical layer of the story to rapidly (and forcefully) display a depressive downward spiral that cannot be undone and requires a restart if one wants to arrive at a more positive ending. Furthermore, the narration style in Depression Quest is a 2 nd person narrator, which in the literary context is often associated with reader personification and the portrayal of internal discourses. Here, Depression Quest reflects the broader conventions of HTF, where choice-based narratives invite the use of present tense, the progressive and imperatives (commonly below the descriptive text) to show the reader’s shaping of the story. While such a storytelling style supports the illusion of choice, it also contributes to the immersion breaking aspect as reflecting on the story choices and their possible outcomes is required. Consequently, the reader is prevented from 12 DQ (sadly) is strongly connected to the online harassment campaign ‘Gamer Gate’, where Zoë Quinn was a main target of a misogynistic, anti-feminism and antidiversity online gaming movement. identifying with the protagonist completely (Bell & Ensslin 2011: 313) and this type of reading might be better characterised as “forced participation” (Walker 2001: 19). However, the narration style also allows for different roles to be taken up by the reader, for example they might select choices that seem most realistic given the protagonist (affective empathy focused), the choices might reflect what they themselves would do (personificationand reflection focused), or they might assume responsibility for the protagonist and strive to make good choices for them (cognitive empathy focused). The last role is arguably implied as the objective in Depression Quest as the story displays a (game-like) status bar below the hyperlink area which signals the character’s mental state and changes depending on the options selected (see Screenshot 3). It depicts three pieces of information: if the character is seeing a therapist, if the character is taking medication as well as outlining the general energy level of the character. The goal (or quest) of the story seems to be to change these three situations for the betterment of the protagonist. Overall, the limited range of choices and the 2 nd person narration in Depression Quest ask the reader to reflect on positive and negative forms of mental health action while stressing that the best-seeming choice may be impossible for someone suffering from depression. This restriction placed on the mechanical layer encourages a reflected understanding of how depression might 13 feel, while the constant questioning and reflection on mundane as well as meaningful choice-making situations supports antistigmatisation as it draws attention to flaws in the reader’s perception as what they regard as an easy or obvious choice might be perceived differently by someone with a mental illness. Overall, this supports de-stigmatisation and can aid the development of affective and cognitive empathy towards people suffering from this mental disorder, especially if actively discussed and analysed with students in ELE. Furthermore, the ambiguity of the 2 nd person narration allows for different reading roles to be assumed by the reader, potentially adding emotional distance. Experiencing and reflecting on these different reading roles and their textual implications can enhance students’ language learning and MHL as they actively analyse situations within the narrative. This fosters critical thinking and encourages learners to think about their own perspective and choice making. Overall, incorporating interactive narratives in ELE engages students with language in new and meaningful ways. Overall, HTF allows for new possibilities to explore mental health topics in ELE that are different, and arguably novel, in comparison to other literary forms. Stories like the one mentioned above, while still fictional, may help in better grasping the challenges faced by people suffering from mental disorders, resulting in more nuanced (re)presentation(s). Novel design 13 As this is still a narrative and deliberate (re)presentation that is not reflective of reality or individual experiences. identifying with the protagonist completely (Bell & Ensslin 2011: 313) and this type of reading might be better characterised as “forced participation” (Walker 2001: 19). However, the narration style also allows for different roles to be taken up by the reader, for example they might select choices that seem most realistic given the protagonist (affective empathy focused), the choices might reflect what they themselves would do (personificationand reflection focused), or they might assume responsibility for the protagonist and strive to make good choices for them (cognitive empathy focused). The last role is arguably implied as the objective in Depression Quest as the story displays a (game-like) status bar below the hyperlink area which signals the character’s mental state and changes depending on the options selected (see Screenshot 3). It depicts three pieces of information: if the character is seeing a therapist, if the character is taking medication as well as outlining the general energy level of the character. The goal (or quest) of the story seems to be to change these three situations for the betterment of the protagonist. Overall, the limited range of choices and the 2 nd person narration in Depression Quest ask the reader to reflect on positive and negative forms of mental health action while stressing that the best-seeming choice may be impossible for someone suffering from depression. This restriction placed on the mechanical layer encourages a reflected understanding of how depression might 13 feel, while the constant questioning and reflection on mundane as well as meaningful choice-making situations supports antistigmatisation as it draws attention to flaws in the reader’s perception as what they regard as an easy or obvious choice might be perceived differently by someone with a mental illness. Overall, this supports de-stigmatisation and can aid the development of affective and cognitive empathy towards people suffering from this mental disorder, especially if actively discussed and analysed with students in ELE. Furthermore, the ambiguity of the 2 nd person narration allows for different reading roles to be assumed by the reader, potentially adding emotional distance. Experiencing and reflecting on these different reading roles and their textual implications can enhance students’ language learning and MHL as they actively analyse situations within the narrative. This fosters critical thinking and encourages learners to think about their own perspective and choice making. Overall, incorporating interactive narratives in ELE engages students with language in new and meaningful ways. Overall, HTF allows for new possibilities to explore mental health topics in ELE that are different, and arguably novel, in comparison to other literary forms. Stories like the one mentioned above, while still fictional, may help in better grasping the challenges faced by people suffering from mental disorders, resulting in more nuanced (re)presentation(s). Novel design 13 As this is still a narrative and deliberate (re)presentation that is not reflective of reality or individual experiences. elements, such as restrictive choice making, can invite personal reflection and encourage cognitive empathy development. Furthermore, especially Twine stories show an unusual openness for including characters with mental disorders within their community of practice. This may make it a valuable space to consider given its acclaimed uptake of taboo topic, where the representation in stories can empower individuals who feel marginalized due to their mental health issues. Taking up HTF in expressive writing formats in ELE would allow students to craft stories highlighting personal struggles. Through this, they may take ownership of their experiences and feelings which can lead to a sense of empowerment crucial for mental well-being. However, further research investigating such productive approaches would be needed. MHL is entering the school context but integration efforts are still “patchwork” (Weist et al. 2017: 345). As an integrated educational approach currently seems distant, language teachers and researchers might want to consider how MHL could be addressed in subjects such as ELE. In this article I have shown that the rather unusual genre of HTF has potential for fostering interaction with mental health topics in ELE. Similar to other literary texts, HTF can be used to promote empathy or reflect on the (re)presentation of mental disorders in narrative formats. However, communities like Twine, the immersion-breaking nature of HTF and the novel narrative design possibilities make HTF stand out. Additionally, a cognitive empathy focused reading seems to align with the branching explorative nature of the genre. While such possibilities would need to be carefully facilitated by teachers, especially given the difficult nature of the subject, they highlight some possibilities how HTF could be an interesting genre for the integration of MHL in ELE. Especially its unusual (or novel) storytelling format and the taboo-embracing Twine community present teachers with entry points to facilitate meaningful interaction with mental disorders and their (re)presentation. Furthermore, the decision-making style of HTF as a form of personal story co-creation may support a safe(r), immersion-breaking reading that seems valuable for reflective and cognitive empathy development, with the non- / multilinearity of HTF perhaps better reflecting the multifaceted nature of mental disorders. HTF thus seems well suited as one genre among many to engage learners in MHL related topics, by fostering critical thinking, reflection, and a broader understanding of mental disorders. Although the features and dimensions discussed seem promising, further research is clearly needed. Among other aspects, it should focus on evaluating and identifying possible texts in terms of topic portrayal, as well as age and language appropriateness. Although Twine seems like a rich narrative space, the language levels and aesthetic complexity displayed in many HTF stories seem generally too advanced for younger learners. Furthermore, the same (small) canon of HTF tends to be referred to in the literature, potentially indicating the discussed lack of quality control as a challenge in terms of identifying suitable stories. However, such an assessment could align with research questioning how HTF might support the development of language competences in ELE, going beyond the literary dimension discussed in this article. In this regard, language education researchers might also want to think about how the language in HTF affects our perception of mental disorders in contrast to print literature with both forms ideally being combined. Finally, it would be important to empirically identify and evaluate design features that appeal to or hinder the reading of readers (see Ensslin et al. 2016: 189). In summary, this article has found HTF, despite its relative niche status, to offer several innovative opportunities for integrating MHL into ELE within a subject-specific framework. 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Labels used by young people to describe mental disorders: Factors associated with their development. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 43 (10): 946-955. Woolf, Virginia ([1925] 2020). Mrs. Dalloway. London: Penguin Classics. Sean Holt Fachdidaktik Englisch Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel The experience of racism can cause a wide range of mental health disorders for racialized learners in German classrooms, many of which go unnoticed. This contribution works towards establishing anti-racist English language education with a focus on creating awareness of the effects of racism on the mental health of racialized learners in the German school context, and especially in secondary language education. After outlining the connection between racism and mental health disorders and suggesting basic principles of anti-racist English language education, the potential of graphic novels as multimodal, multi-semiotic, and highly engaging texts to connect mental health literacy, i.e. recognizing and identifying mental health disorders, with racial literacy, i.e. an in-depth understanding of concepts of race and racism will be explored. In connecting these two literacies in the English language classroom, this contribution posits, the detrimental effects of racism are made visible, awareness is promoted, and potential mental health disorders of racialized learners can be understood, destigmatized, and actively countered. Racism has gained an unprecedented global salience (Milman et al. 2021). Violent excesses of racist violence, such as the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA, in May 2020 or, more locally, the attack in Hanau, Germany, in February 2020, garnered enormous media attention. However, these extreme forms of racist violence can divert from the prevalence and ordinariness of racism and its detrimental effect on the mental health of those who experience it. Focusing on what Ahmed has called the “bad apples” (2012: 44), i.e., those individuals with openly racist or extremist attitudes, can distract from the pressing problems of institutional, structural, interpersonal, and epistemological racism. These forms of racism are especially relevant to the educational context where learners are confronted - with them on a daily basis (see, e.g., Karabulut 2020). With mental health defined 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 2020, emph. S.B.), awareness of the harmful effects of racism on learners is of tremendous importance for teachers. Experiencing racism on an interpersonal as well as an institutional level is a source of psychological distress and trauma that can result in race-based traumatic stress, which causes complex symptoms comparable to post-traumatic stress disorder (Helms et al. 2010; Carter et al. 2013: 2, Kluge et al. 2020: 1019f)). This constant distress to which learners in educational context feel subjected can lead to a number of mental health conditions and severe psychological disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Taking the potentially traumatizing effect of racist discrimination seriously is a highly relevant task for educators in increasingly diverse English language classrooms. In these contexts, committing to countering discriminatory practices is especially relevant for white teachers, who - as members of the majority in the Global North - need to reflect on their positionality and its effect on the power structures in the classroom. 1 Here, I posit that English language education can play a vital role in fostering an awareness of the effects of racism in the German school context, building upon existing curricula, frameworks, and educational objectives for the subject that repeatedly highlight the relevance of openness, tolerance, and respect for others (e.g., KMK 2012; TMBJS 2019). 2 Addressing the complex and difficult problem of racism without reproducing racist narratives and images requires thorough self-reflection, and in-depth knowledge of the topic and the learner group, thus calling for extensive and thoughtful preparation by the teacher. While teachers are already taking on this challenging task in their teaching practice, theoretical conceptualizations for implementing anti-racist approaches to English language education in German schools are surprisingly scarce (Mihan 2012; Mihan & Voerkel 2022; Braselmann 2023, 2023b). The connection of mental health issues and experiences of racism in language education has not been examined so far. 1 Informed by critical whiteness scholarship (Leonardo 2002), the term whiteness does not refer to white people but is understood as a socially constructed racial category and an ideology tied to material privilege. As such, whiteness is seen as a category that is malleable and changing (Delgado & Stefancic 2017: 88f; DiAngelo 2023: 101) and not monolithic or fixed. Further, not all white people benefit from their white privilege to the same degree, as intersectional approaches show (Crenshaw 1989; DiAngelo 2023: 216ff). As with all aspects of anti-racism, essentialist notions and the monolithic grouping of individuals need to be approached with caution so as not to reproduce and construct alterity (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 8). 2 I am grateful to my former colleague Anja Keil for her invaluable input for the initial draft of this paper. To address this desideratum, this theoretical and analytical contribution suggests the use of literature, specifically: graphic novels, as a point of departure for English language education at secondary level (approx. grade 8 and up, 14-18 years of age) for creating an awareness of the detrimental effects of racism on the mental health of racialized learners in heterogeneous classrooms 3 . So-called multicultural (or ethnic minority literature) offers several valuable insights, aspects for analysis, and potential for meaningful and self-reflexive tasks (Mihan 2012; Braselmann 2023). Literature is still at the heart of English language education (Matz 2020: 53), and fictional narratives, as the following sections will show, can be highly valuable in approaching complex, potentially discomforting but pressing social issues. The following pages will ask how graphic novels as multimodal texts (Hallet 2018; Eisenmann & Summer 2020) that address and visualize the effects of racism on different levels can be used in establishing an antiracist approach in English language education, which can help to uncover and counter racism by helping learners to understand and reflect on the problems that it causes for racialized learners. It will show the challenges and the potential of including these texts from the perspective of a white teacher. 4 Here, it is posited that these multimodal texts lend themselves to a balanced approach that encourages critical analysis and can promote selfreflexive engagement with the texts. To lay the groundwork for this, this contribution will begin by outlining the points of departure for addressing racism in English language education and highlighting the necessity of doing so in a decisively anti-racist approach - one of the motivations for this complex endeavor is acknowledging the traumatic and distressing effects of racism experienced in school contexts. To do so, it will present the theoretical foundation and the principles for an anti-racist approach in English language education as a necessary underpinning for the endeavor. These suggestions are intended to be implemented in teacher education to minimize the reproduction of racist narratives and images in school contexts (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 6), focusing on the specifics of English language education. The final aspect of this section is a delineation of the potential of racial literacy as a teaching goal. In a next step, to make these considerations more tangible and to relate them to teaching practice, this contribution will focus on the use of graphic novels in the classroom, showing the specific potential and limitations of the genre for anti-racist teaching with a view to mental health 3 “Racialized” is used to underline the constructedness of race as a social category. 4 I acknowledge that I am writing from the privileged perspective and relative safety of white women working in academia and understand that my positionality contributes to a subject-specific discourse that is shaped and dominated by white perspectives and resulting power structures (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 7, DiAngelo 2023: 6). I am reflecting critically on my positionality and attempt to promote this critical stance in the predominantly white field of teacher education, despite the dilemmata this endeavor holds. issues: As multi-semiotic texts, this section will demonstrate, they can serve as an engaging starting point for discussion and can be used to foster an active engagement with the narrative, thus promoting critical analysis and self-reflexivity. Here, I will briefly show how the concept of racial literacy as a teaching objective focusing on racial identities (Price-Deniz & Sealy- Ruiz 2021) can be a highly beneficial objective in establishing anti-racist teaching practices that can help to uncover and sensitize learners as well as teachers for the effects of racism. Despite increasing attention to racism as a societal problem that permeates the school context, subject-specific didactic research with a critical perspective on racism (Rassismuskritik) is still rather scarce in Germany. 5 However, identifying and understanding concepts of race and racism is of great relevance to educators since racism and its effects negatively impact the lives of racialized learners and influence both learners and classroom dynamics on various levels of interaction, learning, and communication, some of which are connected to mental health issues related to the experiences. Here, race is defined as a social construct that groups individuals based on a few shared physical traits (Delgado & Stefancic 2017: 9). Racism is a form of oppression in which one racial group dominates others, and encompasses institutional, political, social, epistemological, and economical actions and beliefs with effects on the distribution of privilege, power, and resources (DiAngelo 2023: 108). 6 Racial discrimination, therefore, refers to the behavioral manifestation of racism used to establish or reinforce these power structures and their material effects on the distribution of resources and access. As a global system of oppression, racism works across all societal and political levels, including educational contexts. Research has highlighted that experiences with racism and race-based encounters (including unintentional othering or microaggressions) lead to 5 The German term Rassismuskritik refers to a critical analysis of racism as a structuring principle (Strukturmerkmal) of Western societies (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 3). In this contribution, I use the term anti-racism, which entails a double focus on analysis and action that is not equally emphasized in the German concept. 6 In Germany the dominant group is white. Therefore, racism is white racial and is used to the advantage of whites (DiAngelo 2023: 108). As a form of oppression, racism does not operate on an individual level (Ahmed 2012: 44; DiAngelo 2023: 62) but is group prejudice and discrimination backed by institutional power (e.g., in educational contexts or politics). While members of a dominant group may experience contextual discrimination, they do not face oppression. enhanced stress and can be potentially traumatizing (see, e.g., Carter et al. 2013: 1, Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017; Kluge et al. 2020: 1019). Following the World Health Organization’s (2022) definitions, this stress can result in learners’ limited ability to learn and work and to engage with others in classroom settings. Carter et al. (2013: 2) describe severe mental health conditions as results of so-called race-based traumatic stress, which they define a syndrome that can occur from race-based encounters “that are experienced as sudden, out of one’s control, and emotionally painful”. Experiencing racist discrimination and race-based encounters can be “associated with symptoms of psychological suffering and emotional disturbance, such as depression, general distress, generalized anxiety, [...] hyperarousal, and physical reactions” (ibid.). Even though mental health issues within minority communities are systematically underrepresented in health research (Arday 2018: 2), it has been shown that the intensity at which racism is experienced is a direct determinant of mental health (e.g., Williams & Williams-Morris 2000; Masko 2014; Paradies et al. 2015; Cavalhieri & Wilcox 2022). The experience of racism, especially in early childhood, appears to have lasting detrimental effects on the children’s social and emotional development as well as on their adolescent and adult mental health (e.g., Berry, Tobón & Njoroge 2021), which makes an awareness of the problem specifically relevant for educators. Regarding the experiences of racism in educational contexts, Arday (2022: 81) further points out that the victimisation experienced can often be a catalyst towards feelings of isolation and marginalisation, which can be a precursor to altered [sic! ] psychological state [...]. The oppression faced resides within the wider context of enduring institutional racism sustained through hostile and violent cultures. Acknowledging and understanding these mental-health effects and their potential to hamper the educational paths of racially marginalized learners is a prerequisite for assuming an anti-racist teaching approach. Even though post-Nazi Germany likes to understand itself as post-racist (Roig 2017: 617f), the idea of German schools as spaces without racism appears to be an illusion that does not hold under scrutiny: Here, racialized learners are experiencing interpersonal, institutional, and epistemological racism daily (Scharathow 2014; Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017; Moffit & Juang 2019; Karabulut 2020). Racially marginalized learners experience hate speech, othering, biased assessment practices, and Eurocentric teaching material and content throughout their education. Additionally, in predominantly white classrooms, they can suffer from classroom discussions shaped by minimizing racism or negating race-based encounters (Rodriguez 2009: 494). As a result, racism becomes a grueling “background noise” (Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017: 281) in the lives of learners from racialized groups. For teachers across all subjects, acknowledging what this means for different learner groups requires an awareness of what Critical Race Theory scholars refer to as the ‘ordinariness’ of racism: Racism, as Delgado and Stefancic (2017: 8) stress, “is ordinary, not aberrational - ‘normal science’, the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color”. Racism, they point out, is hard to address and counter because it is frequently left unacknowledged. This lack of understanding, in turn, results in denial or, when racism is observed or confronted, resistance (see, e.g., Giroux 1997; DiAngelo 2023; for English language education: Braselmann 2023). However, as US-American scholarship on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (see, e.g., Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995), Critical Whiteness Pedagogy (see, e.g., Giroux 1997), Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (see, e.g., Alim 2010) and Anti-Racist Pedagogy (see, e.g., Kishimoto 2018) have stressed, paying attention to racism and its effects on learning processes, classroom discussions, and outcomes is of utmost importance. These educational concepts and approaches, which also inform this contribution, are based on the multidisciplinary framework of Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2017), Critical Pedagogy (Freire 2005) and critical approaches to English language education (Pennycook 1999). The specific relevance of educational contexts in countering and dismantling racism is thus rooted in the belief that all education is political and that there is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Understanding and analyzing racism, critically self-reflecting, and actively promoting critical self-reflection among learners are thus the cornerstones of anti-racist approaches to English language education. Taking the effects of racism on the mental health of the racially marginalized seriously can drive changes in teaching practices. Especially for white teachers - who, as numbers suggest, are still the vast majority of the German teaching force (Rat für Migration e.V. 2023) - understanding the ordinariness of racism is a prerequisite for taking a stance against racism in their teaching practice. This entails being aware of the fact that even the most careful, most open-minded, and ‘woke’ teacher can accidentally and unwillingly reproduce racist narratives and images (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 3). I argue that English language education offers an ideal space for establishing this anti-racist teaching approach in German secondary education and presents various opportunities to foster an awareness of mental health conditions caused by the prevalence of racism within the school context. This suitability for addressing racism is connected to the role of the English language, curricular demands, recent developments in English language teacher education and didactics, as well as teaching content and material, as it will be explained in the following sections. One of the fundamental reasons lies in the subject itself and in the connection of the English language to discourses of race and the history of English language education. As Von Esch, Motha, and Kubota (2020: 391) point out: While scholarship explicitly connecting race to the language teaching profession began to emerge notably only in recent decades, the racialization of language teaching has a history that is likely as old as language teaching itself. For many centuries, even millennia, language contact and transmission have frequently taken place between communities and individuals of different racial identifications. The ways languages have been shared, withheld, or forced upon learners have played an important role in shaping related power inequities and racial formations and in mobilizing different material and social resources as well as teaching materials and textbooks, the English language classroom is already a place in which teachers discuss and address racism. In Germany, discussing racism is already part of the day-to-day of English teachers: Not only does racial content such as the Civil Rights Movement, postcolonial literature, or the Black Lives Matter movement offer a plethora of starting points for a critical analysis of racism. Educational goals and curricula, too, provide a clear educational objective for teachers: On national and European levels they strongly emphasize the relevance of teaching for democracy, openness, and tolerance in language education (Council of Europe 2001; KMK 2012). State curricula further specify these rather vague goals by including content foci related to respect in multicultural societies, openness and tolerance across all grades, and adding civic engagement for secondary education, specifically for advanced learners (e.g., MSB NRW 2019; TMBJS 2019). However, as with all challenging topics, these educational goals and curricular demands run the risk of turning into “affirmative lip-service” (Lütge & Merse 2020: 182): While the frameworks may demand teaching for democracy, these honorable objectives are not yet consistently interlinked with social justice elements, thus also neglecting a stronger focus on the mental health of all learners. Only a decisive stance against discrimination and injustice, and a strong connection of educational objectives with action for human rights, such as mental health (WHO 2020), could help to translate these broad values into tangible action and encourage participation (Matz 2020: 63). Without this participatory perspective, integrating political elements in English language education can always revert to the long-standing paradigm of cultural learning in the sense of intercultural communicative competences (Byram 1997; Council of Europe 2001; European Centre for Modern Languages 2010), thus not establishing a connection to the learners’ contexts and experiences, by limiting the focus on the so-called ‘target cultures’ of language teaching (Römhild & Gaudelli 2022). This approach consequently results in lacking the localness of learning, which all critical pedagogy puts center stage (Freire 2005; Akbari 2008), and further misses the self-reflective stance that forms the prerequisite of anti-racist teaching. However, a re-politicization of English language education may be underway, as teacher education is slowly embracing a more critical stance in the face of current political changes (see, e.g., Gerlach 2020; König 2020; Lütge & Merse 2020; Ludwig & Summer 2023; König & Louloudi 2023 forthc.). For teachers, embracing the principles of critical pedagogy means an analytical focus on existing power structures, inequalities, and forms of injustice that are manifested in the classroom in various forms and to different degrees. It also entails a somewhat radical student-centered approach that always includes the immediate lived experiences of the learners and establishes a localness of learning (Akbari 2008: 280). This aligns with the demands of anti-racist English language education that will be outlined in the following and that will further be connected with the objectives of mental health literacy. These principles relate to both classroom practice and choice of materials and can be implemented in teacher education as a way of preparing for anti-racist classroom practice. In lesson planning, material design and reflection on methods and activities, these principles can be presented, discussed theoretically, practiced and evaluated. Implementing these principles in English language teacher education could also encourage further theoretical and methodological reflection in teacher education and didactics, which is still needed (Simon & Fereidooni 2020: 9). They are informed by Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Delgado & Stefancic 2017), Critical Whiteness Pedagogy (Giroux 1997; Leonardo 2002; Gillborn 2006; DiAngelo 2023), the German conceptualizations of racism critique in subject-specific didactics (rassismuskritische Fachdidaktik; Simon & Fereidooni 2020), and Anti-Racist Pedagogy (Kubota & Lin 2009; Kishimoto 2018). Without claiming to be an exhaustive list, the following points present a general idea of anti-racist English language teaching and can thus be an orientation for preand in-service teachers that may serve as starting point for further discussion and specification. 1. Anti-racist English language education begins with the teacher’s critical self-reflexivity and an understanding of positionality and its relation to power structures in the classroom (see, e.g. Kubota & Lin 2009; Kishimoto 2018; DiAngelo 2023; Braselmann 2024: forthcoming). 2. This self-reflexivity includes a thorough understanding of the specific educational context, as it is aware of racial identities and the experiences with racism among learners and thoughtfully considers the mental health related issues that are connected to these experiences, i.e. race-based traumatic stress and its symptoms. This perspective demands a previous reflection on the difficulties of addressing racism and thus offers several opportunities for participation, making space for sharing personal experiences but always providing safe and more abstract options for learners (e.g., reverting to a fictional story for those who may be retraumatized). For teachers, this also entails paying attention to differences among learners without categorizing them into monolithic and racialized groups, and engaging in potentially hurtful othering. Navigating this fine line of being considerate and thoughtful but not careful to the point of avoidance (DiAngelo 2023) requires thorough preparation and needs to be addressed as a challenge in teacher education. 3. This needs to inform establishing rules for classroom discussion geared toward establishing a relatively safe atmosphere for discussing racial content and, potentially, personal experiences. These discussion norms require an awareness of the potentially traumatizing effect of racebased encounters (Bergold-Caldwell et al. 2017). Thus, thorough preparation (e.g., conveying knowledge about the genesis and history of terms, such as the n-word) is needed. In teacher education, this selfreflection should be interwoven with reflection on the power of language as well as the powerful role of the English language in the construction of categories and discourses, specifically race, and in processes of racialization (Pennycook 1999; Akbari 2008; Kubota & Lin 2009; Alim 2010; Braselmann 2023b). 4. In English language teaching, the dimension of language and communicative competence is a crucial aspect of teaching against racism. Antiracist English language teaching acknowledges how language - and especially the English language - serves to uphold power structures and social injustice. This is a key element of critical language awareness (Pennycook 1999: 333) and critical discursive awareness (kritische Diskursfähigkeit; Römhild & Marxl 2023). Anti-racist English language education therefore asks, “‘How can language be used to maintain, reinforce, and perpetuate existing power relations? ’ And, conversely, ‘How can language be used to resist, redefine and possibly reverse these relations? ’” (Alim 2010: 214). 5. Teachers are also aware of the potential of educational settings to reproduce politics of domination, i.e., marginalized learners’ hesitance to speak up in classroom debates (hooks 1993: 39f). In anti-racist teaching, the voices of all learners are recognized, and teaching activities geared toward amplifying the voices of marginalized learners are integrated (e.g., reflective writing activities and journals, anonymously written responses, discussion corners, reading aloud). 6. Anti-racist English language education also actively addresses racism on the content level and does not shy away from discussing issues related to race and racial identities, even in predominantly white classrooms (Borsheim-Black & Sarigianides 2019: 93). It does so in a transcultural way, acknowledging and pointing toward the transversality of racism, establishing localness in the classroom, and promoting critical self-reflexivity. 7. In doing so, anti-racist English language education actively challenges binary notions of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ that are still, embedded in the concept of intercultural communicative competences, the predominant paradigm for teaching (e.g. Council of Europe 2001). For teachers, this also entails a thorough analysis of the use of pronouns in referring to particular groups or experiences. Instead of speaking about ‘them’, teachers are informed of specific ways to speak about certain groups. This requires in-depth knowledge of terminology and an understanding of racial identities and concepts of race. For material selection, the following aspects should be added: Anti-racist English language education is mindful of racist narratives, images, and materials that uphold, reproduce, and reinforce racist knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes. These images remain to be found in teaching material (Alter 2020; Bönkost 2020), and teachers thus need to know how to identify these elements and how to react to learners discovering or pointing out racist elements that they may not have recognized as such themselves. Further, teaching materials should foreground the voices of minorities and further focus on narratives of joy, resistance, or hope instead of choosing texts/ materials only when issues related to racism or victimization are addressed. Considering elements of counter-stories (Hughes-Hassell 2013) in the choice of texts and materials is especially valuable in supporting the mental health of racially marginalized learners - not only acknowledging suffering and shared experiences in counter-stories but also showing positive emotions, supportive families and communities, joy and the ability to prevail and even thrive within racist societies can be empowering and instill hope among racialized learners (Hughes-Hassell 2013; Kishimoto 2018). This focus demands diversified teaching material across all topics in English language education: Existing Eurocentric or predominantly white material can be supplemented with perspectives from different racial identities, thus breaking up stereotypical or monolithic representations of minority groups. Informed by critical pedagogy, learners can partially select teaching material in cooperative processes and engage in creating rich and diverse material selection, e.g. in text ensembles (Braselmann 2023). Teachers can use these processes to promote critical debate and controversy in classroom discussions. The chosen material also needs to be complemented with ample scaffolding providing essential knowledge regarding its racial content (e.g., historical background, terminology, the addressee of the material) to enable this critical debate in a way that allows for informed arguments. As a last aspect, choosing a variety of multimodal materials, texts, and images with various perspectives on a topic allows for various opportunities for participation in different classroom settings (Matias & Mackey 2016; Braselmann 2023b.). Here, teachers need to consider the different racial identities in their respective classrooms when selecting texts and materials and address racial content thoughtfully. Texts and materials in the classroom should also encourage learners to engage with perspectives that are different from their own, thus fostering critical analysis of multiple points of view. Broadly speaking, any anti-racist teaching approach unveils and addresses power structures and acknowledges the teacher’s role in power hierarchies that are at play within these structures, which may become especially sensitive regarding racial identities in the classroom. Based on the tenets of Critical Race Theory, anti-racist teaching knows that the social constructions of race, including that of whiteness, are fictitious, dynamic, and malleable but have very material consequences in every social setting, interaction, and institution (Ladson-Billing & Tate 1995: 58f; Delgado & Stefancic 2017). It thus aims to teach toward equity and liberation in the sense of social justice education (Randolph & Johnson 2017). Further, an anti-racist teaching practice acknowledges that classrooms are not safe spaces for racialized learners due to the power structures and hierarchies at play in all educational institutions (Rodriguez 2009: 503) and that risks for racialized learners and their mental health are a genuine issue - this awareness can lead to a more thoughtful but not careful, i.e. evasive, approach to the topic, i.e. it is takes the learners’ experiences seriously and takes into consideration possibly dangerous situations but does not avoid addressing racism to not make any mistakes. Anti-racist teaching in predominantly white educational contexts also expects forms of white resistance or denial (DiAngelo 2023: 193ff). It is cautious not to create a space that avoids these responses at the cost of marginalized learners, consequently re-centering whiteness (Rodriguez 2009; Zembylas 2018). While not avoiding controversy, an anti-racist teaching approach pays close attention to the different perspectives within the learner groups, including that of the teacher (Braselmann 2024, forthcoming). The varying positions that need to be considered in a transcultural and self-reflexive approach to teaching can evoke discomfort in response to discussions, dialog, and materials in the classroom. However, the Pedagogy of Discomfort (Boler 1999; Zembylas 2015) stresses that there is great value in these discomforting emotions since only moments of disruption can lead to actual and profound transformation - indeed, “discomfort is a requirement for growth for those who have previously benefited from the white heteropatriarchal system” (Hanna 2019: 233). With a focus on teaching English with literature, Borsheim-Black and Sarigianides (2019: 109) further argue that white learners find new ways of reflecting on their whiteness in classroom discussions about racial content, for example, in texts and material in the classroom. For predominantly white contexts, they suggest that even though discomfort is necessary, beginning by understanding foundational race concepts and focusing on conveying knowledge about concepts of race and racism may lead to less resistance than confronting learners with the notion of white privilege right at the start (ibid.). Which approach is chosen by the teacher depends on the learner group. Before engaging with the potential of graphic novels for understanding the effects that racism has on the mental health of racialized learners, the specifics of the genre and its tremendous potential in increasingly heterogeneous classrooms need to be explicated 7 . Debates about diversifying reading practices in English language education and working against the predominantly white and Eurocentric canonization of literature used in classrooms and teacher education have been held for a long time. The inclusive effect of so-called multicultural literature, i.e., literature written by members of ethnic minorities and representing members of these minorities, has been highlighted by different studies from various angles and in different contexts (see, e.g., Hughes-Hassell 2013; Ramdarshan Bold 2018; Toliver 2018). The empowering effect of representation in literary texts, the way in which these texts can help readers from a minority to imagine positive futures or validate experiences and broaden the horizon of readers from a majority, has been discussed widely, also in the context of English language education in the German school context (e.g., Freese 1996; Freitag-Hild 2010), where dialogic and analytical approaches to teaching with literature have been highly influential. Here, the potential of literature to foster an empathetic connection to people with different experiences and from other contexts has been conceptualized as Fremdverstehen (Bredella 2002), i.e., taking the perspective of others via empathetic connection to a fictional character. This has informed didactic considerations regarding the use of literature in the classroom for decades now, also those that promote a diversified reading practice in the classroom (for an overview, see Volkmann 2023). Especially when conceptualizations of difference are addressed through literary texts, including texts that provide insights into different lived experiences, literature can provide valuable insights into experiences of racism. However, an empathetic reaction fostered by literature that presents a struggle unknown to the readers, e.g. the effects of racism for white readers, requires thoughtful balancing with critical analysis (König 2020) as well as a self-reflective approach, as the principles outlined in the previous section have shown. Consequently, acknowledging that some perspectives cannot be taken, i.e. that race-based traumatic stress or other mental health issues related to experiencing racism cannot be felt or experienced by white readers, has an effect on the approach to multicultural literature and the ways in which it is taught: While the texts may offer 7 I want to thank my former colleague Anja Keil with whom I have worked on a previous version of a paper on graphic novels and whose invaluable input has also informed parts of this section. insight, reactions that go beyond pity need to be fostered by analytical tasks and an in-depth engagement that focuses on understanding the reaction that learners have to the text. To foster an understanding of the effects of racism as an underlying cause for mental health issues among racially marginalized people, teachers can choose graphic novels that focus on different aspects and effects of racist encounters (e.g., Black Lives Matter protests and police brutality in L.L. McKinney’s Nubia: Real One, or transgenerational trauma in the graphic novel adaptation of Olivia Butler’s Kindred). These novels hold great potential to foster critical analytical competences, and self-reflexive understanding in secondary classrooms: their multi-semiotic representation of complex issues encourages debates and reflection on the construction of meaning, potentially leading to a better understanding of the complex concepts of race, racial identities, and racism. In the sense of mental health literacy, these novels can promote an improved recognition and identification of mental health disorders, foster a more comprehensive understanding about the roots of race-based traumatic stress and other mental health issues such as depression or anxiety, and promote an open conversation and destigmatization of race-based mental health issues. In the past, graphic novels have incessantly been neglected or depicted as a ‘poor choice’ of literature in English language education, despite scholarly recommendations that emphasize the potential of multimodal narratives (see, e.g. Jacobs 2007; Decke-Cornill & Küster 2010; Hecke 2011; Boschenhoff 2013; Burger 2018; Eisenmann & Summer 2021). 8 In the long history of including sequential art (e.g., comics) in English language education, scholarship in Germany even cautioned that reading comics to a greater extent would be detrimental to more advanced reading competencies, lead to literary decline, and, would only result in psychological damage in general (Kußmann 2016: 68) - a claim which may have led to a rather underrepresented existence of graphic novels in the English language classroom (Hecke 2011). Over the last years, however, graphic novels have become an integral part of English language education in Germany (Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 59). As a valuable resource for teaching, graphic novels foster an engagement with different semiotic modes 8 Even though empirical studies suggest that learners are not enthusiastic about literature in general or comics as a visual text form in English language education (Rumlich & Deane 2013; Matz & Rumlich 2020), this contribution argues for a use of literary texts that is based less on the learners’ preferences, but focuses on the texts’ potential to engage with a variety of media and text forms. Especially in the form of (multimodal) text ensembles, different text forms can encourage a dynamic interaction with various narrative forms and critical analysis of different text formats (Braselmann et al. 2021; Braselmann 2023) - graphic novels lend themselves perfectly for inclusion in text ensembles, as excerpts and even single pages can provide ample potential for discussion and a plethora of creative tasks. and engage readers in a multiliterate act of making meaning with different codes (Hallet 2015: 292). Further, in addition to rich cultural knowledge and multiple literacy [sic! ] promoted through these highly diversified formats, they support the acquisition of all four skills - that is, speaking, listening, writing and reading, and thus achieve a general improvement in communicative competence. (Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 60) Because of their visual design and narrative construction that engages the readers in a more participatory and active reading practice (Hallet 2018), graphic novels do not only make a case for strengthening visual literacy but also provide struggling readers with mental imagery and multidimensional storylines. Regarding the social justice dimension, Carter (2008: 47) also strongly advocates for graphic novels in the classroom since they should be recognized as “a step toward a realization of more democratic notions of text, literacy, and curriculum”. This notion is connected to the debate about a more diversified reading practice in English language education: Carter (ibid.) argues that engaging with different sequential art forms can help to counter the prevailing dominance of elitist canonization in English language education. Additionally, graphic novels show the potential to not only excite already strong readers but also provide a point of entry for reluctant and demotivated students with the result of increased interest and involvement in class discussions (Downey 2009: 181; Hecke 2011: 654; Eisenmann & Summer 2020: 56). Teachers can include graphic novels in a way they can become “active deconstructionists” (Lundy & Stephens 2015: 1059), deconstruction and negotiation of meaning being one of the central aims of fostering multiliteracies in English language education (Cope & Kalantzis 2015). In the complex process of reading graphic novels, readers enhance their knowledge of “visual codes” (Hecke 2011: 657). The required visual literacy, i.e., the increased comprehension by combining text and images, helps readers to actively connect with literary characters rather than remaining passive observers of the narrative (Burmark 2008: 12). Multimodal texts such as graphic novels endorse the semiotic structures of the world, and consequently enable students to take agency as they actively illustrate potentially uncomfortable socio-cultural themes (Jacobs 2007: 24; Downey 2009: 181). The enhanced interaction with graphic novels offers great opportunities for anti-racist English language education and can simultaneously promote mental health literacy (Jorm 2012) 9 . When working with graphic novels, teachers can make use of the complex processes of meaning-making and decoding, thereby promoting a reading practice that focuses on critical selfreflection and positionality in the act of reading. This approach can further foster ‘racial literacy’. This concept was adapted for educational contexts from the field of legal studies in the US, where it drew on CRT and conceptualized “the capacity to decipher the durable racial grammar that structures racialized hierarchies and frames the narrative of our republic” (Guinier 2004: 100). In educational contexts, racial literacy refers to the multi-layered ability to identify and analyze concepts related to race and racism in various expressions (Brown 2017: 84), in different text forms and media formats and describes the skills required to discuss the complexity of these topics (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz 2021: 14). As an educational objective, racially literate students and teachers thus “reflect on their experiences with race and are reflexive about their attitudes and beliefs” (ibid.), which includes an understanding of the different layers in which racialized students are suffering under racist structures. A critical and self-reflective reading of a graphic novel can promote racial literacy as it can highlight the interconnectedness of lives across the globe by engaging the readers with the multimodal depiction of different realities and encouraging them in participatory acts of meaning-making (Habegger-Conti 2012). In predominantly white settings, formulating racial literacy as a teaching objective for including graphic novels comprises both a critical analysis of how the text and its semiotic modes work in terms of positioning the reader and reflecting on the affective and emotional response as well as an encounter with a lived experience that differs from the readers’ context and experiences. As the narrative introduces the reader to a lived experience that may vary significantly from their own (i.e., a Black child in an urban setting in the US and a white child in a rural area in Germany), it can convey relevant knowledge about these different contexts and underlying concepts. A transcultural approach to the text - created by supplementary material or reflection questions - can further foster a sense of interconnectedness among learners, help them reflect on the detrimental effects that racism can have on the people in their immediate surroundings and raise awareness of related social justice issues, i.e. discriminatory health care structures. In line with principles for anti-racist material selection outlined above, a critical reading of graphic novels encompasses “disrupting the ideal reader position, rejecting a single version of a story and ensuring that other 9 Mental health literacy refers to a person’s or a community’s ability to recognize mental disorders, knowledge of how to prevent them and where to seek help, effective self-help strategies for milder disorders and issues, as well as first aid skills that can help when mental disorders are identified or become virulent (cf. Jorm 2012). voices are heard, interrogating positions of privilege in the text, and highlighting the real-world relevance of the text and inspiring action” (Habegger-Conti 2021: 57f). Combined with critical visual literacy, this approach also focuses on the ways in which the specific images position readers or viewers. For textual analysis, teachers can focus on the questions such as: where are the viewers/ readers positioned within the arrangement of the image and text-image composition? How are the readers included or excluded from information, points of view, or certain aspects of meaningmaking processes, and how does this shape their reaction to the text? How do different panels work with color palettes, and how are these colors used to construct different positions in the text? Further, graphic novels can raise questions related to the learners’ positionality and thus serve as an exercise in self-reflexivity. In an anti-racist reading practice, self-reflective questions regarding reader response could be: “Where are you in this image? How might this position mirror your real-world position? In what situations do you have the power to decide when people are in or out of your group? ” (ibid.: 66). The potential graphic novels hold for developing racial literacy needs to be reflected regarding the choice of suitable graphic novels. Based on the principles for material selection outlined above, texts used to address racial content should not be limited to representations of racism and create the impression of a monolithic experience. However, when focusing on racial literacy as a teaching objective, choosing texts that address racism openly can be beneficial, as they can focus on an explicit understanding of concepts of race. When graphic novels are included to understand and analyze the effects of racism and the history of shaping structures and institutions detrimental to the mental health of the racially marginalized, texts that focus on these negative effects can unfold their educational potential. However, when including these texts, teachers need to be aware of a few pitfalls: First, they risk reducing the lives of racially marginalized people to narratives of victimhood or present issues as universal and racially marginalized groups as homogeneous or monolithic entities (Kishimoto 2018: 545; Chang & Viesca 2022: 11; Braselmann 2023: 172f). While creating awareness of the detrimental effects of racism requires insight into the realities that minority communities often face, graphic novels chosen for the classroom should also include elements of hope and resistance (e.g., L.L. Kinney’s story of a Black superheroine, Nubia: Real One), open up discussions about potentially positive outcomes (e.g., the open-ended Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds) and include storylines related to family, friends, love, joy, and everyday life. Second, especially in predominantly white settings, teachers need to be aware of ‘tokenism’ in the choice of material as well as in the classroom discussion about the novels. As bell hooks (1994: 43) cautions, whiteness needs to be taken into consideration in these settings “so that everyone learns that [...] an unbiased inclusive perspective should be present whether or not people of color are present”. If there are only a few people of color present in the classroom, they may be forced into the role of the “native informant” and asked about their personal experiences. However, as mentioned earlier, this form of othering can be detrimental to the learners’ mental health and should be avoided in classroom discussions. Third, when focusing on promoting racial literacy and addressing racism and its consequences for the lives of marginalized people, (white) teachers have to be aware of the power that they hold and continue to engage in a lifelong process of self-reflexivity. This critical selfreflexivity also includes beliefs, attitudes, and actions regarding race and a thorough understanding of their racial identity. For white teachers, this further entails awareness of their privileges and the willingness to engage in potentially uncomfortable discussions within and outside of their classrooms (Gillborn 2006: 15; Kishimoto 2018: 544). In preparing for an antiracist approach with graphic novels, teachers should therefore identify and carefully prepare those parts of the book that will most likely spark controversy, raise questions, or lead to resistance and denial among learners. Lastly, engaging in anti-racist teaching practices entails the willingness to embrace risky situations. In line with the fundamental principles of critical pedagogy, liberatory pedagogues like hooks (1994) stress the relevance of making oneself vulnerable in the classroom and sharing experiences. When teachers learn to risk self-exposure and share about themselves, this can have an empowering effect. However, hooks (1994: 39) also addresses the pitfalls that this approach can hold for the classroom: The unwillingness to approach teaching from a standpoint that includes awareness of race, sex, and class is often rooted in the fear that classrooms will be uncontrollable, that emotions and passions will not be contained. To some extent, we all know that whenever we address in the classroom subjects that students are passionate about there is always a possibility of confrontation, forceful expression of ideas, or even conflict. Teaching with graphic novels in a way that seeks to establish a connection with the learners and engages them in critical discussion and self-reflexivity can be challenging, no matter how well-prepared teachers are (Borsheim-Black & Sarigianides 2019: 93). Nevertheless, in these situations, teachers can create a space for learners to experience their agency and can help them to navigate an increasingly complex and diverse world. For white learners, this may include an understanding of the effects that their actions may have on others and may foster a more thoughtful approach to aspects such as the careless use of language, etc. For racialized learners, this teaching approach may result in experiencing visibility, agency, and voice through fictional characters, images and narratives - and can potentially present them with narratives and images that acknowledge their own experiences. In these classroom discussions revolving around challenging issues, they can practice how to actively participate and position themselves within societal discourses, thus consequently working toward discursive competencies in a foreign language. While there may not be a larger controversy about the fact that racism is a problematic issue that has severe effects on individuals and society, this contribution highlighted the necessity to fully understand how - and with which effects - racism is an issue that is relevant to the English language classroom in Germany. Racism, it showed, has a tremendous impact on the mental health and, consequently, on the ways in which racialized learners can thrive within an educational context - a fact that is neglected especially in predominantly white settings. Teachers need to be prepared to address the effects of racism in a way that promotes a thorough understanding of concepts of race and racism (racial literacy) that is based on a critical understanding of their own positionality. Thus, I have argued for establishing an anti-racist teaching practice that builds on US-American scholarship, especially Critical Race Theory and anti-racist pedagogy, which promotes a stronger focus on taking action in and beyond the classroom. In Germany, teacher education is still hesitant to encourage pre-service and in-service teachers to take a stance in the classroom. However, claims for a re-politicization of teaching in the face of right-wing populism and ‘anti-woke’ backlashes have been made (Heil 2020). Looking at the effects and prevalence of racism in German school contexts, I argue that an anti-racist approach to English language education can serve the broader educational objective of teaching for democracy, openness, and tolerance in a way that goes beyond shallow lip-service or socially desirable reactions. Addressing racism and its effects on racialized learners openly can also work towards an increasing understanding, recognition and identification of race-based mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and symptoms of race-based traumatic stress. Graphic novels were chosen as one potential practical example for implementing an anti-racist teaching approach in the classroom, as they can hone analytical skills and engage learners in exploring different opportunities for participation in social discourses, promoting critical discursive competences. While reluctant to focus solely on the role of empathy, I have highlighted racial literacy as an objective that can be especially fruitful in addressing effects of racism, i.e., mental health conditions. Racial literacy promotes a thorough understanding of concepts of race and racism and the different forms in which it expresses itself and thoughtfully considers the ways in which learners are affected by racism. Focusing on racial literacy while narrowing the focus of textual analysis to racial content does not limit the text’s potential or reduce its complexity. However, it is an approach that aims to unpack a complex and difficult issue in English language education. This contribution can only be seen as one building block in an overarching project to promote anti-racism in English language education. The suggestions made here are a work in progress, and the focus on literature and graphic novels is just one potential starting point. 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Silke Braselmann Lehrstuhl für Englische Fachdidaktik Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Digitality is increasingly recognized as a means for achieving greater inclusivity of heterogeneous learners in English language classrooms, by, for example, offering compensatory tools for communication or as a means for realizing differentiation. Beyond these types of integration, emerging digital cultural practices offer learners opportunities to participate in affinity groups and carry out affiliated activities that reflect their authentic interests, contributing to a sense of agency and fostering well-being. Especially for neurodivergent learners, these practices - which frequently use English as an online lingua franca - can help bridge the distance between their authentic interests and unique interactional preferences, and traditional classroom instruction that limits agency and is at odds with, for example, autistic interactional patterns. This contribution will examine how the integration of digitally-mediated communication can address learners’ needs for agency, as well as facilitate development of communicative competence. While important prerequisites for all language learners, we will examine how both digitality and agency are especially relevant for neurodivergent learners. Finally, we will briefly touch on some of the implications for English language classrooms and what teachers might consider for the benefit of all learners, both regarding learning outcomes and overall well-being. 1 Support for this article was provided by DoProfiL, part of the Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung, a joint initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder which aims to improve the quality of teacher training. The programme is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The article is co-funded in part by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union (grant agreement number: 2020-1-DE01- KA203-005696). The authors are responsible for the content of this publication. - “The problem with [school] is that I don’t have any chances to decide anything for myself” (ABB, age 8). The absence of agency - the socially mediated ability to act (Ahearn 2010) - is arguably at the core of this young informant’s complaint about their classroom experiences, and they are certainly not alone in their frustration. The lack of agency experienced in many school settings is frequently a source of tension for learners, and is equally a concern in the context of foreign and additional language learning (Larsen-Freeman, Driver, Gao & Mercer 2021). However, there are indications that its absence poses particular challenges for some learners who are neurodivergent, that is, those who have certain neurological differences compared to a presumed neurotypical norm. For learners who are autistic, or who have ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) or RSD (Reading-Spelling-Difficulties, dyslexia), for example, sensory preferences and processing patterns frequently lead to behaviors that are often perceived by neurotypical observers as problematic. Attempts to mitigate these outward signs of atypicality, as regularly occurs in school settings, fosters conformity at the cost of neurodivergent expression and, ultimately, well-being (Vermeulen 2019). A potential antidote in this case may be found in fostering the learner’s agency, or their ability to act, by constructing alternative communicative and interactive options and by creating opportunities to experience selfefficacy in neurodivergent forms of communication and (inter)action. Agency is key, both in terms of supporting the language learning process itself, and because of its contribution to the well-being of language learners (Mercer 2012, 2021), especially those who are neurodivergent (Vermeulen 2019). Yet paradoxically, as Chapman and Carel (2022) point out, neurodivergent individuals are, compared to neurotypical actors, more frequently subject to epistemic injustice, a term that “refers to harms that relate specifically to [their] status as epistemic agents” and a condition that “undermines the agent’s agency and dignity” (ibid.: 614). It is this epistemic injustice of thwarted agency that is detrimental to the well-being of neurodivergent actors in neuronormative contexts, as in many language classrooms, and that may negatively impact mental health (Huijg 2020: 216; Chapman & Carel 2022). One arena that increasingly holds the potential to mitigate poor mental health associated with challenges to neurodivergent well-being is digitallymediated communication. In addition to lowering barriers inherent in faceto-face communication that arise from differences in preferences regarding paralinguistic elements, social conventions, or the surrounding sensory environment, emerging digital practices offer opportunities to engage with like-minded individuals around activities that reflect personal interests. This contributes to a sense of agency (Han & Reinhardt 2022), and fosters well-being (Davidson & Orsini 2013), by creating possibilities for positive mental health development (Pavlopoulou, Usher & Pearson 2022). These practices - which frequently use English as an online lingua franca (Warschauer, Jacob & Maamuujav 2021) - can help bridge the distance between neurodivergent learners’ communicative preferences and authentic interests on the one hand and traditional classroom instruction that often limits agency on the other (Larsen-Freeman et al. 2021). In these “digital wilds” (Sauro & Zourou 2019), authentic engagement fosters the development of English language competences. In light of these considerations, it seems that integrating principles of, and opportunities for, digitally-mediated communication can address neurodivergent learners’ needs for agency while facilitating language learning. As such, it behooves teachers to consider how cultivating the agency associated with interaction in digital spaces can be fostered in ways that improve well-being, and subsequently, educational outcomes (Vermeulen 2019), especially for these students. Although a number of studies have previously addressed issues of digitality, neurodiversity, agency, and mental health, this research has a number of limitations. Many of these studies assume a deficit-orientation toward neurodiversity, focusing on it as a mental health problem rather than a way of being (Hoffmann 2019; Chapman & Carel 2022). Likewise, the potential of technology to foster positive mental health takes a back seat to a medicalized notion of its serviceability (Spiel, Frauenberger, Keyes & Fitzpatrick 2019; Pavlopoulou et al. 2022). Moreover, there is a paucity of research and practice that examines the connections between digitality, neurodiversity, and issues of agency. Connections to formal language learning and this constellation of constructs is absent. Hence, this contribution seeks to synthesize recent findings from these fields to demonstrate how various aspects of digitally-mediated communication can contribute to the well-being of neurodivergent English language learners and enhance language learning. In doing so, it highlights how positive mental health and well-being can be fostered in English language teaching (ELT) settings. After briefly examining the existing research on neurodiversity, agency, and well-being, we will discuss some of the ways digitally-mediated communication can enhance the agency of neurodivergent learners to contribute to the development of positive mental health. In doing so, our primary concern are not those barriers to participation that arise as a result of impairments that impede the general or situational ability to use language, although these play a role as well. Rather, we focus on largely imperceptible barriers resulting from normative expectations and leading to social exclusion of those who do not adhere to these expectations regarding communication. While physical, affective, or cognitive differences limiting language production affect different subsets of neurodivergent individuals and cannot be divorced from discussions of digitally-mediated communication and its implications for agency, obstacles arising from neurotypical expectations about communication are virtually universal detriments to interaction, and thus, potentially, well-being among all neurodivergent interactants. Thus, while we touch on communication via assistive technologies, our focus is on the positive affordances for neurodivergent individuals of engaging - at least intermittently - in digitally-mediated communication. We subsequently turn our attention to formal language learning classrooms, where neurotypicality is frequently enacted (Vermeulen 2019). Keeping in mind that neurodivergent learners may have substantially different learning needs from one another, and likewise recognizing that many needs of neurodivergent and neurotypical learners may also overlap, we will close by identifying potential ways teachers can address some of the socioemotional and language learning needs of all learners in heterogeneous settings. While neurodiversity has myriad definitions, the focus in this analysis is on the aforementioned neurological differences of a portion of the global population, and the ways in which these are constructed in “interactions with individuals considered neurologically typical in the context of public infrastructures built around a presumption of neurotypicality” (Baker 2011: 22). In other words, neurodiversity is an innate internal characteristic of individuals who are autistic, have ADHD, RSD, dyspraxia, or related neurological differences; they can be referred to as neurodivergent. Neurodivergence is, in addition to its innate nature, simultaneously created by and experienced through and in interaction with others in systems that are primarily constructed by, and for, neurologically typical individuals. The challenges that neurodiversity in this sense presents stem, not from inadequacies on the part of neurodivergent individuals, but from exclusionary attitudes and systems that perpetuate “potentially overwhelming messages” to the contrary (ibid.: 20) and that undermine neurodivergent ways of being. Given that there is no consensus regarding which forms of difference are considered to be types of neurodivergence, and in light of challenges resulting from accessibility to appropriate diagnosis, concerns regarding discrimination, and discrepancies in reporting methods, the size of the neurodivergent population cannot be precisely determined. Moreover, issues of otherand self-identification make attempts to count neurodivergent individuals ethically, ontologically, and epistemologically problematic (Fletcher-Watson & Happé 2019). Nevertheless, given indications regarding the prevalence of some forms of neurodivergence, most current estimates suggest that 15% - 20% of the global population is neurodivergent in the aforementioned sense (Doyle 2020). Regardless of community size, the published research suggests that people who are neurodivergent experience higher levels of mental illness and lower levels of well-being than neurotypical individuals (Robertson 2010). However, both the causes of reduced mental health and well-being, and the question as to what constitutes these constructs, are problematic. The same external factors that cause many of the mental health problems faced by neurodivergent people form the basis of criteria that seek to measure well-being of neurodivergent populations based on neurotypical conceptualizations of the concept. Chapman & Carel (2022: 622) refer to this as “autism’s catch-22,” or a kind of “hermeneutical injustice, seen in the exclusion of neurodivergent modes of flourishing.” Lam, Sabnis, Migueliz Valcarlos and Wolgemuth (2021) likewise posit that the dominant uncritical acceptance of the standard notion of well-being fuels the “reinforcement of a normative ideal” that expresses “the implicit assumption […] that the domains covered in the measures [of well-being] are equally valued by everyone” (67). Despite the emergence of some studies that seek to describe autistic well-being from the perspective of autistic people, there is no existing well-being measure that takes into consideration the special interests, language preferences, and communication modalities of autistic people [...]. These observations call for the need to gather first-person perspectives from the autistic community and promote their authentic involvement in research in order to formulate a conceptualization of well-being that is meaningful and appropriate to their worldviews [...] (Lam, Holden, Fitzpatrick, Raffaele Mendez & Berkman 2020: 1247). In an initiative to address this research gap, Lam et al. (2020) use participatory, digitally-mediated methods to identify three themes relevant to their autistic informants-participants. This construction of autistic wellbeing is one of a few studies that make a substantial contribution to understanding how well-being is differently defined when autistic perspectives - notably only one subgroup of neurodivergent individuals - are foregrounded (see also: Naples 2019; Farahar 2022; Petty, Allen, Pickup & Woodier 2023). These insights need to be synthesized with emerging concepts of language learner well-being, which, like agency, are widely conceptualized as multidimensional, socially situated, and dependent on both individual and systemic factors (Larsen-Freeman et al. 2021; Mercer 2021). Although the World Health Organization’s definition of well-being tends to conflate it with mental health, Hoffmann (2019) underscores the philosophical and psychological constructions of the former that are distinct from the latter. In this strengths-oriented perspective, well-being is conceptualized as positive mental health, in that it goes beyond the absence of mental illness and emphasizes the ways in which individuals thrive in accordance with one or another of various measures, such as happiness, (inter-)personal development, or quality of life (Hoffmann 2019). Together with agency, Sen (1995) argues, well-being forms the basis for human flourishing (Hart & Brando 2017). Especially for learners who are neurodivergent, well-being, is at risk when neuronormative structures and systems hinder their agency. Like agency and well-being in general, language learner well-being until now has also been addressed primarily in terms of the individual learner or in terms of learners in general, focusing on subjective learner experiences with little contextualization regarding differences in age, subject matter, cultural differences, or other characteristics of the individual or the environment. Emerging theoretical and empirical analysis is contributing to a better understanding of both language learner agency and well-being (MacIntyre et al. 2019), but it assumes a universality regarding these concepts that does not reflect what research suggests is a very individual experience of what ‘living well’ means. Vermeulen (2019), for example, describes an autistic student who rejected strategies to improve his social integration during recess with the rationale that he had no interest in participating actively, but rather preferred to observe his peers. Mercer exhorts us to recognize that [w]ell-being emerges from the subjective way a person makes sense of and interacts with their social contexts. As such, any meaningful interventions for well-being must ideally promote individual development and personal strategies as well as systemic change and structural support […] [L]earner well-being has been receiving increasing attention but, on the whole, there is much that we do not yet know or understand about its nature in relation to learning a language specifically and how best to promote it in practical terms alongside linguistic competences (Mercer 2021: 16f.). To promote positive mental health and language learning in ways that are meaningful specifically for neurodivergent learners, it is critical to understand how notions of well-being in language learning contexts differ for them. However, conceptualizations of neurodivergent language learner well-being can, with few exceptions, only be extrapolated from an existing paltry base of knowledge. In one study of autistic learners in secondary school in Australia, for example, Danker, Strnadová & Cumming (2019: 219ff.) used Photovoice as a participatory method to identify four domains of school-related well-being and a prevalence of sensory, social, and learning-related barriers to well-being in school contexts. Among the resources that foster autistic school-related well-being, the qualitative analysis revealed that technology plays a prominent role in their informants’ narratives. These insights suggest both significant similarities and differences compared to neurotypical students’ well-being needs and resources. However, they do not apply specifically to the language learning context or other forms of neurodivergence. Parallels can be found to examinations of agency. In this contribution, we define agency for language learning in line with Larsen-Freeman et al. (2021), who describe it as a mutable sense of control learners have over their learning experiences that is co-constructed in relation to others, individually and in their socially contingent roles, in specific contexts. This framing builds on the fundamental notion of agency as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (Ahearn 2010: 28), a capacity which is realized in relation to learners’ individual, interactive, and collective (e.g., in a classroom context) perception and utilization of available action possibilities (Mairitsch, Sulis, Mercer & Braun 2023). These action possibilities, or affordances (van Lier 2010), emerge multi-directionally, interand intrapersonally, as a result of psychological and socially determined factors (Mairitsch et al. 2023). Agency is considered essential to language learner success (Han & Reinhardt 2022), but, like well-being, is conceptualized primarily from a neuronormative perspective (Demo 2017; Spiel et al. 2019; Huijg 2020). However, the problem is not entirely unnoticed. Mercer points out that “[w]hilst an individual’s capacity to act is widely accepted as being socioculturally, contextually and interpersonally mediated, it also needs to be understood in terms of a person’s physical, cognitive, affective, and motivational capacities to act” (Mercer 2012: 42). Larsen-Freeman (2019: 63) similarly warns against perceiving any learner groups as nonagentive, while at the same time acknowledging how agency may be curtailed for some disempowered language learner identities. Among the “subaltern” (ibid.) learners she names, neurodivergent ones may be inferred. Such an approach to both well-being and agency aligns with Sen’s notion of human flourishing, which rests on these two constructs. Well-being and agency are similarly constituted, according to Sen, through the freedom to pursue ways of living, and the achievement of those ways, that are personally valued and that have influence beyond oneself (Hart & Brando 2017). While Sen does not address the ways in which agency is socially mediated, his recognition of the individual ability to act as a core facet of human flourishing is in keeping with the strengths-based conceptualization to mental health that forms the basis of well-being as constituted in this contribution. In other words, well-being and agency - the freedom to pursue them and the ability to achieve them in personally meaningful ways - can be understood as, minimally, contributions to positive mental health and maximally, as contributions to human flourishing. The connections - and tensions - between well-being and agency Sen highlights are indicative of their relevance for the language learning classroom. It is our argument that this flourishing, which goes beyond the absence of mental illness, may be fostered for neurodivergent language learners in digitally-mediated spaces and in formal language learning settings that recognize the underlying practices and principles of these environments. In this section, we will examine more closely how neurodivergent individuals may experience agency in digital contexts in ways that fosters their well-being and, frequently, language learning. Our focus is not on the endless variety of applications and practices that are associated with digitallymediated communication. While it is clear that different kinds of interactive software and platforms, such as social media, listservs, discussion groups, blogs, gaming spaces, chats, and fan fiction, engender unique affordances due to a range of tool-inherent features and socially-constructed practices, it is their commonalities that are relevant here. In particular, their potential asynchronicity, multimodality, multicodality, and opportunities for (pseudo-)anonymity in one-to-one or infinitely large groups are consistent features of digitally-mediated communication that flourishes in online environments. Likewise, the prevalence of English as a digital lingua franca (Warschauer et al. 2021) facilitates both these communicative practices and language learning. Recognition of the fact that online spaces may especially reflect the preferences of neurodivergent individuals is well established. These analyses, which as early as the 1990s posited that “the impact of the Internet on autistics may one day be compared in magnitude to the spread of sign language among the deaf” (Blume 1997: 6), remain consistent across a range of digitally-mediated communicative practices. Some autistic individuals describe a sense of familiarity between their own mental processes and those of the digital environment (Gillespie-Lynch, Kapp, Shane-Simpson, Smith & Hutman 2014). Davidson and Orsini’s autistic informants, for example, report being satisfied with a medium or ‘element’ more suited to their communicative style. In the words of one respondent, ‘I took to the \’net like a duck takes to water. It was clearly my element from the start’ (female, 43, aspie / autistic). Another describes the question about preference for onor off-line interaction as ‘like asking a fish whether it prefers to swim in the water or walk on land’ (female, 27, Asperger / HFA [highfunctioning autistic] / aspie) (Davidson & Orsini 2013: 293). 2 Statements such as these echo the notion that there are unique affordances associated with so-called digital oracy (Hallet 2014), stemming from both 2 Davidson & Orsini (2013) use the self-identification terms for which their informants indicated a preference. technological features of Internet-based communication and the nature of interaction that takes place therein. Technological features that address accessibility at a basic level have long mediated or eliminated barriers associated with monomodal texts. However, the distinction between assistive technologies, or digital media specifically designed for disabled users, and those intended for the general public, is increasingly irrelevant. The ability to individually adjust sound levels, frequencies, or the speed of auditory content makes its reception more accessible, while an array of software tools likewise facilitate the production of various visual, written, and spoken texts for disabled users as well as those who are language learners, have low levels of literacy, prefer one mode of communication over another, or whose communication is atypical (Blume & Würffel 2018). For example, Rauchberg (2022) writes that [c]losed captions or communication access real-time transcriptions (CART) transformed my relationship with media texts. I stim between website clicks and phone pickups. I rely on alt text and image descriptions when a website or post does not use high contrast color combinations. Often I will use my laptop’s accessibility feature to read a page aloud to me. These retrofitted accessibility features make use of information and communication technology (ICT) for neurodivergent and disabled users. Cyberspace is a site of possibility (371). Similarly, Logsdon-Breakstone (2012) observes: When you are someone whose communication methods or media are ignored when you want them observed, it can be an opening to find a new medium to call your own. I learned to type, I gained those skills, and I suddenly had access to a much larger community than I had when speaking or shrieking or running away or stacking dolls gave me (290). What both of these excerpts reveal is that fundamental communicative accessibility is only one component of the advantages experienced by these neurodivergent authors. Equally important are the ways in which the digitally-mediated communication offers opportunities for interaction that reflect the neurodivergent preferences of these informants. The result is that participation can take place on their terms, fostering participation, and hence, agency. Such uses reflect notions of transhumanism, in which disabled and neurodivergent individuals act in concert with technologies in order to transcend ableist notions of impairment and of communication (Ng, Schutt & Corcoran 2015: 169f.). In such conceptualizations, assistive technologies are more than ‘mere’ tools that facilitate inclusion; they reframe notions of agency in joint action with digital applications (Demo 2017). Ultimately, they can thus contribute to well-being. These technologies and modes of communication can mitigate the challenges of in-person interactions that, for many neurodivergent actors, are fraught with sensory-related affronts and communicative obstacles deriving from neurotypical frames regarding modalities, paralinguistic features, and environmental elements. Analyses of digital communication have shown that (voice-)texting and (text-based) chatting in online forums, game spaces, and social media share some features of synchronous, oral communication, but that they are also inherently different. The lack of physical co-presence, an expectation of delayed responses, and alternative semiotic practices are some of the ways that digital communication deviates from face-to-face or synchronous interactions (Lotherington & Xu 2004; Androutsopoulos & Busch 2021; Warschauer et al. 2021). These features address some of the communicative issues both neurodivergent individuals and language learners face, such as those having to do with time pressures, simultaneous multiple semiotic modes, or social conventions (Ochs, Kremer-Sadlik, Sirota & Solomon 2004; Davidson & Orsini 2013; Gillespie-Lynch et al. 2014; Kern, Ware & Warschauer 2016). Empirical evidence shows how online communication offers significant benefits regarding comprehension and interactional control for autistic interlocutors (Gillespie-Lynch et al. 2014). Moreover, there are some indications that the interactional preferences documented in studies of neurodivergent children and adolescents (Bottema-Beutel 2017), which tend to conflict with neurotypical interactional patterns, are less noticeable in online spaces (but see: Guntuku, Ramsay, Merchant & Ungar 2019). Furthermore, such differences, when they are perceived, are hypothesized to be less problematic in these spaces than in analog contexts (Davidson 2008; Gillespie-Lynch et al. 2014). One autistic person argues that [a]nother thing I find is that the locus of Autistic culture being online because we are so spread out geographically has been also very useful for other cultural reasons. Many Autistics feel shy and socially awkward. Others are more comfortable using typing as a primary mode of conversation while being able to speak with difficulty in their everyday life. Even if an Autistic does not use oral language at all, there is no differentiation with that in terms of typing, in the way it looks online. This puts all of the Autistics together on the same page (Grace 2012: 145). Evidence for comparable benefits for other types of neurodivergence is minimal, but the centrality of communicative challenges in ADHD (Westby & Watson 2021), RSD (Cappelli, Noccetti, Simi, Arcara & Bambini 2022), and sensory processing disorders (Del Zoppo, Sanchez & Lind 2015) suggests that similar advantages of digitally-mediated communication may be derived for these populations as well. Technological accessibility interacts with a welcoming and open online culture that accepts alternative modes of communication to allow participation on a more equal footing than participants may experience in offline spaces, in ways that foster both agency and well-being. These findings parallel research regarding formal and informal online language learning with unspecified neurotypes. In online activities, digital affordances mediate the communication among interactants with different languages, or who interact with target language media in ways that foster language learning. Analyses of digital gaming spaces, for example, indicate that, for some English language learners, multicodality can facilitate their participation. In these contexts, text-based alternatives to voice chat, for example, mask marked identities - including those of so-called non-native English speakers - that are otherwise subject to exclusion (Collister 2016). In the formal educational setting, Hauck, Satar, and Kurek (2021) and Yeh (2018) describe how university students make use of the multimodal resources in teaching and learning initiatives, enhancing their linguistic and semiotic skills in tandem. While evidence is mixed regarding the question as to whether foreign language anxiety is reduced via computer mediated communication, some learners report that asynchronous interactions and opportunities for rehearsal mitigate their language-related concerns and can thus contribute to greater interaction (McNeil 2014). Other studies have reported on the effects of nonlinguistic cues, genre-related pragmatic differences, and output production in intercultural telecollaboration. These investigations do not suggest that computer mediated language learning is wholly beneficial for all participants, but they do make clear that, for some learners, there are particular advantages associated with this kind of communication or expression (Kern et al. 2016). There is a dearth of analyses examining neurodivergence as a relevant individual learner differences, but the communicative differences described for this population in their L1s suggest that they might interact with digital media in unique ways as well, regardless of language. Beyond serving as an assistive technology or supplementing neurotypical communicative forms, ‘the Internet’ hosts texts - in the widest of senses - that offer opportunities for a broader range of participation than traditional media often do. Social media, self-publishing, and participatory culture, combined with technical accessibility, converge to foster conversations and propagate texts authored by both language learners and neurodivergent individuals (Osorio 2020; Egner 2022; Han & Reinhardt 2022; Koteyko, van Driel & Vines 2022; Emily 2023). These publications, productions, remixes, and adaptations contribute to language learner and neurodivergent agency in how they allow for multiple voices to be produced and received in a variety of modalities and codes in ways that are individually and collectively empowering. Such reception and production reflect notions of communication in an age of multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis 2009). While this is true for all participants in these contexts, the perception of these environments as psychologically and physically safer than other forms of self-advocacy or self-presentation, given the opportunities for anonymity and alternative forms of representation, may be especially relevant to neurodivergent interlocutors, and thus contribute to their well-being. As the collective authors of a Discord-based network explain, [w]ithin the context of […] wider societal pressures, allowing neurodivergent persons to narrativise as a mode of creation or self‐exploration [on Discord] becomes a political imperative and, for some, engagement with stories and storytelling can be a means of self‐care. As one member notes, writing stories ‘has saved my life on more than one occasion. I know I am not mentally well when I can’t read or write. I write fiction and non‐fiction, to help me process information and explore my feelings’ (Betts, Creechan, Cawkwell, Finn-Kelcey, Griffin, Hagopian, Hartley, Manalili, Murkumbi, O’Donoghue, Shanahan, Stenning & Zisk 2023: 65). These multimodal spaces contribute to new conceptualizations of neurodivergent ways of (well-)being within these communities. The aforementioned neurodivergent-led network on Discord “by actively decentering the expected norms of communication, […] mitigated the need for performative neuronormativity,” leading members of the network to describe interactions in this environment as “‘affirming’ and ‘freeing’” (Betts et al. 2023: 63). These opportunities for participation also foster informal language learning in online spaces, regardless of neurotype, by reducing technological, psychological, and competence-related barriers to engage in output, and by mitigating correctness norms regarding linguistic expression. Practices such as remixing, for example, allow participants to build on pre-existing content to moderate the amount of independent language they need to produce or comprehend. Short texts, such as microblogging (Mastodon) or video clips (Instagram Reels), reduce the amount of language competence individuals demonstrate at any one time, thus arguably minimizing anxiety and encouraging language practice. Moreover, the norms of English as a digital lingua franca, in which standardized orthography, spelling, and grammar are not universally accorded prestige, can foster a willingness to communicate that in more conventional contexts is thwarted by feelings of limited language adequacy (Warschauer et al. 2021). The aforementioned instances of representation, agency, and activism are closely linked to participation in online affinity spaces. Easily accessible digital environments generate opportunities for neurodivergent individuals to join online and offline communities of like-minded individuals, many of whom use English as a shared linguistic resource. These affinity spaces (Gee 2020), in which individuals come together around common interests, take advantage of the aforementioned reduction in barriers to foster interpersonal connections regarding topics of relevance in a common language. Online, these interactions can transpire in ways that respect the unique communicative preferences of unique personae. Offline, neurodivergent informants report that prior digital communication can act as a “training ground” for desired “real-world” (Davidson & Orsini 2013: 295) encounters with like-minded individuals, by, for example, providing opportunities to prepare for and practice neurotypical communicative patterns, as reported here: Finding the online Autistic community and its attendant culture has been so life-affirming and (the opposite of silencing) to me that it has enabled me to come out of my shell socially in the dominant culture as I have practiced having friendlier social skills online and then taking them into Real Life (Grace 2012: 147). These networks for neurodivergent advocacy or mutual support date back to the earliest days of the Internet, and in the interim can be found on sites such as TikTok (Ginapp et al. 2023), Tumblr (McCracken 2020), Twitter (Egner 2022), and, as previously mentioned, Discord (Betts et al. 2023). Such affinity spaces offer opportunities to inform agentive neurodivergent identity construction, with individuals reporting that these online spaces - many of which use primarily English - provide the impetus to seek diagnosis or to manage an existing diagnosis (Betts et al. 2023; Ginapp et al. 2023). Among other affordances cited in one study, pursuing information online improved the participants’ understanding of ADHD, enabled them to find like-minded people, and offered insights into management strategies (Ginapp et al. 2023). Tucker (2021) describes how neurodivergent authors on Instagram and TikTok target “two audiences: in one group, neurotypical users, many of whom may not be more than casually familiar with [for example] autism; and in the other group, neurodiverse users and the people who love them. Their content thus serves the dual purpose of educating and building community” (n.p.). In the co-construction of knowledge about neurodivergence in online and hybrid spaces, neurodivergent individuals may explore ways of being that are otherwise inaccessible to them and that contribute to their mental health and well-being (Gillespie-Lynch et al. 2014; Ng et al. 2015; Pavlo-poulou et al. 2022). Such affinity spaces are not conventional learning environments; they enable informal learning through what Lave and Wenger (2002) call legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. A key component of these online activities is that “users exercise volitional agency in choosing, creating, and co-constructing digital literacy practices of interest that require the social use and learning of the language of study” (Han & Reinhardt 2022: 986). This participatory meaning-making is at the heart of multiliteracies conceptualizations of literacy (Cope & Kalantzis 2009). Lam (2009), for example, describes how one learner becomes acculturated to local professional norms and develops her linguistic resources in two languages through instant messaging. Chik (2015) does the same in relation to gaming, although the norms in question and the semiotic resources are, in light of the context, quite different from those of Lam’s informant. Similar principles are at work in relation to specifically-designed neurodivergent communities, in terms of both content and form. On the neurodivergent-led Discord network discussed above, “[t]ime and again, members positioned the network in opposition to the academy and to traditional models of scholarship and knowledge production” (Betts et al. 2023: 63). Online communities, with large numbers of participants available at virtually all times, may also more adequately address the ways in which neurodivergent individuals engage with relevant content. In digitally mediated spaces, these interactions lead to multiple kinds of agentive learning. These new competences are acquired through interaction with more skilled others and like-minded interlocutors with subjectspecific, expert linguistic resources. Given the importance of agency to well-being (Hart & Brando 2017), it seems clear that this engagement can foster neurodivergent flourishing. Because these affinity-based communities thrive online, they frequently avail themselves of English as a digital lingua franca (Warschauer et al. 2021). There are numerous reports of how the aforementioned digital practices inform language learner identity, contribute to mediation and translation skills, promote transcultural competence, support translanguaging practices, and improve basal skills and competences with regard to lexis and language production (Chik 2015; Vazquez-Calvo 2020; Cornillie, Bündgens-Kosten, Sauro & van der Veken 2021). They use English alongside other languages as a “social practice” (Jenkins 2015: 73), and members develop shared semiotic repertoires stemming from their use of “volitional agency” to inform their practices (Han & Reinhardt 2022: 986). One neurodivergent individual highlights how their motivation to learn English was, as an adolescent, closely tied to their interests, and in the desire to navigate spaces where these interests were discussed: 3 [...] The Internet was just beginning in the 90s. That means I didn't have much to do with it yet, but where I had contact with it, it was absolutely clear that I needed English. Those were newsgroups, mailing lists. That was the handful of useful websites that existed. So it was absolutely clear: Yes, there are things in German, but if you want to have any interesting content, also in terms of quantity, you have to use English (The ELLeN Group, forthcoming). This example emphasizes how this neurodivergent individual was explicitly motivated to learn English in order to receive and produce texts in online environments, in ways that contributed to their well-being, by addressing their self-identified interests. Digital gaming is an online activity that offers myriad opportunities to engage in affinity spaces, in English (Gee & Hayes 2012). Languaging activities extend beyond the game itself, incorporating such activities as fan fiction (Cornillie et al. 2021), fan translation (Vazquez-Calvo 2020), and streaming (e.g., ‘Let’s Plays’). Neurodivergent interest in digital gaming has garnered (positive and negative) attention, due in part to widespread data indicating that the amount of gameplaying and related activities is higher among autistic and ADHD children and adolescents in comparison to neurotypical youth (Mazurek & Engelhardt 2013; Stenseng, Hygen & Wichstrøm 2020). Despite widespread concerns among neurotypical adults regarding neurodivergent gameplay, its potential affordances for children and young adults in relation to agency and language learning are compelling. The neurodivergent informants in one study cite opportunities to “manipulate game features […] exert control over players […] and successfully influence how the narrative unfolds throughout the game” (Pavlopoulou et al. 2022: 7) as powerful motivators for gameplay. They moreover identify ways in which gaming generates opportunities to engage in greater sociality, due to reduced barriers to communication online and the identification of shared (gaming) interests offline. Ringland (2023) describes how a dedicated Minecraft community for autistic players fosters collaboration. Activity ranges from the adoption of leadership roles to realize large-scale projects, to repetitive hole-digging as a means to manage sensory input. These activities, the author argues, are a form of agentive resistance against disempowering conceptuali-zations of autistic play as well as opportunities for sociality that make use of language but also supersede it. 3 German-language data is translated here by the authors. It seems that agency over communicative forms and in pursuit of personal interests may be particularly important for neurodivergent learners, and it may be that digitally-mediated communication can address this perceived need, especially given the use of English as a digital lingua franca. However, translating students’ outside-of-school interests into the language learning classroom can be challenging. The moment teachers try to incorporate the digital wilds, those wilds become tamed. Grau (2009), for example, found that some students did not want teachers to integrate their extramural interests, and it may be that any attempts to incorporate learners’ agentive activities will fall victim to the formal context of schooling. This may especially be the case for the kinds of playful activities associated with digital media (Wechselberger 2012). Given that playfulness presupposes its voluntary pursuit (Caillois 1961/ 2001), it may be that attempting to make digital media activities abide by the grammars of schooling cannot succeed. Additionally, while “[...] the most natural way of building social inclusion and agency is through [the] daily lives [of pre-teens and teenagers]” (Välijärvi 2019: 101), attempts to build bridges to these daily lives of students might be thwarted by a lack of awareness regarding the actual communicative needs and content preferences of students. Ziehe (2007) argues without reference to neurotype that this is increasingly likely, due to the highly individualized identities adolescents develop and cultural spaces they occupy in an extremely pluralistic world. This diversity in life-worlds is the premise of multiliteracies pedagogies; it can equally be seen as a “fragmentation” of political, economic, and social spheres (Cope & Kalantzis 2009: 174). Thus, authenticity related to ‘‘ordinary practices of the culture” (Brown, Collins & Duguid 1989: 34) might not be evoked by the same practices for all learners. Research into digital divides likewise suggests that the kinds of activities youths engage in online vary widely, not only in terms of frequency of online engagement, but in the types of practices that take place (van Deursen & Van Dijk 2014). These discrepancies, resulting from socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and gender differences, in turn contribute to differences regarding how authentic potential topics, popular cultural references, or language may be perceived by a heterogeneous group of learners. Thus, additional forms of difference - fragmentation with regard to individual interests - add to the diversity classroom teachers need to accommodate. As regards communicative preferences, neuronormative assumptions about what constitutes authentic communication may make it difficult for outsiders to fathom how neurodivergent individuals in particular might perceive typical communicative scenarios. Bottema-Beutel, Louick and White (2015) illustrate how, in a face-to-face setting, an autistic teenager proved immune to indirect cues intended by same-age peers to protect his feelings and save others from face-threats. Such conversational differences are reflective of the double empathy problem, which describes how the communicative patterns of neurotypical and neuro-atypical interlocutors are frequently at odds with one another, often to the detriment of neurodivergent well-being (Milton 2012). These differences also reveal the challenge with attempts to incorporate authenticity into the inclusive language learning classroom. The same autistic adult quoted in section 3, reflecting on formal language learning, describes how mainstream ideas of what constitutes authenticity deviated significantly from their own notions about what a person does in a foreign language in the ‘real world: ’ If, by language learning, you mean this clichéd - I think Pons does this all the time - You-are-traveling-and-fall-into-conversation-with-people-going-thesame-direction - story, there’s nothing more boring. I don’t fall into conversation with people, I DON’T WANT to fall into conversation with people. They are to leave me alone when I am traveling somewhere. This makes it absolutely impossible for me to be able to do something with the text. I can comprehend it, of course, but it’s such an unreal situation that is posited there as an example that is used to discuss something. That doesn’t work at all. […] It’s a form of torture (ELLeN Project, in preparation). Given the oft-times unique nature of neurodivergent communicative interests, which may be perceived by neurotypical standards as inappropriate, teachers may find it challenging to incorporate content and structures that reflect authentic engagement. In communicative language teaching theory, tasks should be meaningful, but what counts as meaningful differs - sometimes significantly - for neurodivergent learners. In light of the challenges stemming from the inherent inauthenticity of educational environments and neurodivergent preferences regarding activities and communication, teachers may feel thwarted by attempts to foster inclusivity through thematic choices that reflect learners’ interests or by accommodating preferences for individual work that contradict typical conceptions regarding the development of communicative competence. However, by offering students an array of online resources within a highlystructured framework, teachers can expand learners’ options regarding content, materials, and social forms that enhance the latter’s ability to act in personally meaningful ways. Such choice bestows upon learners the ability to act agentively if, for example, they may select a text (in the broadest sense of the word) from a particular genre or communicate their knowledge in various media-enriched formats. Various forms of interaction can be realized with digitally-mediated communi-cation, reflecting contemporary communicative practices that are highly agentive and authentic, and they can allow learners to make connections to content and practices that are personally relevant, rather than following a path pre-selected by a teacher trying to anticipate their learners’ interests. This ability to choose in turn contributes to well-being, and ultimately, may positively influence language learning. Vermeulen (2019) points out that most interventions intended to support neurodivergent learners are designed with the assumption that improving learning conditions will lead to heightened well-being. However, he argues, learning can only occur if well-being exists, and that therefore, measures to improve well-being must precede other interventions. Merely incorporating choice, however, is inadequate to cultivate well-being. Even if students can select their own topics and tools, including the ones that facilitate digitally-mediated communication, such autonomy contributes only to superficial kinds of agency if this choice has to take place in a space bounded by neuronormative expectations regarding content, interaction, and form, and by neurotypical concepts of human flourishing. Just as linguistically inclusive classrooms problematize prescriptivist language ideologies based on prestige language norms, neurodivergent inclusive language learning needs to make room for differences in communication that result from idiosyncratic ways of thinking and being. Receptivity to neurodivergent learners in this sense may contribute to creating a more welcoming environment in general. Moreover, to be truly attuned to neurodivergent well-being, an inclusive offline space would go beyond mere acceptance of neurodivergent norms. Instead, like the online spaces to which neurodivergent individuals flock, these spaces would honor unique ways of flourishing. Digitality can mediate accessibility in (sub)cultural spaces that are welcoming in terms of their language choices, communicative modalities and cultures, as well as their focus on specific subjects. By offering neurodivergent individuals opportunities to communicate on their own terms, on topics of particular interest to them, they have the ability to act, and enact, ways of being that deviate from what is frequently considered to be the norm, but that are essential to neurodivergent well-being, and subsequently, learning (Vermeulen 2019). What we have not addressed thus far are the very real challenges associated with digitality that may exclude neurodivergent English language learners and, in fact, threaten their mental health. There are large parts of the Internet, and large numbers of digital tools and platforms, that are not accessible due to functional barriers. These may be a result of sensory-related or comprehension barriers resulting from a lack of conformity to web accessibility guidelines (WCAG2) or insensitivity towards recommendations regarding easy-to-read language (Vollenwyder et al. 2018) or multilingualism (van Deursen & van Dijk 2009). More significantly, exclusion also results from unwelcoming digital spaces in which largely anonymous individuals feel empowered to discriminate against other members of digital publics due to gender due to racism, linguicism or ableism (Collister 2016). Virulent online attacks on individuals and groups due to their identities or affiliations represent the ‘dark side’ of the agentive nature of digital communication. These challenges underscore the need for pedagogical digital literacies among teachers, so that they are in a position to develop digital participation literacies among all of their learners that address mental health issues. The goal should be to reduce the potential tendency of some learners to perpetuate such exclusion, in addition to offering all learners’ mechanisms for dealing with these problems when they encounter them. In this way, and in others, we thus acknowledge that equating digitallymediated communication with agency and well-being among neurodivergent English language users would be an oversimplification. Neurodivergent individuals are as unique as neurotypical ones, and attempts to ascribe a certain kind of digital affinity to them risks essentializing both the people and their activities. 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Ziehe, Thomas (2007). Die Eigenwelten der Jugendlichen und die Anerkennungskrise der Schule. In: Detlef Horster (Ed.). Moralentwicklung von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. 103-122. Carolyn Blume Dortmund Competence Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (DoKoLL) TU Dortmund Jules Bündgens-Kosten Institute of English and American Studies Goethe University Frankfurt In school, ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’ are central activities students perform in meaning-oriented (e.g., listening to teachers’ instructions, to their classmates, to headmaster’s announcements, etc.) as well as passive (e.g., hearing noise like rustling paper, the clicks of a biro/ ballpoint pen during a class test, etc.) ways. Being constantly surrounded by noises inside and outside the classroom can stress the students and affect their ability to learn and work well, which is a central condition to provide a learning environment that is conscious of the students’ mental health. In the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, students perform cognitively challenging tasks when they listen to texts. The focus on the students’ comprehension performance often comprises using tasks and settings that could induce foreign language listening anxiety and by that increase this form of mental distress. To support the students in a) coping with noise-related stress, b) learn how to listen to a foreign language, and c) to reduce foreign language listening anxiety, this contribution aims at developing a mindful approach to teaching EFL listening. “Noise is an imposition on sanity, and we live in very noisy times.” Joan Baez (Baez 1968) One of the main requirements of being a student at school is to listen. This includes listening to the teachers’ instructions, announcements by the headmaster, texts played during listening comprehension activities, or to the remarks made by their friends, to name just a few. In addition to this meaningful way of listening, students are also confronted with hearing many sounds that are unavoidable at school which can be perceived as - noise (see section 3 of this contribution). According to OECD PISA data, almost 30% of students complained about noise in every or most lessons (OECD 2019). Schools can be seen as the students’ workplace, and in this context the European Agency for Safety and Health at work stresses that “[e]ven relatively low noise levels can cause problems in the workplace because the noise is annoying and disturbing. Noise can give rise to stress reactions that have a detrimental effect on the ability to concentrate and on productive efficiency” (EU OSHA 2013). Further studies have found that noise-related stress is linked to cardiovascular diseases as well as mental disorders such as anxiety or depression (see, e.g., Ahmad 2022). It can thus be argued that these noise-related stress reactions negatively impede on students’ mental health, which according to the WHO is “a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well” (WHO 2022). Thus, as noise is a crucial factor at school that has the power to affect the students’ mental health (see, e.g., Basner, Babisch, Davis, Brink, Clark, Janssen & Stansfeld 2014; Lim, Kweon, Kim, Cho, Park & Sim 2018), it should be reflected on in class in order to raise awareness of its potential effects. It seems reasonable to focus on this aspect in lessons dedicated to listening, which is, for several reasons, typically done in foreign language classes and not necessarily in other subjects. Mental health, according to the WHO’s definition, also depends on a realization of ones’ own abilities. In EFL contexts, this would require the students to realize that they are able to listen in a foreign language and learn how they can improve this competence area. This aspect is often neglected in teaching practice because it tends to focus more on testing listening than teaching how to do it. When focusing on listening in the EFL classroom, it can be said that students are expected to listen to a variety of recorded texts that are (more or less) interesting to them and (more or less) resemble real life contexts. 1 A common technique of EFL teaching practice regarding listening is to assess the students’ comprehension of the information covered in the recordings by using comprehension task formats such as multiple-choice, multiple-matching, short answer questions, etc. (see Field 2008; Folkerts & Matz forth.). One of the downsides of this practice is that the students’ answers are often limited to a strictly correct/ incorrect binary opposition with nothing in-between (see, e.g., Field 2008). This strong focus on right or wrong is one of the factors that can lead to foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA; see, e.g., Elkhafaifi 2005; Bekleyen 2009) because it might increase the students’ worry about not 1 It should be noted that many recordings are specially produced for EFL purposes and consist of adapted speech (e.g., easier vocabulary, reduced grammatical complexity, fewer elements of natural speech, etc.). These often-scripted dialogues usually align with the topic of the teaching unit at hand and do not necessarily match with the students’ interests. performing well enough in foreign language listening; it also highlights deficits in listening, typically without providing the students with information how to overcome these deficits. This often leaves students without any support as to how they can actively improve their listening competence (see, e.g., Folkerts & Matz forth.). FLLA is an empirically validated construct that is part of foreign language anxiety and is known to negatively affect the students’ mental health (see section 4 in this contribution). In the context of mental health, it can be regarded as a mental disorder. The WHO adds to their definition of mental health that it “is more than the absence of mental disorders. It exists on a complex continuum, which is experienced differently from one person to the next, with varying degrees of difficulty and distress and potentially very different social and clinical outcomes” (WHO 2022). In the context of school, it should be highlighted that foreign language anxiety is a frequently occurring mental disorder (see, e.g., Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope 1986) that often also comprises FLLA (see, e.g., Kimura 2017), and is also experienced individually with varying degrees. Teaching EFL listening in mindful ways should be aware of anxiety-inducing learning settings and also focus on those aspects of teaching this competence which raise the students’ awareness as to how foreign language listening can be learned. This contribution will thus suggest theory-based principles for a mindful EFL listening classroom which concentrates on coping with mental health risks, including a) noise as a stressor, b) lack of learning how to listen in a foreign language well, and c) FLLA as an affective issue. Therefore, after a brief description of the listening process, a point will be made for fostering mindfulness in EFL listening. Mindful listening builds the foundation for listening instructions that focus on positively contributing to the students’ mental health by providing strategies to deal with noise-related stress. Additionally, this contribution will elaborate on how paying conscious attention to the learning process of this competence rather than testing it might help to reduce the students’ FLLA, and by that not only contributes to the students’ ability to learn well and work well, but also to realize their ability to listen in a foreign language. When describing the listening process, first, a distinction has to be made between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening.’ Hearing, in very broad terms, can be defined as the “physical and neurological systems and processes that are involved in hearing sound” (Rost 2016: 3). Depending on the composition of the sounds, these can be perceived as noise. A sound can be perceived as noise because of its ‘loudness’ or ‘volume’ (e.g., an airplane flying too low; see, e.g., EU OSHA 2013). Too high volume can be perceived as too loud for the ear, and people instantly wish to cover their ears to protect them. Also, a sound becomes a noise when its frequencies are in a range that are out of the regular ranges (i.e., ‘tonality’; see Oliva, Hongisto & Haapakangas 2017) or there are too many frequencies at the same time which create cacophony (‘spectrum’; see Hongisto, Oliva & Recola 2015). Third, steady-state sounds (e.g., a heater or a broken/ damaged lamp) as well as impulsive sounds (e.g., the constant clicking of a biro/ ballpoint pen) can be perceived as noise as well 2 (see Virjonen, Hongisto & Radun 2019; Rajala & Hongisto 2020; Radun Maula, Rajala, Scheinin & Hongisto 2022). In many cases, these noise sources occur at the same time or have the same origin. Students in school are confronted with many of these different sources of noise, and they need to learn which sounds are stressors and develop adequate coping strategies for this noise-related stress (see section 3 of this contribution). Perceived sounds are processed further and can be differentiated into ‘speech’ and all other sounds which might support as well as challenge the following processes. Listening is concerned with the further processing of speech in connection with developing representations of meaning of what has been said. However, other sounds can also contribute to the meaning building process which is why listening for meaningful sounds in a specific context is also possible. The representations of meaning can be seen as an individual interpretation by the listener (with varying room for interpretation which to a large extent depends on the input). To initiate this meaningmaking process, the listener must, to some degree, have the ‘intention to start listening’ to the speech input (Kriegel 2013). With regards to the temporal dimension, hearing and listening are pastas well as future-oriented and are grounded in an awareness of real time; sounds that are perceived in the now must be retrospectively analysed and at the same time require an anticipation of what can be heard next (Cariani & Micheyl 2012). Raising the students’ awareness of the temporal dimension of hearing provides the opportunity for students to be mindful of their present environment and how it affects their level of stress. When processing speech, listening involves three different process phases which are influenced by each other’s products: perception, parsing, and utilization. In the perception phase, the listeners perceive the acoustic input and develop a phonetic representation of what has been said. This phonetic representation will be further processed in the parsing phase which involves the lexical search and a grammatical analysis of the phonetic representation. In both phases, linguistic knowledge (e.g., phonetic, lexical, grammatical, semantic knowledge) is crucial to be able to further 2 In their experimental study on steady-state noise and impulsive noise, Rajala & Hongisto (2020) found that impulsive noise is perceived as more annoying. Onset rate and level difference are important factors that contribute to the perception of impulsive noise as annoying. process the speech input. Less experienced EFL listeners in particular face challenges in this phase as they often have only a limited amount of linguistic knowledge (see, e.g., Field 2008; Goh & Vandergrift 2022; Rossa 2012). In the third phase, ‘utilization’, the listeners are required to integrate information of what has been said and decoded so far with their existing ‘prior knowledge’ (e.g., world, pragmatic, discourse knowledge). In EFL learning contexts, it can be said that limited prior knowledge poses a threat to developing cohesive representations of meaning, which is why contextualization plays a vital role in facilitating the L2 listening process (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 65-67). The processes described so far happen naturally and automatically in the L1; however, in the L2 context, the learners usually struggle with the automatic processing of the perceived speech (Field 2008; Rossa & Matz 2023), e.g., due to limited language knowledge in the foreign language. It should therefore be the goal of every L2 listening curriculum to foster the learners’ listening competence so that they are able to automatically process the speech input and become more fluent listeners (Field 2008, Goh & Vandergrift 2022). Nonetheless, until the learners are able to process speech automatically, they will oftentimes rely on controlled processing, for example, by trying to translate single words or phrases. This, of course, leads to higher cognitive load, which challenges higher order thinking processes such as those used in the utilization phase. This is why Goh and Vandergrift (2022) emphasize that L2 learners will profit from the integration of metacognitive listening strategies. Metacognition can be seen as the listeners’ “ability to think about [their] own thinking or ‘cognition’ and by extension, to think about how [they] process information for a range of purposes and manage the way [they] do it” (Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 87). It thus underlies the whole listening process and enables the listener to actively influence the cognitive processes that are involved. By using their metacognitive knowledge, which consists of strategies that control their thinking, listeners can apply these to facilitate and enhance the listening process and by that provides them with agency for listening. Being aware of when to use which metacognitive strategy is reported to have positive impact on the listening process and provides the students with reassurance that they can learn how to listen (see, e.g., Cross 2010; Bozorgian 2014; Goh & Hu 2014; Chen 2019; Maftoon & Alamdari 2020). It must further be emphasized that the three described processes (perception, parsing, and utilization) influence each other in two directions (usually referred to as bottom-up and top-down processing) which result in storing a representation of what has been said in long term memory. Knowing the context of the listening situation, for example, will influence the utilization phase and therefore shape to a certain extent what the listeners expect to hear (Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 65-67). The results of the listening process are representations of meaning which are influenced by the listeners prior knowledge and are thus highly individual. Depending on the input, there is more or less room for the listeners interpretation of what has been said. Thus, listening is an approximate process that listeners often only realize actively when a communication or meaning-building breakdown is imminent. When designing instructions for teaching listening in a mindful way, it is important for teachers to know the goals for listening which are to a large extent based on the characteristics of the listening text. In summary, focusing on the difference between hearing and listening in the EFL classroom can provide information to establish a learning setting that enables the students to cope with noise-related stress. Meaning-oriented listening is a complex process that involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitive processes which support the listener to process spoken input and build representations of meaning. The foreign language listener is confronted with several challenges throughout the whole process. Raising the students’ awareness of these challenges by focusing on automatic processing as well helping them use metacognitive strategies for listening can improve their agency in the listening process. This section specifically focuses on developing the students’ competence to cope with noise as a stressor. Therefore, the differentiation between listening and hearing is needed to teach EFL listening in mindful ways. In the following section, central aspects that contribute to a mindful listening classroom will be outlined. Mindfulness, as it will be established in this section, can be defined as a person’s ability to focus the attention on the present and accept this experience, as well as the “ability to identify and differentiate among emotions and successfully regulate negative emotions” (Coffey, Hartman & Fredrickson 2010: 250-251) that are triggered by this present-centered attention and experience. First, I argue that it is important to raise the students’ awareness of loudness as being on a continuum to make them aware of what noise is and how it can affect their mental health. Second, I contend that an EFL classroom that is mindful of listening should further focus on the differentiation between hearing and listening, as becoming aware of this difference will help the students to identify noise sources, develop coping strategies, and learn how to use sounds in a meaningful way to support their listening comprehension. Finally, I show that an awareness of both aspects, loudness as a continuum and hearing versus listening, enables the students to practice mindful hearing and listening in their surrounding environment, which has the potential to not only help them comprehend better, but also profit from experiencing less FLLA and thus improved well-being. In schools, there will always be sounds that create a certain level of background noise. This background noise usually has levels of around 35-50db (see, Augustyńska, Kaczmarska, Mikulski & Radosz 2010; Shield, Conetta, Dockrell, Connolly, Cox & Mydlarz 2015). In order to make themselves heard, teachers as well as students need to be louder than this threshold level. Depending on the classroom’s acoustic conditions as well as the collaborative situation in the lesson, the background noise might even exceed the aforementioned levels. In group work phases, the background noise can easily exceed 55-65db (Augustyńska et al. 2010; Shield et al. 2015), which will lead the students to increasingly raise their voice even higher and by that ultimately increase the noise level. Many practitioners are aware of this effect and, for example, aim at speaking only as loud as necessary for group work phases to reduce the noise level (Huber & Haag 2010; a common practitioners’ technique is to aim at establishing a ‘30-cm voice’ that only neighbours can hear in group work phases). There is, however, no systematic approach that concentrates on the students’ awareness of the loudness level. As volume (i.e., the loudness of a listening text) is a central element of the listening classroom, it lends itself to establishing such an awareness. A first important step of such an awareness training would be to create a baseline that establishes the quietest possible noise level. By letting the students reflect on this baseline with regards to their level of stress, students can be made aware of how loudness might contribute to mental distress. From this baseline, students can then refocus on hearing sounds that go beyond this quiet threshold level. By identifying these sounds (e.g., paper rustling, tapping, etc.), students can be made aware of specific factors that increase the baseline and accordingly avoid making these sounds, which will lead to less noise in class. If implemented at early foreign language learning levels, this practice can also be used to learn the names of specific sounds and corresponding verbs and adjectives. Another aspect that helps to establish a mindful listening classroom is using the distinction between hearing and listening for teaching listening. A core element that is needed to establish the differentiation between hearing and listening is to use audible texts that contain sounds as well as speech. Using texts with background noise is already common practice when testing as well as teaching listening comprehension (see, e.g., Field 2019). However, in most cases the instructions of the exercises and tasks accompanying the listening texts solely focus on the speech decoding and listening comprehension dimension and are therefore limited. Raising the students’ awareness of how background sounds can impair as well as benefit their comprehension will contribute to the students’ metacognitive knowledge and thus their application of metacognitive strategies. Depending on the sounds, they might, on the one hand, obstruct understanding as they conflict with the speech that the students are supposed to understand. Knowing which sounds must be actively ignored or listened around will help the students to develop metacognitive strategies how to deal with this common phenomenon of speech reception. On the other hand, background sounds can also support the comprehension of what has been said if they provide additional context information that helps to understand the speech. Again, focusing on how to use these sounds for the listening comprehension process increases the students’ agency of their listening process. By providing students with discrimination training that focuses on the differentiation between background noise that impairs comprehension and background sounds that support comprehension, students can be made aware of the thin line between hearing and listening, which is crossed as soon as the sounds are perceived in a meaningful way. Teachers implementing such discrimination training will also provide fair preparation for listening comprehension exams in which this competence level is tested (see, e.g., the competence descriptions of the CEFR level B2 for overall oral comprehension which are often used as guidelines for test development; Council of Europe 2020: 48). When students are used to applying different strategies depending on whether the background sounds are noise or context information, they will be less likely to become stressed by background sounds in the exam situation. This will reduce both FLLA (see section 4) and test anxiety (see In’nami 2006) as well and thus help to reduce mental distress. Students that are aware of loudness as a continuum as well as the differentiation between hearing and listening can use this to practice mindfulness. There are a variety of mindfulness-based interventions which are reported to have a positive impact on mental health (for an overview, see, e.g., Coffey et al. 2010: 235). Most of these interventions focus on the awareness of factors that positively or negatively contribute to a person’s mental wellbeing. In a mindful listening classroom that focuses on the positive and negative impact of the environment on the students’ mental health, the relationship between what surrounds us and how it affects us is crucial. 3 It does, however, not only affect the auditive but also the visual sense, as the interplay of both senses contributes to cognitive load. Depending on the setting, excessive cognitive load could cause stress and impair mental well- 3 Beard (2019) refers to sounds that derive from sources we cannot see as acousmatic sound. He argues that “[a]cousmatic listening moves from a reflexive activity to a reflective activity” (Beard 2019: 131) because it surpasses cognitive shortcuts. In the context of this contribution, this reflective activity is practiced by focusing on immersion into soundscapes, which is a specific form of acousmatic listening that connects the students to their surroundings. being. For example, what students see does not necessarily equal with what they hear: In a face-to-face conversation, students see who is talking to them, they can thus be aware of the context, the surroundings, etc. However, on their way to school, students might listen to some music via headphones, which, for example, does not match with what they see outside or inside the bus; this can either be stressful or have a relieving function depending on the students’ constitution and state of mind (see, e.g., Beard 2019). In class, students usually read and see comprehension tasks when listening to a corresponding text, but they do not actually see the people who speak, which is why listening comprehension is seen as cognitively challenging (see, e.g., Rossa 2012; Beard 2019; Field 2019). The congruency between what can be seen and what can be heard is highly relevant when it comes to the cognitive load the two senses produce as this generates different levels of stress. Teaching hearing and listening in a mindful way can use the awareness of noise sources (‘loudness as a continuum’) and disturbing sounds (‘difference between hearing and listening’) to focus on how to deal with stress that is produced by cognitive overload caused by the auditory and visual senses. This form of mindfulness is the basis for a listening classroom that focuses on the student’s mental well-being, as it provides the students with the necessary present-centred self-awareness of identifying which sounds increase their mental distress. In the following paragraph, a specific training intervention will be described that can foster (EFL) students’ mindfulness and could benefit their mental well-being. First, the differentiation between hearing and listening should be used to raise the students’ awareness of their audible surroundings. By closing their eyes, they can practice hearing the soundscape 4 that surrounds them and practice focusing their attention on the present. Also, by immersing themselves into the soundscape, they can then reflect on how they experience it and how it relates to their mental state. While the students are immersing themselves into the soundscape, they can listen for specific sound details and can be asked to identify these, note them down and evaluate how they affect their mental state. This will make them aware of their immediate environment and promotes mindfulness with regards to the here and now: What surrounds me and how does it affect me? One effect of this practice is that the students’ attention on specific sounds elevates them from a subconscious, passive mode of hearing to a more conscious mode 4 A soundscape can be seen as an audible equivalent to a landscape. The work of R. Murray Schafer (1977) largely contributed to defining the term. There are different source types of sounds that compose a soundscape: On the one hand, there are natural sounds produced by non-organic material (e.g., waves, wind, etc.) as well as natural sounds produced by organic sources (e.g., the chatter of birds). Both sound sources are not human related; thus, all sounds produced by humans (e.g., speech) or caused by humans or human inventions (e.g., urban sounds) are seen as different source types of soundscapes (see, e.g., Pijanowski, Villanueva-Rivera, Dumyahn, Farina, Krause, Napoletano, Gage & Pieretti 2011; Kang & Schulte-Fortkamp 2016). of listening and therefore becomes a reflective activity. By doing so, students will gain agency over what they are listening to and can actively engage in dealing with the sounds on a cognitive level. In the next step, teachers should make use of different recorded soundscapes (e.g., from cities, beaches, woods, etc.). This aims at differentiating more sounds that can affect our mental well-being either positively or negatively. It is important to provide the students with ample time to immerse themselves into the soundscape so that they are able to feel the effect the soundscape has on their body and mind (see Beard 2019). It should be noted that sounds from natural soundscapes are reported to have stronger positive effects with regards to physical as well as mental health than urban sounds because they are reported to reduce stress and annoyance (see Buxton, Pearson, Allou, Fristrup & Wittemeyer 2021). Immerging into these soundscapes first aims at raising the students’ awareness of their stress level. By changing from a passive mode of hearing to a meaningful way of listening, the students will gain agency and by that learn how to reduce their stress level. Additionally, this activity should of course be regarded in a language learning related context. Instructions therefore could include, for example, identifying and naming sounds (especially suited for younger learners), reflecting about the effects of the landscape with peers (aiming at interactive competences; expressing feelings and emotions in a foreign language), or creative tasks (e.g., storytelling that involves sounds heard in the soundscape). A third step in a mindfulness training for listening can be seen as a counterpart to immersion into a soundscape as the students actively engage with the soundscape and start analysing it. First, students should practice fading in and out of background noise by being aware of loudness as a continuum. This can be achieved by letting them focus on specific sounds of a landscape while ignoring other sounds that are louder or quieter. Second, by adding speech at a medium volume into the soundscape, a helpful trigger for meaning-oriented tasks can be included (see section 4). This last step of such a mindfulness training for listening fosters the students’ agency over their listening process. In doing so, the students can develop strategies which they need to cope with noise-related stress. Moreover, this mindfulness training can help students cope with stress caused by background noises in testing situations. - Beyond the listening processes (see section 2), the construct of foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA) as a specific form and subtype of foreign language anxiety (Kimura 2017) is of relevance for this contribution, as FLLA can be seen as an affective issue that should be actively mitigated in a mindful EFL listening classroom. According to Kim (2000), two dominant factors that influence the students’ FLLA are “tension and worry over English listening” as well as “lack of confidence in listening” (Kim 2000: 146). These factors are influenced, for example, by missing keywords in the text, limited processing time, and limited background knowledge (Kim 2000: 146). In a later study, Kimura (2017: 143-146) added two further factors that contribute to FLLA: ‘Self-Focused Apprehension’ (SFA) as well as ‘Task- Focused Apprehension’ (TFA). The latter in particular can be seen as the students’ “worry about poor L2 listening performance […], which is specific to L2 listening tasks” (Kimura 2017: 145). Kimura found that TFA affects both lower proficiency learners as well as higher proficiency learners. While the high TFA of lower proficiency learners can be explained with limited linguistic resources and prior knowledge, the surprisingly high TFA of higher proficiency learners is ascribed to a lack of automatic processing (see Kimura 2017: 153-155). As a result, teaching listening in a mindful way should focus on a) the students’ automatic processing (which can be achieved by learning how to listen), and b) their agency in the listening process (which can be achieved through focusing on metacognitive strategy use), both of which will be elaborated on in the following paragraph. Developing representations of meaning in the listening process requires the listeners’ understanding of information that is encoded in the input, or briefly, their interpretation of said text. In the EFL context, the bottom-up and top-down processing that is needed to build these representations of meaning are often referred to as ‘listening comprehension.’ For a long time, listening comprehension has been regarded as a passive process that does not need a lot of attention in EFL instruction (for a historic overview on the role of listening in EFL teaching, see, e.g., Flowerdew & Miller 2005; Hue 2019). Even though this misconception has been revised by several researchers (see, e.g., Rossa 2012; Rost 2016; Goh & Vandergrift 2022), listening comprehension in German EFL contexts, especially in lower secondary education, is often rather product-oriented and neglects the listener’s agency in this meaning making process (e.g., Folkerts & Matz forth.). This form of teaching listening therefore tends to assess whether the information that is encoded in speech was perceived correctly rather than either providing information about how it was perceived or whether the listeners were able to integrate the new information with existing knowledge to create cohesive representations of meaning. Listening instruction in the German EFL context is, to a large extent, driven by an isolated testing of listening comprehension (see, e.g., Folkerts & Matz forth.; Mertes 2019). This standardand validity-oriented assessment practice in the German secondary school context has a strong washback effect on the teaching practice. It can thus be argued that there is hardly a distinct separation of learning how to listen and testing the students’ listening comprehension, which is an important distinction for the development of lesson sequences (see Hallet 2018). The focus on listening comprehension and the corresponding assessment of whether the learners’ extraction of information from the text was successful is indeed a necessary practice in several contexts that are, for example, relevant to fulfil the schools’ function of selection and allocation. In learning contexts, however, focusing on the students’ correct extraction of information too often can be anxiety inducing (see Kimura 2017) and therefore not only negatively affects the learning process but also could increase the mental disorder FLLA. There are numerous approaches to teaching L2 listening. For the German secondary school context, arguably the comprehension approach (CA) is the most influential. In a small-scale study, Folkerts & Matz (forth.) found indications that this approach is still very dominant in the German EFL context. Field (2008) points out that, according to the CA, the best way of developing listening skills entails presenting learners with a recorded passage of about three minutes, then checking their understanding of the passage by means of a comprehension exercise. If a right answer is given […], teachers assume that understanding has been achieved and move on. If a wrong answer is given, teachers replay the part of the text that has caused difficulty. […] But the underlying supposition is that testing for understanding is the most appropriate form for the listening class to take. This supposition has rarely been questioned; so prevalent is it that teachers’ manuals often use the term ‘listening comprehension’ to refer to all work on listening skills. (Field 2008: 26, emphasis added) Apparent in this description of the CA is that there are merely two options for the learners: giving a right or a wrong answer. Hence the classroom practice that has evolved from this approach is testing rather than learning listening. Keeping in mind that lower as well as higher proficiency learners are generally affected by TFA (Kimura 2017), it can be assumed that confronting these students with task formats that evoke feelings of being tested in class are likely to increase FLLA. Concludingly, besides the merits of this approach when it comes to making judgements about the students’ competence level with regards to listening comprehension, it must be emphasized that it does not support learning to listen. To this end, it stands against the students’ state of mental well-being that consists of the ability to learn well and work well. In addition, it can be concluded that it increases mental distress and can lead to mental disorders based on anxiety. As individuals might perceive FLLA to different degrees, teachers must pay attention to the fact that students who are more prone to experience FLLA are not superimposed by those who can cope well with the stress caused by these task formats. It thus seems reasonable to include further approaches to teaching listening comprehension that make up for these downsides of the CA. As the TFA of lower proficiency learners is especially affected by their limited linguistic and prior knowledge and even higher proficiency learners still face challenges of automatic processing, it can be concluded that instruction should focus on these listening processes. To support the students in learning how to listen in a foreign language, Field (2008) developed the so-called ‘process approach’ (PA) to teaching L2 listening. By “dividing listening into a number of contributory elements that can be practised intensively,” (Field 2008: 111) a major goal of the PA is to provide the learners with process-specific learning settings that strengthen the students’ automatic processing. With regards to the decoding processes, listening activities that focus on phoneme, syllable, word-form, chunk, syntax, or intonation level can be used to foster this process dimension (Field 2008: 114). On the meaning-building level, two main goals can be differentiated: meaning enrichment and information handling (Field 2008: 116). Activities that specifically focus on the sub-processes of decoding and meaning building are usually referred to as micro listening activities. Micro here refers to the limited duration of the activity as well as the input and the limited focus on one specific level of decoding or meaning building (see Rossa & Matz 2023: 7). The PA concentrates on the competences and cognitive processes that EFL learners need to become more proficient and fluent listeners. It further aims at learning how to listen and can therefore be regarded as an approach that will positively affect the learners’ mental wellbeing in several ways. It can, for example, decrease FLLA because it reduces TFA and can also lead to less SFA. Furthermore, it boosts the students’ confidence in L2 listening and accordingly reduces worry about bad listening performance. As has been explained in section 2, focusing on an integration of metacognitive strategies for listening also has a very positive impact on the students’ listening process. Even though focusing on metacognitive strategies for listening is not an approach in itself, it will be referred to as the ‘metacognitive approach’ (MA) hereafter. Goh and Vandergrift (2022) differentiate five factors that are relevant for metacognitive awareness of listening: “problem-solving, planning and evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge, and directed attention” (Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 99). By fostering the students’ self-evaluation of these factors, for example, by using the items provided by the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ, see Vandergrift, Goh, Mareschal & Tafaghodtari 2006; Goh & Vandergrift 2022), the learners will be supported in taking over agency of their listening process. This reportedly leads to “learners’ positive engagement with listening tasks as well as stronger interest, confidence, and motivation” (Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 106) and thus plays a vital role in developing an EFL listening classroom that focuses on the learners’ mental health. Implementing the MA can be achieved, for example, by using the metacognitive pedagogical sequence as proposed by Goh & Vandergrift (2022: 118-127), which has been validated in various studies (see, e.g., Mareschal 2007; Cross 2010; Tafaghodtari 2010; Bozorgian 2014). The different stages of the metacognitive pedagogical sequence focus on the key metacognitive processes of planning, monitoring, problem-solving, and evaluation. The sequence consists of five different stages that are focused on when listening to the text at least three times (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 119). Before the first listening, the context needs to be established and the learners are supposed to plan their listening as well as predicting what they will be listening to (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 119). After the first listen, the learners verify their results and plan (usually with peers) their second listen (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 119-120). After the second listen, the students again verify their predictions and reconstruct the text to a certain degree. This stage also might comprise comprehension activities (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 120-121). A third listen (which is especially helpful with a transcript) will, besides revealing information that is still missing (see Goh & Vandergrift 2022: 121), reassure the learners that they were already able to understand most of the relevant aspects and will therefore positively affect the students’ confidence in L2 listening. Designing an EFL listening classroom that is aware of its implications on the students’ mental health holds certain challenges for the teachers. To establish this mindful listening classroom, teachers need to focus on different aspects that have been outlined in this contribution: mindfulness, learnability, and anxiety reduction. Mindfulness - which is a rather new concept in the context of teaching foreign language listening - could serve as a basis for a mindful way of teaching EFL listening, as it focuses on the students’ ability to reflect on which aspects have a positive or negative effect on their mental health. Mindfulness with regards to listening may be fostered by raising the students’ awareness of loudness as a continuum and the differentiation between hearing and listening. By supporting students in mindfully experiencing and reflecting on different soundscapes, they can be enabled to actively engage with them. Activities in this context can help students to develop noise-related stress coping strategies. This form of mindfulness might have a positive impact on the students’ mental health for two reasons. First, the immersion into and reflection of (natural) soundscapes relieves of stress. Second, by gaining more agency over the listening process, listening anxiety can be reduced. FLLA can be reduced by providing tasks that focus on helping students learn the competence rather than testing it. By implementing tasks that are process-based and foster the use of metacognitive strategies for listening, the students’ TFA might be reduced as well as their test anxiety, which could be present in the everyday EFL listening classroom in case it solely focuses on comprehension activities. Reducing the students’ FLLA provides a safe space for the students in class and thus aims at positively contributing to the students’ mental health as it reduces mental distress. The theoretical concept presented in this contribution is envisaged as a first suggestion to design a mindful EFL listening classroom and would profit from further practice-oriented research that concentrates on specific tasks and instructions that are needed in this context. Additionally, the concept still needs empirical validation as the proposed principles for a mindful listening classroom have not yet been researched in the specific field of foreign language listening in combination with mental health. In this context, only foreign language listening anxiety has been researched and established as an empirically validated construct that is connected to the students’ mental health as it focuses on this affective issue. It would thus be worthwhile to explore whether FLLA can be reduced by teaching EFL listening in mindful ways as they are presented in this contribution. Ahmad, Samoon (2022). How Constant Noise Keeps Us Chronically Stressed. Noise pollution and the brain. [online] https: / / www.psychologytoday.com/ intl/ blog/ balanced/ 202212/ how-constant-noise-keeps-us-chronically-stressed [May 2023]. Augustyńska, Danuta, Anna Kaczmarska, Witold Mikulski & Jan Radosz (2010). Assessment of teachers’ exposure to noise in primary schools. 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Jens-Folkert Folkerts English Department University of Münster Video games are en vogue. They play an important role in many teenagers’ lives and, for that reason, have also lately received more attention in the context of school education, including English language education. Yet, while English language research continuously points out the great potential of video games for language learning, they have hardly found their way into actual English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in Germany. The present study explores one reason behind this absence of video games from EFL teaching practices: With the help of a thematic discourse analysis, it examines the negative reputation video games still obtain in current German EFL textbooks. More precisely, it will be shown that video games are often represented through the discursive lens of gaming disorder. Textbooks display digital games as a matter of addiction and mental illness and, as such, they serve as important gatekeepers in the EFL classroom that potentially keep teachers away from perceiving video games as valuable learning materials. Video games play a vital role in contemporary youth cultures. By now, 76% of German teenagers between the age of 12 and 19 play digital games on a daily or weekly basis (MpFS 2022: 49), which makes gaming both a significant cultural practice in its own right and an influential element of teenage identity formation (Reinhardt 2019). Given this omnipresence and relevance, it is not surprising that, in recent years, video games have also gained more traction in the field of education, including English language education. Thus, while they had been perceived as mere forms of entertainment before, lately an increasing number of studies have started exploring the potential of digital games for language learning - and have - found them highly beneficial for the development of communicative, cultural, or media-related competences in the EFL classroom (see e.g., Love 2017; Jones 2018; McNeil 2020; Becker 2021a). Video games, in other words, are perceived as a most versatile and motivating addition to contemporary English language education. And yet, despite this promising potential pointed out in research, video games still have not yet been broadly implemented in actual EFL classrooms in Germany. In fact, a majority of teachers indicate an utter lack of experience with video games in their own EFL teaching (see Becker 2022) which points to a significant gap between what video games might be in theory and what they are (or not) in practice. While there are many reasons for this current absence of digital games from English language classrooms in Germany 1 , one most fundamental reason might lie in the fact that video games still retain a rather negative public reputation so that they are not perceived by teachers as suitable learning materials. More precisely, ever since the tragic occurrence of school shootings in Columbine (1999), Erfurt (2002) or Parkland (2018), media outlets have continuously advocated the negative impact of video games on young people’s everyday lives and mental health - arguing that they display addictive gameplay elements and/ or offer disputable content (e.g., violence, sexual content, drug abuse), which are both detrimental to teenagers’ healthy cognitive and emotional development (see Jöckel 2018; Breiner & Kolibius 2019). As such, while lately more positive voices increasingly appear in the public sphere (see, e.g., Brown 2015), the notion of video games as “a danger to the integrity of society” (Breiner & Kolibius 2019: 5) still prominently haunts media landscapes and thus becomes a discursive barrier for teachers to seriously consider video games from the perspective of potential and relevance. One area in which this negative public discourse particularly enters the EFL classroom, and in which it might seriously hinder the implementation of video games, is in the context of EFL textbooks. As the present study will show, current textbooks follow public opinion as they often represent video games and gamers through the discursive lens of gaming disorder. They, thus, display digital gaming as inherently linked to a behavioural addiction and mental health issue and as will be argued, underline this problematizing interpretation by especially referring to three clinical features of gaming disorder repeatedly: 1) withdrawal, 2) tolerance, and 3) continuing despite problems (see section 2.1. for more details). So far, this representation of video games as an addictive medium in EFL textbooks has not been researched - let alone the representation of video games in general. Yet, it seems most important to do so since, without this perspective, an important piece for understanding the current gap between the theory and the practice of video game teaching would be missing. This is the case because, 1 See Becker (2022) for a more detailed discussion on common barriers hindering the implementation of video games in current (EFL) classrooms. textbooks are still the most dominant and omnipresent learning material in the EFL classroom (Gehring 2013), so that their negative representation of video games might have a significant impact on shaping many teachers’ (and students’) perception of digital gaming in their day-to-day interactions - and, as such, it might fulfil a powerful ‘gatekeeping’ function for whether to use video games in the EFL classroom overall. Studying the discursive link between video games and addiction in textbooks, therefore, is a necessary step towards adequately and fully portraying the status of video games in the contemporary EFL cosmos, as it complements the above-mentioned studies on the general potential of video games with a critical view on barriers that might still be in the way of practical video game teaching on the level of EFL materials. With this in mind, the present study will analyse selected textbooks by the three major German publishers Klett, Cornelsen and Westermann in more detail. With the help of a thematic discourse analysis, it aims at uncovering discursive mechanisms by which video games are portrayed as addictive. The paper proceeds in the following steps: First, the notion of gaming disorder will be briefly introduced as a discursive background to the subsequent textbook analysis. Here the study’s focus on gaming disorder will also be contextualized in current EFL textbook research. Second, the approach of a thematic discourse analysis will be described as the methodology of the present study. Finally, results of the thematic discourse analysis will be presented via individual examples from selected textbooks. The notion of ‘gaming disorder’ is a rather new addition to psychological research. It was first classified as a clinical condition as late as 2013, when excessive video gaming was officially included as a behavioural addiction in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; see Billieux & Vögele 2018: 209). In this context, gaming disorder 2 is defined as any “problematic or pathological use of video games” (Wittek et al. 2016: 673) in which at least five of the following nine criteria manifest over a 12-month period: 2 Also, at times referred to as ‘internet gaming disorder’. Yet, in the paper the broader notion of gaming disorder will be used to include all kinds of games (not just online games) and also because it is the term adapted by the WHO for their latest eleventh edition of the ICD-11. Since then, gaming disorder has also been recognized as a serious (mental) health risk by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as showcased in the latest revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11; see WHO 2020). Based on the DSM-5 definition and its threshold level of five features, the ICD-11 similarly refers to gaming disorder as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. (WHO 2020: n. p.) Gaming disorder, thus, ultimately presents a serious impairment on multiple levels of daily functionality. As King et al. (2022: 244) argue, it often interferes with “basic activities (i.e., sleep, eating, personal hygiene); social interaction (i.e., meeting friends face-to-face, visiting significant others); and important responsibilities (i.e., school, work, care of dependents)”. As such, pathological gaming also becomes a threat to individuals’ mental health, considering that a dysfunctional relationship to video games often correlates with loneliness and isolation, depression, low self-esteem, or neurotic tendencies (Macur & Pontes 2021). In terms of prevalence and morbidity rate, the occurrence of gaming disorder among young people is still rather limited, as it “affects only a small proportion of people who engage in digitalor video-gaming activities” (WHO 2020: n.p.). In the German context, for instance, pathological gaming occurs in 0.5% of the population of gamers and 1.7% of the general population of ninth graders (Rehbein & Baier 2013). Similarly, in other countries rates vary between 1% and 5%, with only the United States showing 8.5% of addicted gamers (ibid.; Donati et al. 2021). Thus, while a problem with pathological gaming certainly exists in contemporary youth culture, and should be thoroughly considered in health care, empirical data suggests that “it is by no means an epidemic or a rapidly spreading phenomenon” (Jöckel 2018: 64; trans. D.B.). It is at this point that the empirical perspective differs from a more popular image of gaming disorder, as shaped in the public sphere and the educational context - including the image provided in EFL textbooks. Whereas empirical data refers to only small-scale morbidity rates, media outlets (and EFL textbooks) often insinuate gaming disorder and addictive behaviour to be a major concern with far-reaching consequences. Thus, reports use video games as vehicles for construing a rather pessimistic view on teenagers’ digital media habits (Breiner & Kolibius 2019: 6) and, for that purpose, imply a high prevalence rate of gaming disorder among young people; or in other words: public media discourse construes an epidemic of video game addiction. Ultimately, these opposing viewpoints show that gaming disorder is not merely a clinical condition but also a socially and discursively constructed phenomenon. As van Beveren et al. (2020) point out, what is defined as sickness and health is a constant matter of societal negotiations and the same goes for the process of pathologising gaming, which is discursively established alongside changing perceptions of video games in cultural contexts. In order to adequately understand gaming disorder, therefore, both academic and popular perceptions need to be considered, since, like any other discourse, the discourse on gaming and its implications for (teenagers’) mental health is shaped in the interplay between different cultural agents, institutions and texts (Plikat 2017). One such text type that influences the representation of gaming and gaming disorder in an educational context is the textbook. As indicated in the introduction, textbooks, being defined as “an instruction and learning material in book form that was written for the classroom” (Wiater 2005: 43; trans. D.B.), are still the most dominantly used learning material in the EFL classroom (Gehring 2013). As such, they reveal a tremendous influence on how specific topics are discursively constructed for language learning purposes - and on which topics are not considered at all for learning: “What is not found in the textbook has less of a chance of becoming a topic in the classroom” (Gehring 2013: 360). As will be shown below, this is the case with the topic of video games, as textbooks here mirror and reinforce negative public discourse and thus discredit video games as a legitimate learning material. In this vein, textbooks need to be viewed as direct reflections of current curricular visions of language education (O’Keeffe 2013), so that analysing contemporary textbooks becomes an important component for understanding the position of video games and gaming disorder in today’s language teaching. Yet, so far, there are no studies on the representation of video games in general and gaming disorder in particular in EFL textbooks. Thus, there are numerous theoretical and empirical studies on the learning potential of individual video games (see e.g., Reinders & Wattana 2014; Jones 2018; Reinhardt & Han 2021) as well as more practical guidelines on how to teach with video games (Becker 2021a). The question of how and if digital games and addiction are tackled in existing learning materials, however, has yet to be analysed; or in other words: In the context of digital gaming, EFL research focuses on future potentialities and approaches but less on present circumstances and what is already there on the material level. Instead, up to this point, EFL textbook and material analyses have rather focused on non-gaming topics such as gender identity and diversity (Alter, König & Merse 2021; Schiemann 2022), interand transcultural learning (Anton 2017), global learning and varieties of English (Römhild & Matz 2021), or representations of London (Lehmann 2010). The only textbook discussions that are somewhat thematically related to the field of digital gaming can be found in a few studies examining digital textbook versions (Ryu 2017) or digital elements enhancing analogue textbooks (Meyer 2021). Yet, despite their analysis of digital interactivity, they do not include gaming, thus reinforcing the fact that the representation of video games and gaming disorder in textbooks remains a black box in current EFL research. This research gap, however, is even broader when considering that there are not only no studies on gaming disorder in EFL textbooks but that also the overarching topic of mental health has hardly entered language education research. Next to a few individual studies exploring potential links between mental health education and language teaching (Becker 2021b; Ludwig & Summer 2023), there are no discussions on how the EFL classroom might contribute to learners’ awareness of mental health stressors and issues in their everyday lives - despite the fact that through its focus on language, literature, culture, and media, the EFL classroom offers various angles to address mental health aspects (such as gaming disorder) in contemporary youth cultures. Overall, the study of gaming disorder in an EFL context is defined by a research gap both on the material level and the thematic level. Given this deficit in EFL textbook analyses and mental health research, the present study aims to make a first contribution towards closing the gap by answering the following question: In what ways are video games represented as an addictive medium in contemporary German EFL textbooks? For that purpose, the study explores a corpus of 11 textbook series, consisting of a total amount of 55 individual textbooks: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In order to gain a representative overview over the current German EFL textbook market, the corpus selection is based on the following considerations: First, the corpus includes textbooks by all three major EFL textbook publishers (Klett, Cornelsen, and Westermann) and contains series for all main school types in German secondary education (i.e., Hauptschule, Real/ Gesamtschule, Gymnasium). Furthermore, it considers textbooks for all age levels from Orientierungsstufe (i.e., years 5-6, approx. age 10-12) to Oberstufe (i.e,. year 11-12, approx. age 17-18) and, thus, covers the full age range of EFL learners at secondary schools. In addition, from a chronological perspective, the selected corpus includes both well-established series (e.g., Green Line) as well as more recent additions to the textbook canon since 2012 - and, as such, it also offers a diachronic perspective on the German textbook market in the past decade. Finally, for each selected textbook, the general edition (bundesweite Ausgabe) was analysed to ensure the broadest possible distribution and use of these materials in different German federal states. The corpus was analysed via a thematic discourse analysis according to Höhne (2010). This analytical approach describes a “theory-based, reconstructive and empirical” procedure by which the discursive composition of a topic in any given text can be hermeneutically uncovered (Höhne 2010: 424; trans. D.B.). For that purpose, thematic discourse analysis aims at “the reconstruction of specific semantic and thematic structures” on a textual level (Höhne 2010: 424; trans. D.B.) and, thus, it becomes a tool for understanding larger social discourses through dissecting concrete textual meaning-making practices. As such, it also offers a useful methodological framework for understanding how EFL textbooks textually construct and relate to public discourses of video games as an addictive medium. Adapting Höhne’s process scheme for conducting a thematic discourse analysis (2010: 432), the corpus was analysed in two main steps. In the first step, the selected textbooks were examined via a ‘first impression analysis’, to determine which specific texts, images, or activities (hereafter: materials) from the overall corpus are relevant for the topic of gaming disorder. This step includes two procedures: Before focusing on the specific notion of gaming disorder, the first step aimed to more broadly determine which textbook materials even mention video games at all. For that reason, all textbook materials were categorized into so called ‘core analytical units’ (CAUs) to determine the scale upon which the textbooks at hand are to be measured and examined. Based on prior textbook research (O’Keeffe 2013; Schmit 2014) a CAU was defined as any combination of a text (in the broadest sense) and all tasks that accompany a text respectively. All CAUs were then skimmed and subsequently classified as either ‘game-related’ or ‘non-game-related’. This binary decision was based on a coding manual formulating minimal requirements every game-related unit needed to fulfil, including, for example, containing concrete linguistic signifiers (words such as ‘video game’, ‘computer gamer’, ‘gaming’, or ‘gamer’) or visual signs (e.g., images of textbook characters holding a gaming controller). In the second procedure of the first impression analysis, all ‘game related’ CAUs were skimmed again to further determine which of these units make reference to gaming disorder in some way. Here, the decision was based on the nine DSM-5 criteria for gaming disorder discussed in section 3.1. After this initial filtering of relevant materials, in the second main step, the actual discourse analysis was performed, to make visible how relevant units discursively construct video games and gaming disorder. This step specifically focused on what Höhne calls an “intradiscursive analysis”, which is a process in which the textual shape of discourses and its underlying semantics can be deconstructed. More precisely, this intradiscursive analysis examined the following elements in EFL textbooks:  Predications: semantic features ascribed to video games (in the form of words, phrases and images) which come together to form a unified discourse (i.e., the semantic ‘building blocks’ of a discourse).  Discursive Differentials: semantic features ascribed to video games (in the form of words, phrases and images) which serve to establish the opposite of a discourse and, thus, help to contour the discourse through its negation. In addition, where appropriate and necessary, the intradiscursive analysis was complemented by an ‘interdiscursive analysis’ which explores how a specific discourse is furthermore shaped by surrounding discourses (e.g., shaping video games discourse through more general discourses on digital media). For that purpose, the study specifically focused on occurrence of textual topoi, meaning larger topical and semantic fields (e.g., digital media) in which a specific discourse is embedded in a text. The representation of video games and gaming disorder in German EFL textbooks happens alongside three major discourse themes, which can all be related to the DSM-5 criteria for gaming disorder (see section 3.1). Thus, video games are displayed as addictive by 1) representing gamers as being annoyed when their gaming experience is disturbed (i.e., Withdrawal), 2) linking video games to long playtimes and extreme content (i.e., Tolerance) and 3) often featuring gamer characters who neglect their everyday duties due to gaming (i.e., Continue Despite Problems). The following section describes these three themes by discussing individual examples for each. First, the selected textbooks discursively locate video games in the realm of gaming disorder by representing them as a medium accompanied by withdrawal symptoms. More specifically, textbooks use predications of annoyance and/ or aggression for their gamer characters when other people (e.g., family members) disturb their gaming process. Green Line 1 (Horner et al. 2014: 55), for example, features a short story about David, one of the main characters of the series, who does not like being looked after by his Aunt Frances because he “can never play [his] computer games” when she is around. In fact, for David, missing a gaming opportunity because of his aunt is not merely a matter of dislike, but leads to a strongly negative emotional reaction: From the beginning of the text, before gaming is even mentioned, David is described as downright “angry” with his relative, as he personally denounces her (“She gets on my nerves”) and rejects her very presence in the house (“Oh no - not Aunt Frances! ”; Horner et al. 2014: 55). Supported by a drawing of David with folded arms and a disgruntled face, the text thus instantly frames the readers’ reception process by establishing a semantic lens of anger and inappropriate (even anti-social) behaviour, through which the rest of the text is to be interpreted. In anticipation of why David reacts in that manner, readers then uncover his interrupted gaming to be the reason. At that moment, readers can establish a cause-and-effect relationship between David’s problematic behaviour and his gaming and, thus, are guided to directly associate the withdrawal of gaming with an angry demeanour. This semantic link is further reinforced in the rest of the text, when the narrator reveals that David’s withdrawal antics also endanger the everyday functionality of his family. Both his mother and father need to go to work and depend on Aunt Frances for taking care of David during that time (Horner et al. 2014: 55). Yet, David’s reaction to and rejection of his aunt becomes an obstacle to the fulfillment of their professional duties, so that more negative connotations are added to the notion of gaming: David’s personal anger now also affects the collective level and the withdrawal of gaming is negatively contrasted with broader topoi of parental responsibility and familial care. The theme of annoyance due to gaming withdrawal is also prominently featured in ‘agony aunt’ texts, referring to short e-mail exchanges between teenagers who describe a problem and a counselor responding with advice. Thus, in On Track 3 (Baker et al. 2020: 105), for example, a teenage girl, Rosy, voices her frustration with her parents who do not allow her to play video games until she has finished her homework. Like in the case of David, Rosy’s inability to play video games on her own volition leads to strong reactions: She states that “[m]y parents and I are always arguing” and that her desire to continue gaming even results in lying as she “say[s] that I’m working but really I’m playing video games” (Baker et al. 2020: 105). Withdrawal of gaming, hence, once more is associated with predications of irritability and non-conforming behaviour, a pattern that is further underlined in the counselor’s response. More precisely, the counselor restores the parents’ authority that was violated by Rosy’s withdrawal-induced demeanour as she urges Rosy not to lie and not to be “aggressive” towards her father and mother (Baker et al. 2020: 105). In this context, the counselor particularly stresses the danger of becoming untrustworthy since, due to Rosy’s lying, the parents “will start to ask themselves if they can trust you” (Baker et al. 2020: 105). As such, the response becomes a discursive contrast to Rosy’s message, as the counselor implies broader topoi of a ‘proper’ parent-child-relationship and reinforces the negative predications of gaming by implying that gaming withdrawal can damage Rosy’s very integrity and thus harm her at the core of her personality. Next to notions of withdrawal, EFL textbooks also insinuate gaming disorder by displaying video games as a medium that ties its consumers to increasing playtimes and extreme content. Camden Market 6 (Barker et al. 2018: 99), for example, features a factual text about the dangers of video games, which prominently centers around the criterium of tolerance (without explicitly mentioning it). More precisely, the text offers excerpts from an interview with “Dr Golda Weinstein from New England College” who does not want to “damn computer games” yet continues to do exactly that in most of the text (Barker et al. 2018: 99). Thus, first she argues that “the problem with most games is that there is no end and therefore no limit” as they lure gamers into spending exceedingly more time and energy in their virtual worlds (Barker et al. 2018: 99). She reinforces this image of games as a bottomless pit of player engagement by then reporting on a case of “a young man [who] actually died after playing non-stop for three days” and urges parents “to realize what is happening before it is too late” (Barker et al. 2018: 99). Semantically speaking, in this passage Weinstein relies on rhetorical vagueness and abstraction to build her argument: She first initiates a generalizing perspective on video games (“the problem with most games”; emphasis added) and in advising parents to vaguely notice “what is happening” she does not specify the actual problem at hand (Barker et al. 2018: 99). As a result, the notion of building tolerance toward games is not only represented as a most pervasive phenomenon, which is seemingly inherent to all kinds of video games. Rather, it is also shown as a most ominous and almost uncanny occurrence that infiltrates children’s bedrooms, where, in all its vagueness, it might lead to a most concrete outcome of death - although this actually has only occurred in one case after all. Furthermore, the text also features Weinstein’s opinion on the more content-related side of building tolerance. Video games, she states, do not only lure teenagers into spending more time with the medium but, in doing so, they make young people get used to inappropriate subject matters. Thus, once more using a generalizing perspective, she states that “many games contain violent scenes” (Barker et al. 2018: 99). Weinstein here echoes the public topos of the ‘killer game’ - often associated with the egoshooter genre - which exposes children and teenagers to most graphic violence and, as such, might numb children’s response to and reception of graphic content over time. In addition, Weinstein moves beyond the violence discourse by also vaguely hinting at other inappropriate content: According to her, a lot of children “play games they should not be playing at their age” (Barker et al. 2018: 99), which transforms video games into a risk to their well-being and their natural development. Video games, as such, in themselves become acts of violence, as they violate the protected realm of childhood. By keeping the exact nature of inappropriate content vague, they become a semantic container that can be filled with any kind of ‘unwanted’ topic and behaviour, so that video games are discursively constructed as the antithesis and threat to children’s innocence. The aspect of developing a tolerance towards violence is further advocated in a task in Notting Hill Gate 5 (Biermann et al. 2019: 97). Learners are asked to examine and write about two photographs showing children in war zones - with one picture being most graphic as it depicts a boy covered in blood and dirt. Learners then need to interview a person who is willing to share their own “war memory” (Biermann et al. 2019: 97) before they have to discuss the following statement: “Playing war games on game consoles or computers makes gamers violent” (Biermann et al. 2019: 97). Right from the start, the task semantically links video games to violence which is achieved in both the statement itself and the overall structure of the task. Thus, while the statement again discursively hints at the connotation of ‘killer games’ (see above), the ordering of the individual sub-tasks provides a hermeneutical framework for how learners are supposed to respond to the statement: By initially showing a graphic depiction of violence in form of a photograph and by positioning learners in a face-to-face encounter with a war victim, the task confronts learners with predications of discomfort and unease. The task thus, one might argue, imitates and reproduces the emotional turmoil a violent video game might cause in children and teenagers, since, in the face of horrific war scenarios and experiences, learners are primed to feel concern for the inappropriateness of war games and the effects they might have on young people. In this emotionally charged setting, then, the task suggests a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ reaction to the statement since, by the time learners work with the statement, the task has already prepared the image of video games as perpetrators and gamers as victims of violence - which might leave learners with a sense of unease about their own mental well-being in the face of such content. Finally, the notion of gaming disorder is negotiated in EFL textbooks through textbook characters who prioritise their gaming over their everyday duties, to the point where negative consequences ensue. In Camden Market 3 (Barker et al. 2015: 86), for instance, learners encounter George, a 13-year-old boy who, according to a short descriptive text, “never cleans his room and he doesn’t like to help with the housework” because of his constant gaming. Furthermore, he likes his gaming “more than his homework” and it is at this point that negative consequences become most apparent: George is not only textually associated with laziness in householdrelated matters, but he also jeopardises his personal future by neglecting his school obligations: “If he doesn’t work harder for school, he won’t get a good school report. But George doesn’t care.” (Barker et al. 2015: 86). Here, the text adds more semantic weight to its already established predications of carelessness by shifting its representation of gaming from being a mere nuisance in the private sphere to being a serious impairment to professional development and achievement. This problematic notion is also reinforced in a drawing printed next to the written text, in which George is depicted as deeply absorbed in a racing game while his schoolbooks and pencil case are symbolically placed next to the computer screen - where they are left to be forgotten. Both written text and image, thus, suggest that George’s excessive gaming stands in the way of his education and his prioritization of digital games leads to even more negative consequences when perceived in the broader context of his family life: As another short descriptive text reveals, his father has recently lost his job as an engineer so that now he does not only do all household tasks but also ceaselessly searches for new job opportunities (Barker et al. 2015: 86). As such he is active in the domestic and professional realm, which George both neglects, and becomes the semantic differential to George. In comparison to his father, George and his gaming habits are depicted as worse than before, as they are shown to be a direct affront to the father’s dire situation and his responsible work ethics, which discursively leaves gaming with a scent of ingratitude towards the father’s sacrifice amidst a financial crisis. Other texts bring this notion of gamers utterly neglecting important duties to an extreme. In a fantasy short story called “Time Lord” in Green Line 1 (Horner et al. 2014: 106-107), for example, a group of children needs to save the world from the eponymous antagonist by telling three stories that show examples of human compassion. As the group collectively thinks of a final story to tell (and as time runs out quickly) they consult the Time Fairy for help, who transforms a wall into giant computer screens, so that the children can search the internet for inspiration. Yet, as soon as the screens appear one of the characters, Lucy, immediately seems to forget about their world-saving mission: “‘Cool! Look at these huge screens! ’ she cries. ‘Maybe I can play my favorite computer game first? I mean, now that my parents can’t stop me’” (Horner et al. 2014: 107). While the text uses Lucy’s gaming obsession as a comic relief to the narrative, its semantic interplay between video games and the end of the world still reinforces a stereotypical depiction of video games as an addictive medium. Lucy utterly lacks any control over her gaming as she is, quite literally, ready to prioritize it over anything else in the world - to the point where she considers continuing gaming despite the most extreme problem of total annihilation. All of this seems to be motivated by the fact that Lucy can now enjoy gaming without running into more arguments with her parents, which further underlines the understanding of video games as inherently accompanied by and intertwined with problems, ranging from the most trivial everyday arguments to the most extreme consequences. This negative image is also supported by the text implementing a voice of reason and responsibility, as another character, Sandy, scolds Lucy for her ridiculously irresponsible behaviour: “’No way, Lucy’ Sandy says. ‘We have to save the world first’” (Horner et al. 2014: 107). Sandy serves as a semantic differential to shift readers’ attention back to the serious stakes at play, and through her plea to “all work together! ” (Horner et al. 2014: 107), she adds another layer to the problematic nature of gaming as an anti-social and isolating practice that endangers the functionality of the group. As the analysis of individual examples shows, contemporary EFL textbooks for German secondary schools often display video games from the perspective of a mental health risk. In particular, they represent video games as a matter of addiction, as they continuously place digital gaming in the realm of gaming disorder - and, here, they specifically refer to DSM-5 features of the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms, an increasing tolerance of and ‘numbness’ towards inappropriate content and a neglect of everyday duties. As such, textbooks (consciously or unconsciously) define video games in terms of a clinical condition so that digital gaming is often textually associated with a loss of control and, thus, becomes a danger to teenagers’ development and their mental well-being. With this form of representing video games, EFL textbooks mirror and reinforce some contemporary discourses on digital gaming. As Breiner and Kolibius (2019) state, despite the more optimistic public views on video games in recent years, critical interpretations of games still prevail. Thus, next to the long-lasting ‘killer game discourse’ (see above), video games are also negotiated in terms of “digital dementia” and “the danger of addiction” (Breiner & Kolibius 2019: 4; trans. D.B.). In the latter context, it is often argued that digital games take young individuals’ agency away, as teenagers replace their independent decision making in the ‘real’ world with thoughts, actions, and experiences originating in and limited to virtual environments. Video games, hence, are represented as a medium that uses intriguing gameplay, appealing in-game rewards or thrilling content to keep young people fully engaged and immersed in the digital realm, which ultimately results in a variety of problems in teenagers’ everyday lives. EFL textbooks can be located in this latter discourse and through repeatedly making use of DSM-5 features of gaming disorder they become textual reflections and reinforcements of a more critical societal meaningmaking practice - and as representatives of specific curricular visions (see section 2.3) they thus also mirror a lingering sense of video game pessimism in language education discourse. Given this most negative clinical perception on the level of EFL learning materials, video games might still have some way to go to become fully fledged additions to a language learning classroom. In fact, so far, with their connotation of addiction they appear to be the exact opposite of a medium that can offer learning opportunities, as the medium’s potential benefits are still discursively hidden underneath prevalent assumptions of threat and danger. In light of the question why video games are not used more frequently in actual EFL classrooms (see Introduction), therefore, EFL textbooks make a strong case against the implementation of video games; and this is most problematic: As pointed in section 2.3, textbooks fulfil a gate-keeping function regarding which topics are considered ‘valuable’ for language learning. By displaying a rather one-sided perspective on video games as a mental health issue, textbooks currently close the gates for both teachers and learners on discovering what the medium can potentially contribute to the EFL classroom. Instead, textbooks reinforce a rather moralizing view on video games, as it is often still found in public discourse, and, given their central position in the EFL cosmos, they have a strong impact on how likely a reconsideration of video games as learning materials is. 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Proulx, Marc, Susan Abbey & Frank Donoghue (2014). Headlight 3. Berlin: Cornelsen. Proulx, Marc, Susan Abbey & Frank Donoghue (2015). Headlight 4. Berlin: Cornelsen. Proulx, Marc, Susan Abbey & Frank Donoghue (2016). Headlight 5. Berlin: Cornelsen. Proulx, Marc, Susan Abbey & Frank Donoghue (2017). Headlight 6. Berlin: Cornelsen. Daniel Becker English Department University of Münster Supporting students’ c It might seem a commonplace observation that the world in which children and adolescents are currently growing up is changing rapidly, but in an educational context it should be viewed as a pressing concern. In the context of the current polycrisis, three recent UNICEF studies focus on these changes: The Changing Childhood Project (UNICEF 2021a), which explores these transformations on a more general level, The State of the Worlds’ Children 2021 report (UNICEF 2021c), which highlights mental health challenges faced by young people, and the Prospects for Children in the Polycrisis (UNICEF 2023), which analyses how current events specifically impact children. These studies clearly show that the impact of the polycrisis on children’s and young adults’ mental health is immense, but that, amongst other aspects, schools can serve as protective factor. Particularly The State of the Worlds’ Children 2021 report (UNICEF 2021c) hints at the potential role resilience can have in this context not only in coping with adversities, but also be more prepared in these uncertain times. The indication seems to be that children and young adults should not only be afforded the “responsibility, but also the voice, freedom, and agency” to shape their future (UNICEF 2021a). Considering the role English has as a lingua franca in this interconnected and changing world, one of the challenges is how English (as a foreign) language education can support language students in finding their voice and gaining and retaining resilience and communicative agency in times of adversities. Following a dialogical approach, this theoretical-conceptual contribution uses these studies as a starting point to explore on a thematic level what it might require for the language classroom to be a space conducive to supporting students in becoming (communicatively) resilient and being able to respond/ react to events with extreme impact that will shape their lives. - There are various ways of describing the changing times in which children and young people are currently growing up, different concepts that aim to characterise the conditions that shape their lives. But whether the challenges are subsumed under the term ‘polycrisis’ (see, e.g., UNICEF 2023), the acronym VUCA (i.e., volatile, uncertain, complex, ambitious; Bennis & Nanus 1985), contextualised as living in a ‘world of risk’ (Beck 2009), or framed as growing up in times of adversity, the pressing concern remains how educators, curriculum designers and policy makers should/ ought to respond to these challenges. The Changing Childhood Project (UNICEF 2021a), an international poll which interviewed different generations about their views on childhood, reveals that most young adults seem generally hopeful, though wish to be listened to by decision makers. 1 At the same time, though, an overwhelming majority “report greater struggles with mental health” (ibid.: 7), which is also highlighted in The State of the World’s Children 2021 report (UNICEF 2021b). One of the identifiable reasons for these struggles is certainly the COVID-19 pandemic, which not only had and continues to have detrimental effects on the mental health of children and young adults, but also suspended their rights, such as their right to education and mental well-being, for a prolonged time span. However, the pandemic “represents merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to poor mental health outcomes” (Fore 2022: 8). 2 Currently, it is estimated that more than 13% of 10-19-year-olds live with a diagnosed mental disorder, with 40% of these individuals suffering from anxiety and depression (UNESCO 2021c: 10). 3 This should not come as a surprise to educators and curriculum designers, who, by definition, could and should be considered as being part of the child advocacy community. Thus, pressing concerns should be how these findings can be translated into educational policy and curriculum design, how to act with more foresight and how children and young adults can be supported to cope with the adversities they face now and in the future. The State of the World’s 1 The survey was conducted in 21 countries, in each country approx. 1000 people were interviewed between January and June 2021. To ensure a cross-generational perspective, those interviewed where a) young people between the ages of 15-14 and b) people aged 40 and above (UNICEF 2022: 7). The results are both published as part of The Changing Childhood Project as well as an immersive website (changingchildhood.unicef.org). 2 This contribution bases its understanding of both the terms mental health and mental disorder as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO 2022: n.p.) 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. It is an integral component of health and well-being that underpins our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, built relationships and shape the world we live in. Mental health is a basic human right [...]”. 3 Please refer to the relevant UNESCO studies for more details. Children 2021 clearly stipulates that “the pandemic also offers an opportunity to build back better”, as it provides “a historic chance to commit, communicate and take action to promote, protect and care for the mental health of a generation” (UNICEF 2021c: 15). This requires (inter)national initiatives to envisage changes in education policies on a larger scale, whole school approaches and curriculum design (Becker 2023). As “UNICEF is the custodian and champion of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which calls on all nations to protect and foster the rights of children to survival, development, protection, and participation” (Masten 2013) and as it focusses on ways of building resilience through work with children and young adults (ibid.), this contribution uses these UNICEF studies as a point of departure. They do not only give a clear insight into the current situation of children and young adults on an international level, but also stress the need for their voices to be heard and for developing resilience and agency. Following a humanistic, learner-centred, and critical approach, this article starts from the premise that the EFL classroom needs to adjust to the changing childhood of learners. Both children and adolescents are “are not objects of education, they are active participants in their own learning through collaboration with adults and peers” (Lyndon 2021: 51). For them to remain active participants’ educators, curriculum designers and policy makers not only need to consider their prospects in the times of polycrisis, but also prepare them for events still to come. The Changing Childhood Project (UNICEF 2021a), for example, unsparingly draws attention to the fact that the climate crisis not only “poses an unprecedented test for humanity, one that demands both cooperation and action”, and that its “burdens will fall disproportionately on the young generation” (ibid.: 55). This should be a call to action for all those involved in school education to engage in efforts to promote resilience. The State of the World’s Children 2021 highlights that resilience “can promote a pathway to promote and protect mental health” (UNICEF 2021b: 86) and demonstrates “that resilience is fundamental to mental health; it is not the goal, but the means to foster mental health” (ibid.: 113). This theoretical contribution joins the efforts of this special issue in its attempt to explore timely perspectives on the role EFL classrooms can play in mental health education by focussing on the concept of resilience. More specifically it will explore on a thematic level the extent to which students can be supported in developing an emergent, or proactive resilience (see, e.g., Bonanni & Diminich 2013), “by proactively finding options for dealing with the notion of uncertainty and any new threat that might come with it in the future” (Matz & Becker 2023: 230). It will develop in three stages: First, it will focus on the concept of resilience at a more general level. Second, it will provide a brief overview of current conceptualization of resilience in the context of language education. Finally, it will suggest that by integrating risk-related discourses, students might be enabled to find their voice and speak about events which they may or may not be able to anticipate but will have an impact on their future lives. It will thus raise the question whether integrating concepts such as Weak Signals, Tipping Points and White and Black Swans in higher level language classroom might be a step towards fostering students’ preparedness and adaptability, which could support students in becoming communicatively resilient. 4 In his article on the relationship between mental health education and the field of English (as a foreign) language education (ELE), Becker explains that this relationship is currently a rather ambivalent one (2023: 223). However, he outlines the potentials and “points of departure for the development of mental health literacy [MHL] on a linguistic, textual, cultural and discursive level” (ibid.: 223) and his analysis clearly shows that the subject of English provides a rich theoretical and conceptual foundation for mental health education, as it offers points of departure for the development of mental health literacy on a textual, cultural, and discursive level. (ibid.) Language education in schools usually takes place when children and adolescents attempt to find their place in the world, when they “must navigate their way through rapid physical and emotional changes, growing responsibilities and evolving relations with family and peers” (Chandy & MacKenzie 2022: 5). In the German context, pupils tend to start in year 3 (appr. 8 years of age) in primary school, complete their compulsory education, of which English is an inherent part, in year 10 (approx. 15 years of age) and higher secondary around the age of 18 in year 13. During this school time, they thus progress from A1 to about B2/ C1 level and are expected to be able to participate in different types of discourses within many different topic areas. The binding educational guidelines, standards, and frameworks have mostly followed the same principles of communicative language teaching and (inter-)cultural learning as first described in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001; see Matz 2020). So, while their language classrooms and the binding guidelines that shape those classrooms may not have changed much during the last 20 years, the world they live in certainly has. In line with UNICEF, this contribution conceptualises the time in which children and adolescents 4 It is important to note that this paper cannot be considered exhaustive, but rather as a contribution to discussions about how language learning and teaching can be reimagined in times of adversity. This theoretical conceptualisation is limited in scope and has not yet been applied to teaching practice. currently grow up as a polycrisis, that is, “the presence of multiple nearsimultaneous shocks, with strong interdependencies among them, taking place in an ever-more integrated world” (2021c: 6). Thus, language education should also take on the critical responsibility in preparing students to deal with such crises. Before conceptualising resilience in the context of ELE, it seems important to establish a clear understanding of what is meant by the term ‘resilience’ within the context of this article, as “the ubiquity and everwidening scope of the concept of resilience in policy and everyday conversation belies its contested meaning” (Lewis, Omerod & Ecclestone 2021: 20). 5 Resilience is an elastic and contested concept, which has its roots in very diverse fields ranging from engineering and ecology to psychology (Grove 2018: 33): Ecologists, psychologists and engineers all assume that the world is fundamentally unstable: it is filled with uncertainties and disturbances that cannot be prevented. In ecology, a resilient system is enmeshed in a series of complex cross-scalar interrelationships and feedback loops that generate exogeneous disturbances, such as invasive species or environmental calamities. In psychology, the individual is embedded within a wider social, cultural and political and economic environment that can generate trauma, such as an abusive family member or abject poverty. In engineering, a technological system is subject to external stress and shocks that disrupt normal systemic functioning. As Masten (2019: 201) points out, in the face of “natural disasters, war, political conflict, and increasing awareness regarding possible consequences of adversity in childhood for health and well-being in adulthood”, the interest in human resilience surges. In very general terms, resilience can be defined as the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten system function, viability, or development. The concept can be applied to systems of many kinds at many interacting levels, both living and nonliving, such as a microorganism, a child, a family, a security system, an economy, a forest, or the global climate. (ibid.) 5 This overview neither can nor does claim to be comprehensive. In the context of this contribution, the focus is on human resilience in the context of education. It leaves out other areas of research such as ecology, engineering and more in-depth psychological studies, etc. In outlining its understanding of resilience, UNICEF explicitly links it to children’s rights and thus “aims to build individual and societal resilience and advance the rights of every child”: In “today’s volatile world, global efforts to limit the severe impact of disasters on children must rise to the level of crisis” (UNICEF 2022: 8). According to UNICEF, resilience is the “ability of children, young people, households, communities and systems to anticipate, prevent, withstand, manage and overcome cumulative stresses and shocks (e.g., natural hazards, epidemics, socio-economic instability, conflict, climate change” (ibid.). Although UNICEF itself does not make the distinction between an individualised, functional and a critical understanding of what is meant by resilience, their conceptualisation certainly does not overlook “the social and economic context and the forms of adversity and hardship which give rise to the need for resilience” (Lewis 2021: 24). 6 In the context of this article and as a first interim conclusion, it is important to note that “the resilience of an individual depends on resilience of interconnected systems” and that the “resilience of an individual is not limited to the capacity that person can muster alone. Indeed, much of human resilience is embedded in relationships and social support” (Masten 2019: 201). Against this background, the question is which support language education can lend in this regard and how it can foster the ability of children and young adults to anticipate stresses and shocks. In the context of language education, resilience also appears to be a “travelling concept” (Matz & Becker 2023: 229), as it has been conceptualised from very different perspectives of which three will be briefly outlined: Firstly and most prominently, resilience has quite recently gained interest in the context of positive psychology research (see, e.g., Gabryś-Barker & Gałajada 2016), and appears to be largely understood in a functional way. 7 As Capstick states, “providing learners with the skills to take responsibility for their own mental health forms the foundation of resilience building approaches in ELT” (Capstick 2018: 211). Studies have thus largely focussed on resilience in relation to “other positive character strength” and “their potential to influence learners’ success” (Hiver & Mercer 2022: 208) 6 Lewis stresses that conceptualisations of resilience can also be in danger of being used in a moralising way, “requiring people to demonstrate resilience as a matter of personal responsibility” (ibd.). 7 This approach certainly has its values and “can be instrumental, if mental health (or productivity) is sought in negative circumstances (i.e., stressful test-oriented environments)” (Jackson 2022: 51). In line with an inherently critical approach, however, Jackson stresses that while such approaches “may help students achieve goals and engage in pro-social behaviour [...], they may not lead to more just environments, if students are not also encouraged to reflect on social practices”. as well as whether resilience is tied to learners’ motivation (see, e.g., Wang & Liu 2022). Secondly, resilience has also been conceptualised in the context of supporting newly arrived refugees in learning the language(s) of their new host countries. According to the conceptualisation by Capstick and Delaney, language learning might thus build resilience “whether it is giving a voice to young people and adults, building social cohesion in host communities, or providing individuals with the skills they need to access work, services, education and information” (Chadwick 2018: 04). 8 While the latter focusses on specific groups, the former emphasises the individual learning experience. A third approach views resilience in the context of cultural learning to support students more generally in developing not only both individual and social resilience, but also ‘communicative resilience’, which is defined as “the ability to continuously negotiate and adapt one’s identity through communicative acts (in a foreign language) in an everchanging globalised world” (Matz & Becker 2023: 233). In an initial conceptualisation and following a critical and human rights education informed approach, Matz and Becker analysed what this could entail with regards to the areas of knowledge, skills, and character. As their focus is on creating a language classroom which could serve as a space where children’s and young adults’ concerns and needs are heard, where they can (learn to) engage with risks and find solutions to them in a global society of risks, this contribution will expand on this third concept. In terms of knowledge, for example, Matz and Becker suggest that “students could learn to understand events related to risks which will have repercussions across the world” (ibid.: 233), while in terms of abilities one of the learning aims could be to “engage in risk assessment” and “construct meaning and become active parts in meaning-making processes” (ibid.: 234). The overall aim would be to support students in developing “a readiness mindset as they begin to learn to live with the anticipation of uncertainty” (ibid.: 235). All of these learning goals could be pursued in speaking more concretely about individual risks, anticipating concrete events and learn to take part in the discourses connected to them. Admittedly, the role that language education can play in terms of supporting the resilience of students may be a small one, albeit a relevant one. According to Masten (2019: 202), protective factors in building resilience “include effective caregiving and other supportive relationships, problemsolving and self-regulation skills, self-efficacy and optimism, and beliefs that life has meaning”. The key challenge is to identify the contribution 8 Capstick: bilingual resilience-building model (2018: 211). that language teaching can make in this context. In terms of cultural learning, it could certainly not only contribute towards assisting students in problem-solving, but also in approaching risks which might manifest as shocks and unforeseen events in a constructive manner. It might thus help students in developing foresight, preparedness, and adaptability, which are particularly valuable in this uncertain environment (UNESCO 2023: 8). On a thematic level, especially in the higher level EFL classroom, the challenges, possibilities, and opportunities of today’s interconnected and globalized world are often addressed, as English is a lingua franca of globalization. This broader sociological approach could serve as a starting point for more advanced students to examine the current polycrisis more thoroughly. It could thus aid in raising students’ awareness of the present conditions that shape their lives, both positively and negatively, as well as helping them prepare for the future. When analysing the current polycrisis and attempting to predict other future events, risk research turns to concepts and metaphors that describe risks in form of actual events. These include, for example, Tipping Points, Weak Signals as well as White, Grey and Black Swans. They can be envisioned along a spectrum ranging from the capacity to foresee these occurrences to the extent of their consequences. The term Black Swan 9 was coined by Taleb (2010 [2007]) to refer to events that adhere to the following three aspects: 1) they are statistical outliers, exceeding normal expectations, as historical data provides no compelling evidence for their occurrence, 2) such events have a significant impact, and 3) despite their deviation from the norm, they can be retrospectively explained and predicted (also see Glette-Iversen & Aven 2021: 1). Grey Swan events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are quite similar to their black counterparts to the extent that they are rare, but are generally modellable, whereas White Swans are comparably easy to predict and can be anticipated based on forecasting. The emerging climate breakdown certainly counts as a White Swan, as it “climate change is exactly the experience we can expect to have” (Read 2022: n.p.). The metaphor of Tipping Points also often occurs in the context of the climate crisis and describes “emerging trends that participate irreversible, systemic effects if they pass a threshold” (UNICEF 2023: 45). Finally, at the beginning of the spectrum, are the so-called Weak Signals, which can be defined as “data points that augur an emerging trend” 9 The metaphor of the Black Swan itself dates approximately back to the 16 th century to describe the impossible, as prior to the Dutch expedition to Western Australia in 1697, black swans were unknown in Europe (see, e.g., Taleb 2010). Glette-Iversen and Aven (2021) also discuss the metaphors Dragon-King and Perfect Storm, which are excluded for brevity’s sake from this contribution, but could also be included in lessons. (UNICEF 2023: 45). Students can learn to easily detect Weak Signals in their own immediate surrounding when paying close attention to the trends discourses may follow on their social media feeds. Similar to Weak Signals and Tipping Points, White, Grey and Black Swan events are not necessarily negative in nature. In the context of the climate crisis, for example, heightened awareness of the imperative to take action could be regarded as a Weak Signal. Detecting such signals can be crucial in anticipating Tipping Points before they occur. Positive Black and Grey Swan events certainly take time in demonstrating their effect (such as discoveries in the field of decarbonisation). As part of its annual Global Outlook reports, UNICEF hosts youth foresight workshops, uniting young people from around the world. They concentrate not only on trends currently relevant to their lives, but also explore Weak Signals and Tipping Points, as well as White and Black Swan events using English as a common language. They not only concentrate on potentially negative events, but also explore positive consequences and their approach centres on shaping their concerns constructively and communicatively. One of the central premises of this work is that the trends and events which are agreed upon and summarised in these reports “should not be viewed in isolation from each other, nor will their impact be felt within only one dimension of child well-being” (UNICEF 2023: 45). The 2023 report Prospects for Children in the Polycrisis thus calls for “transformative change and collective action” (ibid.: 49) and stresses that changes are “first and foremost needed in the way we anticipate and manage global risks” and that “[c]hildren and young people must be central to this process: Their efforts and their aspirations need to guide us in our pursuit of a brighter future” (ibid.: 50). These reports, with their focus on promoting awareness and agency, could provide a foundation for enganging with potential risks, conflicts, but also opportunities for societal change in language classes: They are not only shaped by young adults, they could also be read with young adults. Introducing these concepts and metaphors of Weak Signals and Tipping Points, as well as White, Grey and Black Swan in this way would certainly mean confronting students with such events rather than avoiding speaking about them. However, adopting UNICEF’s constructive approach would prevent students from being overburdened. Instead, the emphasis ought to be on cultivating students’ ability to consistently negotiate and adjust their own opinions, standpoints, and perceptions, as well as their resilience in anticipating trends and agency in adapting to circumstances. In discussing the need to approach education for sustainable development in the language classroom, Römhild argues “that the language classroom may become a space of hope by offering stories of hope, change, and transformation to help learners envision a better future and take communicative action towards these futures” (Römhild 2023: 1). He stresses the need to “focus on learning and practicing languages of hope and advocacy”, as language classrooms are” predestined to invite learners to envision hopeful futures in which the human rights of others are protected by everyone, and work towards these futures on a communicative level” (Römhild 2023: 25). In its consequence, this would call for a more interdisciplinary and project-based approach. Education will inevitably become more challenging due to the polycrisis and its affordances, and within this wider context, every area of education, every subject must consider how it can contribute to students’ well-being, resilience, and mental health. It seems important to remember that a crisis is not only an opportunity to rethink and reshape existing structures, it “is not only an opportunity to change but also a reminder of failure” (UNICEF 2023: 6). 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[online] https: / / www.unicef. org/ globalinsight/ media/ 2266/ file/ UNICEF-Global-Insight-Gallup-Changing- Childhood-Survey-Report-English-2021.pdf [October 2023]. UNICEF (2021b). The Changing Childhood Project. [online] https: / / changingchildhood.unicef.org/ en/ [October 2023]. UNICEF (2021c). The State of the World’s Children 2021: On My Mind - Promoting, Protecting and Caring for Children’s Mental Health. New York: UNICEF. [online] https: / / www.unicef.org/ reports/ state-worlds-children-2021 [October 2023]. UNICEF (2023). Prospects for Children in the Polycrisis. A 2023 Global Outlook. [online] https: / / www.unicef.org/ globalinsight/ media/ 3001/ file/ UNICEF-Inno centi-Prospects-for-Children-Global-Outlook-2023.pdf [October 2023]. Wang, Fei & Yanghong Liu (2022). Mediating role of resilience in the relationship between english learners’ motivation and well-being. Frontiers in Psychology. https: / / doi.org/ 10.3389/ fpsyg.2022.915456 [October 2023]. World Health Organisation [WHO] (2022). Mental health. [online] https: / / www. who.int/ news-room/ fact-sheets/ detail/ mental-health-strengthening-our-response [October 2023]. Frauke Matz English Department University of Münster BUCHTIPP Mental health is a growing concern in today’s society, and schools are emerging as a focal point for addressing this issue. This 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 includes, for instance, insights into interrelated issues such as gender, climate change, stress, and conspiracy theories. A variety of texts, including multimodal novels, video games, and songs provide practical ideas for integrating mental health-related topics into English lessons. As such, this volume brings together scholars from a range of disciplines who discuss the relationship between mental health issues and the learning of English as a foreign language from a variety of theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented perspectives. Christian Ludwig, Theresa Summer, Maria Eisenmann, Daniel Becker, Nadine Krüger (eds.) Mental Health in English Language Education Studies in English Language Teaching (SELT), Vol. 13 1. Auflage 2024, 259 Seiten €[D] 58,00 ISBN 978-3-381-11461-0 eISBN 978-3-381-11462-7 Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG \ Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0)7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0)7071 97 97 11 \ info@narr.de \ www.narr.de narr.digital ISBN 978-3-381-10811-4 ISSN 0171 - 5410 Contributions by: Daniel Becker and Frauke Matz Sean Holt Silke Braselmann Carolyn Blume and Jules Bündgens-Kosten Jens-Folkert Folkerts Daniel Becker Frauke Matz